Building Trust and Excellence: The Legacy and Future of F. Lofrano & Son Inc.

Every employee and customer of F. Lofrano & Son Inc. in San Francisco, California, has shared one thing in common since 1974: they know what it’s like to feel like a member of the Lofrano family.

“We’re a family business,” says Josh Lofrano, third-generation partner and son of co-founder Anthony Lofrano. “In more ways than one.”

Sure, they’re a “family business” in the traditional sense — family members have worked in and led the business for over 50 years — but Lofrano says they also make it their mission to treat every stakeholder in their business like they’re family.

“When we’re fixing a car, we think first and foremost about safety, and the fact that the customer will be in that car with their loved ones and family. We want the families that bring us their business to be safe, above all.”

Repairs are performed per OEM guidelines for that very reason, and no attention to detail is overlooked during the repair process.

And the 50+ employees working across the business's four locations? Honorary Lofranos, every single one of them, says Josh.

“Everyone who comes to work here every day is our family. That's a value that we've always had. It's about more than just coming to work. It's about relationships. It's about working together, teamwork.” 

Multiple relatives work for the company, and multiple father/son duos, too. People have left and come back over the years as well, a true testament to the familial nature of the business. 

The Origin Story 

Lofrano& Son Inc. was founded by Josh’s grandfather, Frank Lofrano, and Josh’s father, Anthony (“Tony”) Lofrano, both military veterans, in 1974. 

As the story goes, Frank Lofrano had been fixing cars in San Francisco for over 30 years before Tony started leaning on him to go into business together. Frank was an old-school craftsman who loved repairing damaged vehicles, and Tony a talented body man in his own right, having been mentored by his father while the two worked together for another auto repair business in town. One day, Frank finally decided to take Tony up on his offer.

“Kid, go get your tools and let’s get going,” he said.

In the early days of the shop, it was just Frank and Tony working upstairs in what is still the company’s flagship Divisadero Street location. They did all the body work and sent jobs out for paint.

The business thrived, quickly gaining a reputation for excellence and growing to the point of necessitating another body tech, which allowed Tony to transition to painting. Soon another painter joined the team, and before long they were occupying the entirety of the building, upstairs and down.

Things continued to snowball from there, and Tony’s brothers, James and Fred, came aboard in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s. Tony’s son and Josh’s older brother, Aaron, also joined the team in the early ‘90s after graduating from high school, and Josh followed suit several years later after graduating from Indian Valley College's mechanical program. Although James and Fred have since retired, Tony remains president and controlling partner in the business alongside sons Aaron, who now serves as CEO/CFO, and Josh, who’s director of operations. They are joined by their fourth partner, The Dao, manager and director of hiring. Aaron and Josh’s mother, Valerie, also handles the human relations side of the business. 

In 2018, F. Lofrano & Son Inc. became a Fix Auto franchisee, securing invaluable resources that Josh says helps the business thrive. 

“It’s been a great experience for us to be part of the larger Driven Brands/Fix Auto family. Being a franchisee, you became something bigger than yourself. You have access to more knowledge, data, and reporting to improve performance.” 

The business currently has three shops in San Francisco, and one shop in Moraine County in San Rafael, California, about 15 miles north of the city: Fix Auto Folsom, Fix Auto Divisadero, Fix Auto 17th, and Fix Auto San Rafael, all owned by F. Lofrano & Son Inc. 

Those four locations all have storied histories and have transitioned through various iterations through the decades—but business has consistently grown year after year. And operations are identical at each location.  

“The materials are the same, the products are the same, the equipment is the same, and the standard operating procedures are the same. And for the most part, all of our direct repair contracts are the same.”  

Mechanical repairs related to the collision are handled in-house, while calibrations are sublet. The shops are Tesla- and Honda-certified as well, and they also have Toyota factory-trained technicians. The Tesla certification especially is imperative for a shop like theirs on the West Coast, says Josh, who sees “at least 100 Teslas every day on my drive home.” 

“Our Divisadero location has become the Tesla repair facility.”    

Care for People, Care for the Planet  

It’s people—customers, employees, and company stakeholders—who are the focus of the business, and it’s obvious the team truly cares deeply about others’ best interests and wellbeing. 

“Our foundation has always been to help people personally and in business…it’s part of our mission statement. When we look at a repair, we always do what's in the best interest of all the stakeholders involved in that repair, whether that be our customers, our employees, our insurance partners, or the vendors.” 

Every facet of the business — from processes and operations to the products used in the shops — is given thoughtful consideration to ensure it’s the most efficient, safest, and healthiest choice possible. 

“We are the largest user of PPG’s water-based primer in the country,” Josh proudly reports. “We no longer spray solvent-based primer. We spray water-based primer. We're lessening the VOCs in our undercoat process, while at the same time lessening our employees’ exposure to harsher solvents, which is phenomenal.” 

Not only is it the right thing to do from a health standpoint, he says; it’s also improved the quality of repairs drastically. “There's no more solvent swelling. The repairs become flawless. There's no shrinkage in the product, so you'll never see that it's been repaired.” 

Heat lamps are also no longer necessary to cure the primer — you just dry it and move on, which decreases downtime.

“There hasn’t been a downside” to making the switch, he says, adding that the entire organization has changed for the better. And other shop owners are catching on, too. 

 “It’s started to take hold at many, many other shops and is starting to become a process in the industry. It's growing. It's slowly growing, but it is growing as a process. Other shops come to me to observe it…I’ll perform a repair while they’re standing in front of me so they can see how it works, then they can take it back to their shops and be successful with it.” 

Lofrano hopes paint companies will continue to develop additional water-based products in the future to keep improving the safety and wellbeing of everyone working in the industry. 

 “The most important thing to me is making sure that our team — the people we spend time with every day — that they're safe, they're healthy.” 

“No matter what kind of protective equipment someone is wearing, there’s still exposure. And a safer product lessens health risks. These people go home to their families every day. Their families rely on them. They rely on their own health. And the healthier they are, the longer their lives can be without being affected by the career that they've chosen.” 

On top of being safer and healthier, it’s extremely important to Josh and his partners that the products and practices they employ in the shop are environmentally friendly, too…and that’s been the case for a long time. 

In collaboration with the San Francisco Health Department, Josh and his uncle Fred founded the “Auto Body Green Shop” program in 2002, developing processes and operational protocols that would go on to become environmentally friendly standards in shops across the city. 

“Be mindful of the products you’re purchasing,” advises Josh. “Don’t just buy what everyone is talking about. Look at what they’re doing to our environment. Look what they’re doing to our employees’ health.” 

The team reuses anything and everything they can (like shop towels, for example), recycles whenever possible, and selects eco-friendly products — like biodegradable soap — at every opportunity.  

“We can recycle our cardboard, our metals…deal with hazardous waste properly.” 

Think about how your actions will affect future generations, he adds, and make decisions accordingly. There’s much thatshop owners can do to better the health of not only their people, but the planet, too, he encourages. 

The Drive to Succeed  

Speaking of the future, Josh, like many shop owners nowadays, has had concerns for some time about the future of the industry, and the lack of new talent entering the field. People should choose careers based on what drives them, he implores, not what our nation’s education system steers them towards — which are mainly tech and computer-based jobs over trades. 

“I know countless people that are in tech jobs that could be working in a shop or framing a house,” he says. “Our education system, I believe, has failed in this way. It’s not making for a well-rounded nation. We're grinding people out instead of finding what drives them and pointing them in that direction. I think that's why we see a lot of confusion in the 20- to 30-year-olds not knowing where they want to go. Not knowing what to do.” 

It’s a big issue, of course, and one without a simple fix or easy answer. But Lofrano believes if the U.S. started modeling its education system after Australia — where there’s an emphasis on services and focus on identifying and nurturing people’s passions — we’d be better for it. 

“There are people out there who want to fix cars,” he says. They just need the encouragement and resources to make it happen. 

For their part, F. Lofrano & Son Inc. places a heavy focus on education and training for their employees, as evidenced by their I-CAR Gold Class designation. 

On top of ensuring that cars are being fixed safely and correctly, he says, it’s an opportunity to invest in their employees' passions, allowing them to learn and expand their knowledge base and grow their careers.  

“It's a very difficult industry to find people…it really is. And that has helped us over the years, just finding people and taking each other's values and finding value in that.”  

Despite that it’s been a “different” year with the slowdowns across the industry, the business is still growing internally, he says, and that’s something the partners are incredibly proud of, because it provides opportunity for the employees to grow, too. 

“Get to know your people,” he implores other shop owners. “Take time to really learn about them, care about what’s going on in their personal lives; listen to their suggestions and ideas. Work with your employees as much as you can…don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. Me and my partners’ hands are stained from working with our people.” 

That’s what families who care about one another do, after all.