A look inside the $1 million a month collision shop

A combination of first-rate employees, a modern repair facility and top-notch customer service produces a dealership repair facility that is second in the nation only to its sister store.

Stories of million-dollar giveaways on the Internet and on TV shows such as "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" have become fairly common these days. But when the story involves a collision shop averaging sales of nearly $1 million per month, the situation is a little more unique, especially because the majority of collision businesses produce less than $1 million in sales each year.

Huffines Collision Center in Lewisville, Texas boasted $3.8 million dollars in sales in the first four months of 2000 and racked up $1.25 million in sales in March alone.Yet, there is no secret ingredient to the business' success. Combining an excellent team, a modern facility and, of course, providing the best service possible to its customers has yielded the best results for this collision business.

In 1999, the shop was listed no. 2 in a ranking of the top 500 dealers ordered by body shop dollars in Ward's Dealer Business. It was second only to its sister store, Ray Huffines Chevrolet, which has a 35,000-sq.-ft. collision shop in Plano, Texas, about 30 miles away.

Huffines Chevrolet-Subaru and Ray Huffines Chevrolet are among five stores owned by the Huffines family. "We're a $500 million dollar company between our five stores," says Darren Huggins, body shop manager for the Lewisville facility. "We're not a mom-and-pop operation, but we're still a family-owned and-operated business."

Huggins is in his 13th year with the company, having started at Huffines Dodge, also in Lewisville. His beginnings in the collision industry occurred by chance. After college, Huggins received an offer to work for IBM. "At the time, IBM was Big Blue," he says. "You had to wear your hair a certain length, blue suit, blue tie and a certain kind of shoes. I went through seven interviews and after the last interview, they offered me a job, but I turned it down. Sometimes things feel right to you, and sometimes they don't."

Instead, he took a job as comptroller at an independent body shop. At first, he was paying the shop's bills and preparing its taxes. His duties soon evolved into writing estimates, ordering parts for customers and helping to run the shop. After a couple of years at the independent shop, he was offered the job at Huffines Dodge, and about four years ago, he began working at Huffines Collision Center. At the time, the shop's best month's sales totaled about $311,000, Huggins says.

Working out of a 16,000-sq.-ft. facility, the operation was in need of more space. Huggins was told that if his team could get the volume up, management would consider building a new shop. The business was soon generating $500,000 per month in sales. "It was unbelievable-and we actually did $711,000 in one month before the new shop was built," he says.

In June of last year, the collision center began operating out of its new, 45,000sq.-ft. facility, which includes 80 bays-36 are metal stalls and 44 are refinish stalls. Among the new equipment purchases were four 27-ft. paint booths, four double-- prep stations and a rotary track cutting booth. Also, 26 of the shop's stalls are fully set up for any unibody pull that needs to be done, Huggins says.

With the new facility Huggins admits, "The playing field is tilted our way," and the facility is poised to take over the No. 1 body shop ranking in this year's Ward's Dealer Business Top 500.

The shop employs 22 technicians, which includes two full-time mechanics and two technicians who specialize in glass and trim work. Training its technicians from the ground up is a plan in which Huggins firmly believes. "You're only as good as the people that work for you. If you don't have good people out there, you're in trouble," he says.

Huffines brings in technicians who have been through Wyoming Technical Institute or a local body shop program and starts them out as what they call light-line technicians.As the new recruits acquire more training and certification, they are promoted to mid-line technicians and, eventually, to top-line technicians. The shop has three technicians that have advanced to top-line technicians as part of this program.

The shop's technicians are I-CAR trained and are also trained in Chrysler, Plymouth, Dodge, Subaru and General Motors (GM) repair procedures to serve the Huffines dealerships that feed the collision center.The business is also in the process of becoming an I-CAR Gold shop.

Finding good technicians may be one issue, but retaining them can often be another." One thing about our place is we're always busy, so a technician knows he can always make a paycheck. He can make the same paycheck in June as he can make in November or December," says Huggins, adding that the average employee has been with the facility for more than five years.

About 710 vehicles pass through the facility each month, or an average of 28 to 30 cars per day. To handle the influx of vehicles, the shop employs a team of 65 overall.This includes technicians, porters and administrative staff, making it the largest department in the dealership. "To do the volume, yet keep in mind the quality and service aspects that the customer requires is everything," Huggins says. "That's what we try to do here.

I think that's what sets us apart from the average repair facility"

When approaching the building, the first thing customers may notice is its size. "Our place doesn't look like the average body shop," Huggins says.There is a greeter to welcome customers to the collision center, and the waiting area includes a TV and amenities for the kids, such as a Lego table and coloring books. Huffines is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.in. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. Enterprise Rent-A-Car is on the premises should the customer need temporary transportation.

To give customers personal attention, each of Huffines' seven estimators has a private office equipped with a workstation. Communication between the production manager, two quality control managers and the estimators during the day is key. They hold two status meetings per day, so the estimators can keep customers up-to-date on the progress of their vehicles.

Huffines also stands behind the work it performs, guaranteeing repairs for as long as the customer owns the vehicle. Huggins estimates that its repeat business is about 90 percent. "People keep coming back because we take care of business," he says. "That's the most important thing. Don't get me wrong, we have 14 DRPs [direct repair programs] here. We're adding two more.We're going to be at 16 DRPs, and you get a lot [of business] from that, but getting that customer, repairing that car and retaining them for life is our goal."

Despite the size of Huffines Collision Center, the elements that make the shop successful are simple-a quality team, a modern facility and the drive to be No. 1. As Huggins emphasizes, "We have the facility. We have the equipment. We are in the collision repair business."

[Author Affiliation]

Glenda Greenberg is formerly an associate editor of a trade publication covering the greenhouse industry. She currently works for a public relations firm serving a number of companies in the marine industry.