VBRA, the Vehicle Builders and Repairers Association, said it had been unsurprised by the spate of closures in the bodyshop industry.
It said the industry was currently experiencing the results of taking on work at any price in order to increase volume and stop competitors getting work.
It said: "Businesses have created a high volume, low margin culture in an industry where work demand is notoriously inconsistent and part supply is uncertain."
VBRA placed the blame at the feet of repairers who signed work approval contracts and have now become totally reliant on this method of obtaining work. It said they now felt trapped and unable to renegotiate the contractual terms and conditions.
VBRA director general Ron Nicholson said: "We are not surprised at the situation some of the repairers find themselves in, but we are however surprised at how long it has taken them to realise the situation cannot continue.
"We have been highlighting these facts for many years and surely it has reached the stage that these contracted repairers must now see they cannot continue. They must accept responsibility and establish their own terms and conditions under which they provide the services requested.
"These terms would most certainly have to include a significantly enhanced labour rate or indeed it would mean the removal of the numerous FOC services, which of course could continue to be provided on request at an agreed cost.
"Without such urgent and determined individual action, unfortunately many more of these high-class, high volume repair shops will inevitably close."
