Estes Park, Colo.—It’s safe to say Ray and Erin Berris, the new owners of Trail Ridge Auto and Truck Supply, won’t be sleeping on cots in their NAPA parts store.
Nestled near the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, the store shares a ZIP code with the haunted Stanley Hotel, the inspiration for the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King’s book “The Shining”—and the similarities don’t end there.
Shortly after purchasing the longtime parts store from Jerry and Tammy Elley last January, the Berrises said they met their unpaid employee “Howie,” the resident ghost, who instead of stocking parts occasionally knocks them off shelves.
It wasn’t until the Berrises signed their paperwork that they discovered the parts store was once a mortuary and is haunted.
It turns out the ghosts weren’t enough to deter the seasoned Berrises, both former manufacturer representatives, who know a good opportunity when they see one. “We now work where people vacation,” Ray Berris said.
“The advantage is that we’ve been in so many NAPA stores and took that experience and applied it to our business,” Berris said, adding that if they encounter an unusual application, the answer is a phone call away, via manufacturer reps, other jobbers, or Genuine Parts Co. (GPC) personnel.
Berris said his interest in the parts business began when he spent time in his father’s parts store in Wisconsin, which eventually led to his career in parts.
Berris said he served as GPC’s mountain region Echlin rep and then moved on to the NAPA brake division as a rep, and eventually a trainer, while Erin Berris, a WyoTech collision repair graduate, said she worked as a NAPA-dedicated rep for Sherwin-Williams’ Martin-Senour line in the mountain states.
Ray Berris said he considered buying a NAPA store for five years, waiting for the right opportunity to arise. After making the decision to purchase the Estes Park store, the couple said they worked closely with NAPA Denver Distribution Center Sales Manager Will Rogers and General Manager Scott Carlson, who were of great assistance.
The couple said their combined experience calling on jobbing stores, repair shops, and collision repair facilities has well-equipped them to run a NAPA parts store.
After working with so many jobbers, the Berrises said they have distilled that information, both the good and bad, to develop their own operations procedures and sales approach, which is working better than expected.
Part of the operations procedures included getting the right mix of inventory in the 4,200-square-foot store and staying open on Sundays to serve the many tourists that drive through Estes Park while visiting Rocky Mountain National Park.
Ray Berris said they pulled out $52,000 of old, aged inventory, swapping it with more retail-focused inventory, parts for trailers, RVs, towing, and more batteries. The couple worked closely with Ron Brunka of NAPA using its Market Inventory Classification (MIC) system that has the ability to closely match jobbers’ inventories with local vehicle registrations and sales potential.
“Through MIC, we discovered a lot of domestic trucks and import vehicles that we did not have inventory for,” Berris said. “However, tourists bring in a lot of vehicles.
“Tourists need batteries or a charger right away,” he said, adding that they don’t have to drive down to Loveland or Longmont for items on Sunday now.
Equal attention has been given to the product mix and attention to professional installers.
Erin Berris said she makes outbound sales calls to mechanical and collision repair facilities, fleets, and municipalities in the surrounding area.
“Heavy duty is a big growth opportunity,” Ray Berris said, adding that they call on excavating companies, the national park, and others maintaining heavy-duty equipment and trucks.
“There’s a lot of heavy duty equipment up here,” he said. Now that the NAPA Denver Distribution Center carries NAPA’s heavy duty Traction line, he said he has access to more breadth of parts.
Other internal changes made in the store include relocating the parts counter for more retail space and removing paint from the inventory, which because of lack of volume, had a tendency to age, Erin Berris said. The store now purchases Martin Senour refinishing products from Ted Heilbrun’s NAPA operation in Fort Collins, she said.
Although the Denver distribution center provides excellent coverage through Traction, Altrom (import brand coverage), and its tool and equipment division, there still are occasions when the customer brings in a part that they don’t have access to through NAPA, Berris said.
“If they put a part on the counter, they know we’ll find it,” she said, adding that their four employees will do all they can to source the part through other suppliers. “They now have to exhaust all opportunities.”
The Berrises said they were able to retain the three employees from the previous owners, who include Countermen Nick Frontczak, John Porterfield, and Bruce Asbury—all assets to the organization.
“We’re growing faster than expected,” Ray Berris said, pointing out that sales are up 28 percent year to date, when he was expecting only a 10 percent increase.
Such steep growth comes at an operating expense, Berris said. “It tightens up cash flow because more inventory is required.” The total inventory includes $400,000, he said, adding that they now carry engines through ATK, a new product segment for the jobber.
Berris said the time required to run a parts store was an initial shocker but hasn’t deterred him and his wife, as they eventually plan on opening another store in the next five years. “It’s very hands on,” he said. “I’m surprised at how many hours it takes to run a store.”
