Manchester, Mo.-World Wide Car Service Inc. is one of the few independent automotive businesses in the St. Louis area that includes both mechanical and collision repair services.
It was started in 1973 by Jan Niezing Sr., 10 years after he came to the United States from the Netherlands, said his son, Jan Niezing Jr. Niezing Sr. took his Volkswagen service experience and opened his shop as an automotive mechanical repair facility, adding a collision shop about five years later, his son said.
A complete renovation in 2005 resulted in increased business, Niezing said, adding that it showed his customers that he was willing to commit to them and the community. "We intend to be here another 35 years," he said.
The shops operate almost as two separate facilities as far as the customer base coming to the location, Niezing said.
"When the body repair technician is uncomfortable replacing something, for example, like a power-steering rack, he may take the car over to the mechanical side," he said. "But more times than not, they do the mechanical repair for the collision themselves."
World Wide is family owned and operated with all three of Niezing Sr.'s children being involved in the business in some capacity.
Niezing Jr., who manages the collision side, emphasized the importance of being active in automotive industry trade organizations.
"I can't stress enough the importance of everyone in our industry to belonging to the trade association Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Missouri (AASP-MO)," Niezing said. "There are probably 50-60 active shops in that organization who meet every other month," he said.
"And for obvious reasons, there is power in numbers, and whether it's to share information on successes or failures in our business, the reality of it is, as body shop owners we are small fish in a big sea relative to insurance companies," he said, adding that AASP-MO has proved countless times to be invaluable to the shop.
Niezing said his thought process for years was that he was simply too busy to get away from his business to look into other opportunities that could potentially be helpful.
"You really can't afford to run your business that way," he said. "You have to get you head out of the sand and get out there and see that other shops have the same problems or other shops have the solution to your problem. There have been countless times where I have walked away from theses meetings and realized how crucial communication with peers is to the success of our business.
"We are in a position, as we speak, where all of us in the collision business are expecting a labor rate change," Niezing said. "It has been four years since the labor rate was increased while all of our other costs have continued to escalate, such as salaries and overhead.
"It's becoming more and more challenging," he said. "Mechanical labor rates have surpassed $100 per hour, yet the prevailing labor rate in the body shop is much less. These discrepancies have caused several dealerships and independent shops in the area to go out of business or consolidate."
Niezing said, for example, that there was a time when some insurance companies used to perform an annual or semi-annual survey and discuss with the shop what labor rates were needed. The technology is now online, and the labor rate survey is available to every shop, but it has been four years since any such increase, possibly from lack of participation in the program by the shop owners, he said.
Niezing said he believes that organizations like AASP-MO play an important role in getting the word out on issues that need to be changed and how business owners can induce that change as a group instead of separately.
The simpler days of estimating a collision repair for an automobile, performing the work needed, and then taking the money to the bank are gone, Niezing said.
