Salem, Ore.--Brent Gilmour said he wants his 10-year-old business to continue to grow but not to the point that he loses the ability to manage it himself on a day-to-day basis.
"To me, that's a big thing because I enjoy doing this," said Gilmour, owner of Hyacinth Collision Centre, a business named for the Salem street on which is it located. "I think if you compare us to shops of similar size and sales, they'll have three or four people in the front office. I don't have that."
Instead, Gilmour handles the front office responsibilities himself, with part-time assistance from his fiancé, Michelle Flowers, and his father, Jim Gilmour. He also oversees a production team of six: David Bates, Derrick Gonzales, Ulices Mendoza, Jack Nash, Mike Owings, and Enrique Segura.
Gilmour's hands-on approach to the business runs back even to before the company's doors opened when he helped with construction of the 10,000-square-foot facility, he said. He said that he had served in the Army and then spent 10 years working at another Salem collision repair shop, where he first cleaned cars and eventually worked as a painter and shop foreman.
In 1997, he said he and two business partners decided to launch Hyacinth Collision Centre.
"We actually cut the trees off this property and did most of the work on the building ourselves over nine months," Gilmour said. "I was often here seven days a week from day-break to sunset."
The result is a facility with a feature that Gilmour said many shops can't claim: Once a vehicle enters the building, it never has to go outside, even briefly, until the repair process is complete.
"With as much rain as we get here, even that few moments of exposure outside on an in-process vehicle can start corrosion problems," he said. "That's one of the biggest advantages we have over most shops, in my opinion."
Another advantage, he said, stems from his belief in the value of continually reinvesting in the business.
"You have to purchase the equipment you need to stay in the industry as the vehicles and business change," he said. "If you don't do that continually, at some point you're going to fail. If you haven't done that over time and kept up with it, the expense of trying to purchase all the new equipment you'll need to repair new vehicles will just be overwhelming."
Gilmour, for example, said he originally purchased a Chief EZ Liner frame rack but subsequently added a Grabber rack that allows 360-degree pulling and a Blackhawk Shark electronic measuring system. In addition to installing one Spray Systems heated downdraft booth when the shop was built, he said had the pit dug for a second Spray Systems booth that he has since added. The shop's inventory of BASF Glasurit paint products--purchased through Industrial Finishes--is stored in a mixing room sandwiched between the two booths, he said. The shop also has an air-conditioning evacuation unit and a Hanmecson hoist, but Gilmour added that he has not chosen to take on much in the way of mechanical work.
"We farm all of that out to Keizer Automotive & Towing, where (General Manager) Dennis Roper does a great job for us," Gilmour said. "They treat us real well, so I haven't had the need to push myself into getting an alignment rack and all that."
Thanks to a clientele built up over 10 years, Gilmour said repeat customers mean he needs to do little advertising. The shop does participate in some insurer direct repair programs, he said, but perhaps one of his most effective marketing tools is often parked out in front of his business: a 1982 Corvette that Gilmour painted himself with BASF's Rainbow Extreme paint.
"That Corvette has become a landmark out there," he said. "People refer to it when giving other people directions how to get somewhere."
Gilmour said his business has probably faced the same key challenges that others in the industry have, such as the shortage of qualified technicians.
"I think that is only going to get worse before it gets better," he said.
Keeping up with increasing demands from insurance companies has also proved challenging, he said.
"They have become quite insistent on turn-around time, for example," Gilmour said. "Trying to meet those requirements that insurance companies have put upon us is probably one of the biggest challenges we have."
Gilmour said he's addressed that in part by working with parts vendors such as Capitol Chevrolet, the Ron Tonkin Dealerships, and Keystone Automotive to reduce delays caused by parts.
"And we've gotten real big into using UV primer," he said. "It's dry in 120 seconds. That's helped us to improve our cycle time considerably."
Gilmour said that in hindsight, there are a few things he wished he'd done differently.
"I wish that years ago, when I was a lot younger, that I'd learned every aspect of the business and repair process," he said. "Since opening this facility, I forced myself to learn how to do frame pulls, how to do the welding. But at the shop I worked at, I was the painter. So I wish I'd spent more time learning every aspect of it."
He also said he's learned that he allowed for too small a parking lot for the facility he helped build, and he's now looking for off-site parking. But overall, he said he has few regrets.
"I was at a secure job. I had seniority. I was doing really well," Gilmour said of his days before opening his own shop. "But, still, this has been the best decision I ever made."
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