One dealer-owned body shop thriving in today's market is West Broad Collision Center, a Richmond, Va., business owned by Page Auto Group, a well-established company that owns several auto dealerships in the area. Among these are Audi, Volkswagen, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and Dodge dealerships.
West Broad got its start in the late 1970s and was originally co-located with a Honda dealership. In 2002, Page Auto Group bought an Audi/Volkswagen dealer that already had a large body shop, and the decision was made to move the company's body shop to that location. Stuart Hendrick, who had started working for the shop as a painter's helper in the early 1980s, oversaw the revamping of the Audi/Volkswagen shop at the time of the purchase and became body shop manager after the move.
"We get so much work from so many different directions that we stay busy and don't even advertise," says Hendrick.
At least 70 percent of West Broad's business comes from Page Auto Group dealers and another 10 percent comes from referrals from dealers that do not operate their own body shops. Hendrick cultivates this business by making monthly visits to local dealers, including some that regularly send him work and others he would like to do work for in the future. Although it's difficult to displace another body shop, Hendrick likes to keep West Broad top-of-mind with dealers so that the shop will be the first alternative the dealers think of in the event that there is a change in their relationship with their primary body shop."The newer dealers that are opening are not having body shops; it's probably too much headache for the owner," Hendrick notes. "Most body shops don't make a profit and it's hard to find good estimators, painters and body men. They're kind of a dying breed. There's not that many good people out there."
West Broad, however, has many good employees, some of whom have been with the shop since it opened. "We have very little turnover," says Hendrick, who estimates that about one out of eight technicians meet his standards for a good technician. Maintaining a good crew, he says, "is a matter of checking references and weeding through people."To help ensure that training in automotive body repair is available in the area, West Broad sponsors a golf tournament, the proceeds of which go to support a body repair program at a local college.
Long-term West Broad technicians like the job because there's always plenty of work and, unlike many competitors, the shop is air-conditioned. Techs are paid per billable hour completed, even if they complete the work in less than an hour. They also do some of their own mechanical repairs, which provides the benefit of being billed at a higher hourly rate.
"The labor rate on mechanical work is $95 an hour and body work is at $45 an hour," Hendrick explains. "Any time a technician is able to do his own mechanical work, he wants to do it because it's a higher rate than he's used to making. Ninety-eight percent of our mechanical work is done in-house."
This system rewards technicians for timely completion of work. To ensure technicians do not compromise quality by rushing through a job, West Broad has an inspection process for every vehicle and has a long checklist.
West Broad's customer satisfaction index consistently runs between 95-97 percent. Measurements are provided through a survey conducted as a requirement for participation in a key account program with the company's paint supplier. West Broad offers a lifetime paint warranty through that supplier. The body shop also offers its own lifetime warranty on body work. "We get very few claims," Hendrick says.
Using state-of-the-art equipment also helps ensure that West Broad technicians can do good work in an efficient manner. Equipment vendors sometimes loan a new product to the shop for a trial period and if technicians like it, the shop often makes the purchase. "We have two new spot welders," says Hendrick. "The manufacturer brought one in and it saved time and looked like factory work. The guys love them because it's quick."
The 20 percent of West Broad's work that does not come from its own or other auto dealers comes through word-of-mouth and from a single direct repair program "We're only on one DRP," Hendrick says. "I'm not interested in doing discounted work for some of the cheaper insurance companies. We've never given any discounts or done cut-rate work like some insurance companies want you to do."
As for the future, Hendrick says, "We're thinking about going with water-based paint, which would be cleaner for the environment – and we're always trying to get new business and change the way we do things to suit customers better."
