Gilroy, Calif.-By offering creative accessory solutions for trucks of all kinds, Advanced Truck Accessories in Gilroy helps dealerships throughout North America increase their sales and profit margins and attract truck enthusiasts to their locations, said Chris Schueller, Advanced's director of sales and marketing.
"Dealers park our customized trucks in the front of their lots," Schueller said. "They help draw in customers and get the dialog going. We assist them by improving the salability of their inventory, diversifying the look and feel of their product, enhancing what we call their 'cool factor,' and increasing their walk-in traffic."
The "cool factor" must be working for the dealers they work with, because Advanced is busy all the time, Schueller said. The company customizes 600-700 trucks a year, and business is getting better every year, he said.
"In the end, the dealerships we work with become more profitable and move more units because our accessorized vehicles are proven to be more popular than standard trucks straight from the manufacturer," he said.
Since 1999, Advanced has been a leader in truck customization and accessories, Schueller said, adding that the business was started by Owner Pat Howard, 45, when he saw a need for adding custom tires, wheels, exhaust, suspension, billets, chrome accessories, upholstery, paint, bumpers, and headlight upgrades to trucks sold by dealerships.
"Pat has been into trucks pretty much since the day he was born," he said. "He started out as a parts guy, learning the industry from that perspective. Then took his skill set and applied it to this niche."
Advanced helps its customers create trucks that differentiate them from their competitors, Schueller said.
"If it can be glued or screwed onto a truck, we do it," he said. "We can also help our customers add an identity to their trucks through things like custom stickers, interior embroidery, and decals. We work with (dealership) management to develop modifications specific to their trucks so that they can have an advantage against neighboring dealers of the same manufacturer."
Advanced also manufactures many items itself, such as wheels and billet accessories, through contracts with production facilities in Southern California, Schueller said.
Advanced has nationwide contracts with truck accessory companies such as Fox Racing, Boyd Coddington, Rolling Big Power (RBP), and BMF wheels, he said.
Schueller said Advanced operates out of two 10,000-square-foot buildings with nine bays and a parts warehouse, and employs 13 people: four full-time technicians, two operations managers, two outside salespeople, two inside salespeople, two transport drivers, and one exhaust technician.
"We custom-build all of our exhaust in-house because we've found that standard out-of-the-box exhaust pipes are just too loud," he said. "We want drivers to be able to talk on their cell phones while they're driving, so we like our trucks to be as quiet as possible. We're always testing out exhaust products to make sure that they're high-quality and quiet."
Advanced has arrangements with all the major truck manufacturers to transport the vehicles directly to their Gilroy facility for customization before they ever hit the dealer's lot, Schueller said.
Working with trucks straight from the manufacturer means that Advanced has to provide special services and meet stringent deadlines, he said.
"Whenever we're in a situation where we have to move a truck to or from a dealership, we do it with a flatbed so that we don't put additional miles on the vehicle," he said. "We also have to turn around jobs rapidly so that the trucks get on the lots quickly. We strive for a five-day turnaround because we know that time is money for our customers."
Advanced will match the manufacturer's bumper-to-bumper warranty on any truck they customize, Schueller said. "We do quality work on everything because we know that we're going to be married to the vehicle for at least the next four years," he said. "We go out of our way to back our work 100 percent."
The price tags on the customization projects Advanced performs range from $5,000-$20,000 on average, although the company has done several very high-end, big-ticket jobs as well, Schueller said. Recently, Advanced accessorized and lifted a Dale Earnhardt Jr. special edition truck for a Ford dealership that sold for approximately $100,000, he said. They also built a SEMA project truck for American Racing that sold for $108,000, he said.
Advanced carries $750,000-$1.5 million in parts, although the size of their inventory varies depending on the trends and time of the year, Schueller said.
"A lot of the trucks we get in here are dictated by the incentives the manufacturers are offering," he said. "If GM is offering good deals, we'll see more GM trucks coming through the door. Our inventory is fast-moving. We typically turn it over five or six times per year."
Advanced has always promoted a team approach to customer service, Schueller said, and the results have been exemplary. "A lot of companies talk about customer satisfaction, but we don't believe you should just satisfy your clients," he said.
"Our goal in everything we do is to create raving fans of our customers, and we take every measure to achieve that. It's woven into the fabric of the company."
Advanced is currently focused on expansion into other areas, Schueller said, which will include establishing new locations in the Sacramento area, the Pacific Northwest, and Southern California.
"Expansion will happen," he said. "But, we don't ever want to lose sight of what got us here. We believe that as long as we continue to stay true to our original principles, we'll grow steadily."
