About Us

The process of Windscreen Repair was invented in the early 1970s by retired aircraft engineering company owner Dr. Frank Werner in conjunction with chemical engineer Bill Wiele.  Born solely out of Frank’s passion for inventing and the need to stop replacing his windscreen when it developed a small crack, Frank founded Origin Incorporated, a testing laboratory and commercial research facility in Wyoming, USA.

In 1972 Dr Werner partnered with Gerald Keinath and bought the patent rights for windscreen repair. Strategically they designed the business plan that would bring the windscreen repair technique to the general public for the first time.

Their company was named Keinath Incorporated and it was run from Gerald’s basement. Soon after they changed the business name to NOVUS (Latin for New or Innovative) and shortly after the Novus legend was born.

In 1978 Denis and Patricia James introduced the Novus repair technique to New Zealand.  In 1991, Novus introduced their first New Zealand franchise, and since then the company has grown to a national network in excess of 50 locations throughout the country.  The New Zealand master license for Novus is still owned and operated by the James family.

Novus is a franchised network which means that each location is owned and operated by a local in your community, so you can rest assured of complete integrity on every job.

Franchise Opportunities

Novus is a global brand with a presence in more than 40 countries and more than 2100 locations worldwide. Over 25 million Novus repairs have been performed worldwide which has allowed the Novus brand to become so widely recognised and respected as the inventor and premier provider of the windscreen repair process that its name is virtually synonymous with windscreen repair. A Novus franchise opportunity offers an established, successful business; a name with recognized market value; a reputation for product and service excellence; and equally important, the continuing advice, expertise, services, supplies and equipment of the Novus brand. If you are interested in owning a Novus franchise,
please contact us.

Family Violence Policy

Introduction

This Policy outlines NOVUS’s approach to managing vulnerable customers affected by Family Violence.
NOVUS seeks to minimise impact to customers by providing support and practical assistance to those affected by family violence. In this policy, NOVUS considers ‘family violence’ as: “violent, threatening or other behaviour by a person that coerces or controls a member of the person’s family or causes the family member to be fearful”, consistent with the Domestic Violence Act 1995.

Family violence is not limited to physical instances of violence and may also include, emotional, psychological, financial/economic, sexual abuse and threats of abuse. Family violence can include damage to property and animals. Customers affected by family violence fall within a broader class of ‘vulnerable customers’

NOVUS’s priorities in managing customers affected by Family Violence

NOVUS’s priorities are:

• The fair and sensitive treatment of customers affected by family violence, ensuring they are treated with dignity and respect.
• The decisions made consider the safety of the customer and their family.
• The provision of support to our staff who are dealing with, or may deal with, sensitive cases, including customers affected by family violence.
• Management of situations where family violence is identified or suspected

NOVUS will:

• Take additional care when dealing with customers affected by family violence and provide additional support and assistance in connection with the provision of services, where reasonable.
• Not require evidence of an intervention order to trigger the requirements of the family violence policy. Someone self-identifying as being affected by family violence will be treated in accordance with the policy without further
  evidence being required.
• Treat all information about a customer affected by family violence as sensitive and will take measures to ensure the information is kept confidential.
• Engage with the customer to discuss safe ways to communicate and record these communication methods on the customer’s job file.
• Engage with the customer to determine if communication should involve the customer’s financial counsellor, lawyer, community services or social work, legal aid officer or family violence specialist.
• Where reasonable, minimise the information that a customer is required to provide and the number of times a customer is required to disclose the same information, noting that they may not have access to their personal information, records and documents.
• Where possible, provide customers with consistency in speaking to one staff member.
• Encourage customers experiencing family violence to notify NOVUS of that fact via relevant correspondence.
• Ask a customer who self-identifies as being affected by family violence what their financial situation is, to determine whether they are also experiencing financial hardship.
• Refer customers to specialist, external family violence and financial hardship services, as appropriate.
• Provide vulnerable customer training to all staff, including Family Violence training.
• Provide support to NOVUS staff affected by family violence or who are affected by dealing with vulnerable customers through an employee assistance line, line management or human resources discussions, training and
  the provision of resource documents.
• Provide a copy of the NOVUS Family Violence Policy to a customer upon request.

_{Policy last updated : 30 June 2020}