Vermont dealership shops find ways to bring in the green
Also read: Getting
Involved, The Birth of an Association
SnapshopShop
name: The Shearer name is on three dealerships, which contain two body shops. Shop
manager: David Yergeau, body shop director.Employees: 18 total in both shops.Shop
size: Shearer Chevrolet’s shop is 6,000 sq. ft. and Shearer Pontiac’s shop is 6,200 sq. ft.Annual
revenue: $2.5 million for both shops combined.In a place that’s famous for Ethan Allen, maple syrup and its designation as The Green Mountain State, the collision repair industry isn’t much on the minds of Vermonters, unless, of course, they’re involved in a collision. Conversely, David Yergeau’s waking hours are filled with the nuances of the trade, from overseeing two body shops to being president of the Vermont Auto Body Association (VABA), which he founded in 1999. The opportunity to work at Shearer Auto Group’s two collision repair shops and the allure of a peaceful place to raise his family are what brought the Massachusetts native to one of the more sparsely populated states on the East Coast in the first place. Having been the body shop director for the two Shearer dealership shops for the past nine years, Yergeau has amassed more than 30 years of experience in the industry. He worked his way through the industry from tech to licensed appraiser to management positions such as the one he currently occupies. Yergeau says dealership shops like these face different challenges than independents, especially since the two dealership shops are located about one mile apart from each other in South Burlington, Vt. Warranty issues are prevalent, which is an aspect of the business that independent shops don’t necessarily encounter on a daily basis, but there are some plusses, too, such as gaining a customer base from dealership business. Not that Shearer’s two body shops rely solely on this relationship to generate business. While Shearer’s shops did not have any direct repair programs (DRPs) when Yergeau started working there, he has now built up a stable of 10 insurance companies for which the shops deliver their services. “We grew as an insurance-friendly shop,” he says, adding that DRPs have helped triple the amount of business moving through his shop’s doors. With the two dealership collision repair shops so close to each other, you would think there would be problems. But Yergeau says they don’t run into a competition scenario between the shops. The proximity “is a good selling tool for DRPs,” he says, since any vehicle overflow can be redirected to the other Shearer shop. Even with the handy setup, future expansion is definitely in the shops’ future. Yergeau says the Shearer Chevrolet location will receive a 15,000-sq. ft. shop addition that will be devoted to autobody repair. The only holdup is road construction—which could take two to three years. “We’ve got the blueprints and the permits,” he says. “We’re just deciding whether we should build during the construction or after.” Once relegated to the “back end” of the dealership, Yergeau says general managers today are putting a lot more emphasis on the dealership’s body shop. “A lack in profits and sales is due to the world of the Internet,” he says of dealers’ new vehicle sales. Consumers can easily find out how much dealers pay for vehicles and start the bidding at that low price. “The large profit margins have shrunk drastically,” he says, and dealers are now looking to their body shops’ profits to make up the difference. More evidence of this shift is in GM’s Goodwrench collision repair shop program, that for the time being, Shearer’s shops have declined to participate in. “It’s not cost effective to sign up with them at this point,” Yergeau says. For now, Yergeau will continue to look for competitive niches for the shops, while using the skills he picked up in his hometown of Springfield, Mass. “People are very laid back in Vermont,” he says. “I feel like I picked up a big competitive edge in Massachusetts.” It is some of this experience that he used to start an autobody association in Vermont (For more information about this association, see the sidebar).
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