PRECISION Automotive Equipment has announced that its company co-founder, Rod Wilkinson, passed away peacefully on May 25, 2022 at the age of 64.

The company said in Mr Wilkinson’s obituary that after working in the automotive industry selling spare parts and equipment throughout the ACT and New South Wales, Rod and his wife Karen and three children moved to Queensland.

“The move north made Rod realise that there was a need in the workshop equipment market for a customer-focused service business, thus Rod and his business partner Phil Atkins established Precision Automotive Equipment in Brisbane in 1997, initially operating from Rod’s home garage,” it said.

After working as a workshop equipment service technician during the formative years of the  business, Rod gained a strong understanding of the problems that automotive workshop owners and operators were having with their equipment.

“Many of his equipment service customers asked him to source quality replacement workshop equipment,” the company said.

“Rod never lost sight of his career-long emphasis on providing excellent and responsive after-sales service, making Precision Automotive Equipment a preferred choice for updating or establishing the smallest to the largest automotive workshops.

“Precision grew strongly in Queensland and then branched out successfully to both New South Wales and Victoria in later years, establishing the foundations to become the country’s only national workshop equipment sales and service company.”

Mr Wilkinson travelled the world to personally select and inspect workshop equipment products to suit the Australian service and repair market.

“Precision enjoyed outstanding success with their exclusive Powerrex range, opening the gates to other exclusive deals with world leading brands including the globally renowned Hunter Engineering wheel service product range and the world-leading Rotary Lift hoist range.

“The core of the company’s success was the fact that for the majority of its 25 year history, Precision Automotive Equipment was Rod’s family business, with his wife Karen and son Brent actively involved.

“While now a part of Bapcor, the family business culture and focus on customer service embedded by Rod, his family and team of employees has remained the same.”

By Neil Dowling