| At A Glance |
| Car Crafters |
| Name of shop |
| 600 Montano Rd, Albuquerque, NM |
| Location |
| 2 |
| Number of locations |
| 85 |
| Number of bays |
| 135 |
| Average vehicles per week |
| $2,075 |
| Average repair ticket |
| $14.5 million |
| Annual revenue |
| www.carcrafters.com |
| Website |
Owner Jim Guthrie entered the industry as a teenager, working on his friends' cars in his parents' garage. He took a short detour after finishing college and entering dental school. After realizing his heart wasn't into filling molars, he left that part of his education in 1982 and opened Car Crafters in a small shop where he learned to be a collision repairer and operator. “I learned to do every job in the shop through reading and doing--good old trial and error,” says Guthrie.
Along the way, Guthrie began looking for new ways to improve the management of the shop and its inventory. He ended up pairing up with programmer Curt Jingle to design a piece of management software called SIMS, which PPG later purchased. That software is now known as Mitchell ABS Enterprise, and Guthrie says it's his shop's biggest contribution to the industry, though he has found other ways to give back.
The shop hosts the Skills USA competition every year, with Guthrie and his staff providing assistance with instructions and judging. Veteran technician Carl Peet teaches I-CAR classes held every Tuesday and Thursday at the shop.
Employees are encouraged to attend those classes along with receiving other training. The shop pays for all training and courses that employees wish to attend. It recently covered all the fees for two employees' graduate school degrees. Both graduated this past May with a Masters in Business Administration. Between August 2013 and August 2014, Car Crafters spent over $50,000 on employee training and education.
Those employees have access to a range of new tools and equipment. This year Car Crafters purchased aluminum repair tools such as a welding station, rivet gun and MIG welder that also can be used on steel and silicon bronze. Other purchases included new bench racks, two Car-O-Tronic Vision X3 tools and a Tru-Point Diagnostic System, a camera-based measuring tool that helps locate hidden damage and determines if a repair has returned a vehicle to accurate measurable specs.
While Car Crafters has long prided itself on being at the head of the curve for new repair technologies, Guthrie is quick to note that these investments come only after very careful economic considerations. “We purchase new tools whenever we see a benefit to save time or increase quality in the repairs or process," says Guthrie. "We run numbers and forecasts for every large equipment purchase. If it doesn’t add up, then don’t buy it.”
To help make sure this technology does get used, Car Crafters employs a variety of marketing programs to keep bringing customers through its doors. This past year it significantly upgraded its online marketing efforts receive with an updated website (www.carcrafters.com) designed to appeal to a larger pool of prospective customers with greater ease of use. The website was moved to an HTML5 platform, which allows customers to see the same website across all digital platforms--desktop, phone, tablet and laptop. HTML5 also is a big distinguisher for Google and other search engines when it comes to search rankings.
Car Crafters took other steps to keep these rankings high and drive site traffic. The new site now features a popular video incorporated on its "Our Story" page to introduce customers to the business. Because blogs make websites 22 times more searchable, Car Crafters frequently updates its blog content. It also regularly makes changes to the appearance and information on the site to keep it fresh and search engine optimization (SEO) friendly. The shop constantly monitors Google’s changing criteria to ensure its website meets their requirements.
To further drive Web traffic, Car Crafters uses a Google+ page to draw attention to its online reviews, which Guthrie says have helped bring in new clients. The shop's social media collateral create additional interest in the site. Posts on Facebook and Twitter highlight shop news, while an Instagram page features new photos of the shop and company events. The shop's YouTube page hosts all of its television commercials and the drift footage it shoots.
Drifting has become the unofficial face of much of Car Crafter's marketing and its community outreach. Every shop television commercial has featured Guthrie driving his drift cars. The latest included his son Sean, along with daughter Kayla and son-in-law Sid.
The shop hosts a number of drifting events in the community where attendees have an opportunity to ride along. This fall it sponsored a Pantera car show benefitting breast cancer awareness. Along with NAPA Auto Care Centers, Car Crafters coordinated a Poker Run to benefit the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. Other charitable efforts have included a silent auction Car Crafters sponsored for Paws and Stripes, which provides service dogs for military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. The shop also donated an all-expenses paid trip to Mexico for two to a silent auction benefiting the Albuquerque Children’s Home.
Looking to the future, Car Crafters will continue this outreach, along with some significant business growth. In October, Guthrie announced plans to open a second location in Albuquerque. Early estimates point to a Summer 2015 grand opening.
Don't expect this detour from Car Crafter's 32-year-old business model to be a sign that Guthrie is eyeing the creation of the next great Southwest MSO. He's actually mulled over the idea of adding another location for years--if and when the right opportunity presented itself.
He's also continuing work on a succession plan that will smoothly transition Car Crafter's into a second generation shop. Some of his employees already have children now working for the business. Guthrie's wife, who takes care of accounting and other duties, is training her replacement. He's preparing his son to run the shop, leading the way for a new team of trendsetters when Guthrie someday steps away from the shop.
That should keep the eyes of the industry on Albuquerque for a while longer.
