The business of car or automobile spraying is a very competitive business in Nigeria but it is lucrative when the operator of the service is able to use cost-effective marketing and innovation in serving his target customers. In this article, which is a sample business plan, I will be scratching the surface of this business opportunity and showcasing challenges and threats that can negatively affect the growth and profitability of the business within the Nigerian environment. Think of it in the same way as a painting given to a new building.

The main reason is aesthetic but the spraying of a car is a form of vehicle maintenance as it contributes overall to the improve the market value of a car, especially in a thrifty market like Nigeria where cars are still in use more than 20 years from their actual production dates. Nigeria has one of the world’s largest populations for second hand cars. As at 2014, they were more than 11 million cars in use and most of these cars were for commercial use dating back to about 10 years in use.

The tendency that these cars are exposed to harsh weather, overuse and abuse are high. These in turn, causes the car paintings to decline in sharpness and start fading. Besides, Nigeria is known to have a large number of reckless drivers who are prone to initiating physical damages on vehicles. Road accidents create damages to cars that requires repairs and some of those repairs involve body work including spraying.

More importantly, the devaluation *in naira and inflation has caused the importer of used vehicle without clean title (accidental vehicles) which are less in prices. Dealers can now fix these vehicles and place a premium price on them . With this, customer can still buy at prices that was applicable when dollar was at three hundred and sixty naira (#360) to one US Dollar (1$)

 

Product and Investment Analysis

To begin with, spray booth business can be operated on rental and full-time basis. On rental basis, an established car spraying workshop can have between eight(8) to twelve cars(12) daily being sprayed and baked ( each can need an average of 45mins to spray in the booth and 5mins for baking) This means, in a month, that could potentially be between two hundred and fifty (250) to three hundred (300) cars.

The less established but successful car sprayers may have 7 to 8 cars daily while the majority of car spraying workshops could do between 180 and 200 cars a month. With an investment between 14million to20 million naira,
the average fees for a Spray booth service is between seven thousand naira (7,000 naira) to fifteen thousand naira (15,000 naira) depending on your market. Assuming the business can generate 200 sales per month averaging 7,000 naira per sale will amount to one million four hundred thousand naira (#1,400,000) while sales will amount to sixteen million, eight hundred thousand naira (#16,800,000) within the first year.

 

The cost of running the booth should not be more than 30% of the total expected generated income conservatively.

 

For the full service, spray booth service workshops can make up to twenty thousand naira (#20,000) to thirty thousand naira (#30,000) on one car. Remember, the spray booth comes with 1 year warrantee and the booth has been structured to last for minimum of 10 years.

The cost of maintenance is very low, as cleaning and change of filters is the basic maintenance required.
Top filters is not more than thirty thousand naira (#30,000) for one which will be okay to spray a maximum of 100 to 150 vehicles. The top filter at one hundred and eighty thousand naira (#180,000) is expected to spray up to 400 vehicles. This can also be cleaned with water.
The business need less manpower which is one of the bane of business risk in Nigeria. One trusted person can manage and run spray booth successfully

Product Objective(Spray Booth Oven)

 

One thing about vehicles is that their value significantly depreciates over time. This is even more so if the painting has already lost it’s natural shine and gloss. While re-spraying your car can be a roadside project, the quality of the workmanship may not be that great. Furthermore, the evenness of the paint coating may not be guaranteed, giving you a botched car painting job.

Oven-Baked Automotive Painting

You don’t have to paint your car at the roadside. Garu Technologies Nigeria LTD says, you can always take it to a car body shop for a fresh coat of paint. However, you need to choose between ordinary spray painting and oven-baked car painting. While one is definitely cheaper than the other, oven-baked car painting does have its perks.

The question now is why oven baked?

1. Dust-Free Environment

The environment where low temperature oven-baked car painting is performed is generally dust-free. This results in a more stable application of a coat of paint. It’s this dust-free environment that makes the car oven an ideal place for automotive repainting If it were to be performed outside, dust would readily settle on the wet paint, giving the whole car a speckled look and a rather coarse finish, instead of the glossy and smooth finish you’d expect.

2. Environment-Friendly

In addition, the room-sized oven is fully filtered to protect the environment from the harmful chemicals found in automotive paints. If the painting job were to be performed outside, the airborne chemicals can be carried elsewhere and can readily settle on other life forms in the immediate surroundings.

3. Time Friendly

Oven Baking is time friendly. Within an hour,  oven baked vehicles are ready for use with clean, perfect and glossy outcome, not to be compared with roadside painting performed outside which will have to take about a day or more.

4. More Durable Finish

Perhaps the best advantage of oven-baked car painting over the ordinary type of automotive repaint is the strength and durability of the finished paint coat. With air temperature maintained at a constant setting, individual paint molecules are evenly distributed across the surface of the car. This creates a very even layer and color of automotive paint.

Additionally, since the paint molecules have been sprayed onto the car in exactly the same environmental conditions, they are better able to bond with each other. This creates a stronger and more durable paint finish.