St. Louis--It evident when speaking with Matt Hammers, parts manager at Lou Fusz Kia, that moving into a new store has been good for business. During a recent Parts & People visit, personnel at the Kia dealership discussed their successes since relocating from the intersection of Lindberg Boulevard and Manchester Boulevard in the fall of 2007 to 10964 Page Ave.
"Just about everything has doubled," Hammers said, referring to the size, employees, and wholesale parts sales at their new location. Hammers, who has worked for the Lou Fusz Kia since 1999, said they have doubled the number of bays, doubled the number of technicians, doubled their floor space, and more than doubled the volume of wholesale parts sales. The only thing that hasn't doubled is parts inventory, he said--it has almost tripled.
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The move has also made it easier for Hammers to take advantage of Lou Fusz's wholesale parts delivery system housed down the street at the corner of Lindberg Boulevard and Olive Street, he said. The Lou Fusz organization, comprised of 16 dealerships, is able to deliver parts on a regular basis to wholesale customers west of Columbia, Mo., to Springfield, Ill., he said. Having an on-site body shop sitting on seven acres also has helped parts volume he said.
Brett Otto, assistant body shop manager, oversees the day-to-day details of the on-site collision repair facility, said Jeff Ferguson, fixed-operations manager. "We're able to take care of any concerns immediately, mostly with customers who come in for service," he said. Since the existing collision repair facility became part of the Kia dealership a year ago, volume has doubled, he said, adding that it's mainly from their DRP agreements.
Hammers said the dealership really didn't have any problems accommodating the growth that accompanied the move. He said it had to make sure that it conformed to some of Kia's facility policies, but even that was done without too many hurdles.
"They came over and measured things three or four times, but they were thrilled with our decision to move to this facility," Hammers said of Kia officials. He said the biggest growing pain they went through had to do with communication, in working and with employees.
He now has eight technicians coming to his parts counter instead of the four he previously had. "They all are pretty patient, though, when they see that we are on the phone or in the middle of something," he said.
Ferguson echoed the theme of things doubling when asked about business in the current economy. He said profits have doubled over 2007, but he really doesn't spend too much time making comparisons against 2007. "We are a whole new store in this location, and it isn't fair to make those comparisons," he said.
Ferguson said the dealership has lost some of its retail customer base since the move. "Some of them just won't make the drive up from the Kirkwood area," he said, adding that it has gained some customers who drive in from St. Charles County for service.
