Across the industry, Collision Advice’s Mike Anderson’s Spartan 20 Group has become synonymous with excellence. Comprised of 196 high-performing shop owners bound by the common goal of achieving the safest possible repairs, it’s an elite group; and one that’s aptly named.
A Spartan, according to the dictionary, is, “a person of great courage and self-discipline,” referencing the people of Sparta, an ancient Greek military civilization known for these very characteristics.
It certainly takes both to run a collision business to the standards the Spartan Group requires — just ask the Speck family, winners of the 2024 Spartan of the Year award, and owners of K-ceps, based in Granville, Ohio.
Once a DRP-heavy repair facility with no OEM certifications, the family, with partners and brothers Adam and Chris Speck leading the charge, completely transformed their business model under Anderson’s mentorship. They’ve fully embraced the Spartan mentality — and, they say, there’s no looking back.
“We’re not perfect, but we work toward being better every single day,” Adam says. “We have a saying here,” Chris adds, “that ‘If it's not broken, break it.’ We don’t want to get comfortable. We’re constantly evolving.”
The Road to Becoming Spartans
Walk into K-ceps Auto Body (which, in case you’re wondering, is Speck spelled backwards) on any given day and you’ll find an immaculate 80,000 sq. ft. shop with high-end, EVs, European, and exotic cars lining the shop floor as far as the eye can see.
Their impressive OEM certification portfolio includes heavy-hitters: Audi, Bentley, GM, GM EV, GM C8, GM Cadillac, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lamborghini, Lucid, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-Benz EQ, Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, Porsche, Rivian/Rivian Fleet, Subaru, Volkswagen, and Volvo, and they have dealer partnerships with nearly every single manufacturer.
“We’ve found great success in partnering with great dealers,” Adam says. “We share a common goal of taking care of our mutual client, and it just works. We have each other's backs.”
“We’re really passionate about the brands we partner with, and it’s something we don’t ever take for granted, that’s for sure,” Chris says. “We get to work on some really cool cars and meet some incredible people.”
Just recently, for example, they had about 40 Lamborghinis in the shop for a club event…a true testament to just how esteemed and clean the shop really is.
The facility wasn’t always this version of itself, however.
Started by Adam and Chris’ father and mother, Ray and Susie, in 1993, K-ceps was a one-man operation in the beginning.
“My dad came up through the industry,” Adam says. “After working in dealerships for a while, he decided to go out on his own. He did every job in the shop while my mom took care of the financial side of things, and it grew rapidly.”
Chris, Adam, and their brother Jeff all eventually joined the business, which now also includes two stand-alone service centers and a towing company in addition to their two collision shops.
“Some people say it’s hard to work with your family,” Adam muses, “but we're the exception — we spend all week together and we still have Sunday dinner every week. We truly love what we do, and we love doing it as a family.”
Chris echoes the sentiment wholeheartedly.
Each member of the family is an integral part of the team, he says, and they all use their strengths for the good of the business.
“It works well because we’ve each found what we’re really good at, and we do it; there’s not a lot of overlap. Adam is really strong on the operational side of things, whereas I’m strong on the analytical/financial side. Jeff, he’s our ‘Swiss Army’ knife — with mechanical, body shop, and towing experience, he flexes wherever he’s needed. My mom still works on the financial side with me, and my dad does a little bit of everything…he’s here, there, and everywhere.”
And when it comes to role models, Chris says, they couldn’t have had two better ones than their parents. Running a business with honesty and the utmost integrity, striving for excellence, never settling, and keeping the customer at the forefront, always, were all direct hand-me-downs, he shares.
“We all truly, sincerely feel we’re in the business of people, we just happen to fix cars,” he adds.
Everything the family does is in pursuit of serving their customers better — including the transformation the shop has undergone.
It all started back in 2017, says Adam, after the family attended one of Mike Anderson’s seminars.
“We knew about Mike for a long time; he’s always been someone we look up to,” says Chris. “He’s a personal hero of ours.”
“He was pushing OEM certifications, and we didn't really know much about them,” continued Adam. “But the more that we started to investigate and partner with the vehicle manufacturers, the more success we achieved.”
“Once we started getting into the OEM certifications and training — and adopting Mike’s principles — we never looked back,” Chris says. “Performing complex OEM repairs using only OEM parts is not always easy, but it's always satisfying…and that's what makes it worth it.”
A rigorous overhaul of their books, processes, and operations followed, which included consolidating their original shop in Johnstown and their second location in Granville into one mega-facility (their existing 80,000 sq. ft. Granville shop, which they purchased in 2018) at Anderson’s recommendation. They also transitioned to a “cell” repair system that operates as independent teams within the larger unit.
“We have three cells right now in Granville, with a goal of expanding to five eventually,” explained Adam. “Each cell is essentially like a micro body shop with its own assigned customer service rep, back-end estimator, and four technicians (one is a master technician, two B-level techs and a C-level tech). They work as a group, together, and they always process their cars as a team.”
Not only does this model increase efficiency in the shop, but it also makes growth easier.
“When you’re working with a cell system, it’s very ‘plug and play.’”
They’re currently putting that theory to the test in Cincinnati, where they’ve just acquired a new facility. Although they’ve been in the city for a year fixing Rivians, this move to a new, larger shop — around 15,000 sq. ft. — will allow them to clone Granville’s operations and work on a wider variety of cars. They’ll operate with one repair cell to start and expand to more as business picks up.
“The way we do things now, it just feels like the right thing to do for our clients,” Adam says. “Every time my dad sees Mike [Anderson], he praises him for what he's helped push us to do, and just the way he’s helped us change the landscape of K-ceps and the future of K-ceps.”
The brothers joined Anderson’s Spartan 20 Group upon its inception in 2021 as well, which, they say, is an honor to be a part of in and of itself.
“You can't help but get better just by being surrounded by people that do what you do at a very high level,” Chris says. “You see your shop with the same eyes every day. When you can bring fresh eyes to it, even if you don't necessarily always like what you hear, that's where the biggest opportunities are found. You have to listen with the intent to be influenced.”
Listening to your team is imperative, too, Chris says. “Some of the best ideas come from our teammates.”
The brothers strive to remain “coachable” at all times, and they expect the same in return.
“You can’t teach attitude and desire,” Chris says, which is why the business always looks for employees who are eager to learn and willing to flex with the ever-changing repair landscape to carry the shops into the future.
Spartan of the Year
K-ceps never uses aftermarket or recycled parts, and the team researches repair instructions on every single job. They do things by the book 100% of the time.
“It doesn't matter if we just fixed the same model or issue last week — the engineers could have changed a procedure since then,” Adam explains. “It takes longer to do it that way, but we just feel that it’s the right way to repair a vehicle. We're the type of people who won't even take generic drugs. I tell people that all the time. I'm like, ‘I won't even go to the drug store and buy aftermarket.’”
Chris recalls the moment a tech they trained — who’s never worked anywhere else — saw an aftermarket sticker on a car he was disassembling and had no idea what it was.
“It was a foreign concept to him because he has never put on an aftermarket part in his entire career here. That’s something I’m really proud of.”
The team also invests a significant amount of time at the beginning of the repair process “triaging” cars and engaging in open, honest communication to educate clients — flipping the triangle upside down, as Anderson would say — to minimize bottlenecks and frustration down the line.
It’s this kind of commitment to excellence that earned the shop Spartan of the Year …and the brothers come by it honestly. Their dad, says Chris, “is the person that, in the best possible way, is never satisfied. He is always pushing for the next thing…he’s never been one to shy away from change. He’s just as gung-ho for these certifications as we are, and he’s allowed us to completely change course and really ramp up the way we do business over the last few years.”
In addition to the quality of their repairs and strict adherence to OEM procedures, parts, and scan tools, Anderson says that parts storage procedures, facility cleanliness, and guest experience ratings (like CCC Carwise and Google), among other criteria, all played into the decision.
“Collision Advice is honored to recognize K-ceps as our Spartan of the Year ,” Anderson says.
And the feeling certainly goes both ways. The brothers say they were equally “honored and humbled” to receive the award, and in true people-first fashion, were quick to credit their team for the win.
“Our entire team is just really, really proud of it. It was really incredible to go back to the shop and bring everyone together, our entire team, and say, ‘Hey, we've got some awesome news. We won shop of the year!’ Every single person was thrilled. We had a party. Adam and I got to take the credit — we got to pick up the trophy, and we get to do interviews and such — but really it's the entire team that made this happen. It's the entire team that does this on a daily basis, and we’re so proud of them. We told them that this isn’t our award…it’s theirs. We couldn’t do any of this without our team.”
Onward and Upward
“We want to be a regional MSO, but do it right,” Adam says. “We never want to lose focus of our core values, of taking care of our clients and fixing cars properly and safely — the rest will come if we’re doing those things.”
They’re eager, adds Chris, to “take the show on the road,” and replicate their successful model in Granville wherever it’s needed.
Winning Spartan of the Year isn’t the finish line, he says…just the opposite, in fact.
“It’s given us some great momentum. Now that we've achieved this, it's like, ‘Okay, well, what's next?’ This isn't the finish line. It's the starting line.”
