Vandalia, Ill.--Getting shop owners what they want when they want it is vital to being a successful jobber, said Ken and Diane Torbeck, co-owners of Vandalia Auto Supply, who added that this is especially true in a rural community.
“Making ourselves different from the mass merchandisers is important to our business,” Diane Torbeck said. In addition to traditional OE replacement parts, the husband-wife duo said they stock Martin Senour paint, heavy-duty and tractor-trailer parts, and a full line of hydraulic hoses for farm and construction use.
In a rural community, when you can’t be in the fields due to weather, that downtime is used repairing work equipment, said Ken Torbeck. That’s where Vandalia Auto Supply Inc., a 17-year NAPA Auto and Truck Parts jobber, plays a vital role in the community, he said.
“We’re always busy when it rains,” Torbeck said, adding that it also means that the customer’s repair window is limited.
“When a customer comes in for something, especially equipment such as jumper cables or a battery charger, they usually need it right away,” he said. “If we don’t have it in stock, we will probably lose the sale,” which is why inventory on hand is critical in capturing the sale, he added.
Keeping a stocked inventory in a rural community may be a little different than in a larger community, but the Torbecks said they take the additional steps to make sure their customers have as little downtime as possible.
“We get nightly NAPA deliveries and make a daily run to the Mount Vernon warehouse to ensure that our customers get what they need, usually within the same day,” Ken Torbeck said.
“Repair shops sell their time,” he said. “If they have delays because they don’t have the parts they need, then they are less profitable.”
The store also turns rotors, resurfaces flywheels, and offers machine shop services, Torbeck said, adding that since most shops in the area don’t have that equipment, providing the niche service efficiently is important to vehicle repair times. The couple said they invested in two brake lathes to turn them quicker.
Just as it’s important to have the right mix of parts, the right mix of employees is important, Ken Torbeck said.
The store employs 12 people, each of which is a vital part of the business, Diane Torbeck said
“The key is the help,” she said. “Our employees all have a passion for cars and a passion for their job.”
Ken Torbeck said the countermen are all ASE-certified Automotive Parts Specialists, except for one for who is an ASE-certified technician. “We’ve got a lot of knowledge on that counter,” he said.
“The knowledge of our staff doesn’t stop at auto and truck parts,” Torbeck said, adding that the store is also a distributor of Martin Senour Paint since 1992 and that three of the countermen are paint mixers.
“Since we have become a distributor, we have switched all but one of the shops in the area to Martin Senour, including the local vocational school,” he said, adding that he attributes the switch to good paint and good representation from the paint company.
Collision repair personnel receive Martin Senour training in Chicago, but the local DIYers, working on projects from construction and farm equipment to hobby restorations, rely on Torbeck and his staff to get them through their paint projects.
Using all the tools at his disposal, many times Ken Torbeck said he will begin by assisting a customer in choosing the correct paint color by using the Martin Senour’s Color Dominator.
“It’s a great sales tool,” he said. If customers don’t know what color is needed, they can bring a sample to the store, and the Color Dominator will generate a paint code, he added.
From there, Torbeck, who is certified with Martin Senour, said he assists customers with any questions they may have about using the product. Martin Senour provides excellent reference material about the product online that he can print out and give to the customer, he added.
The couple said they attribute a lot of their success by taking full advantage of all NAPA has to offer.
“If you embrace the NAPA system, you will be successful,” Ken Torbeck said.
NAPA offers several recognition programs including the 5-Star Excellence Program. “Only 10 of the 150 stores in the region were awarded with that designation, but we’ve achieved it five years in a row,” he said.
The store participates in the national NAPA advertising, but it also does some advertising locally, the Torbecks said.
“We have three billboards in key areas,” Diane Torbeck said, “and we place an ad in the local paper during Car Care Aware month.”
