Fort Washington Auto Body is an ABRN 2011 Top Shop

Jan. 1, 2020
From modest beginnings, Fort Washington Auto Body is making a lot of noise in the industry.
Owners Laura and Rodney Gay credit the Fort Washington staff for their success. (IMAGES / FORT WASHINGTON AUTO BODY)

Sometimes a shop's location can say as much about its business as a quick walk through. Take Fort Washington Auto Body for example. The Oxon Hill, Md., shop sits just outside Washington, D.C. Much like the nation's capital, it too was built up by some talented upstarts who decided to use some new ideas to create something special.

Fort Washington Auto Body actually has been in business since 1986. Nearly six years ago, its founder Bob Holcomb was ready to retire and offered to sell the shop to long-time friends Rodney and Laura Gay for no money down.

The Gays were unlikely owners. Though each had extensive automotive backgrounds dating back to their teens – Rodney worked as a mechanic for almost 20 years specializing in suspension and technical repairs and Laura became manager of a dealer body shop at 21 – the couple had moved on to comfortable careers in the insurance industry. They would be taking over a business that at the time was struggling to stay afloat.

Convinced they could succeed if they ran a repair shop their way (and wanting their own business), they jumped in.

Fort Washington performs both collision and mechanical repairs to get severely damaged vehicles like this back on the road.

In two years, they took a business that had been grossing $1.5 million annually and by year end in 2007 churned out $4 million in gross earnings. Today the shop grosses more than $5 million and the Gays are looking to grow.

Their secret? They turned to their own history and experiences and melded those with new ideas they borrowed from other shops then modified all that to fit their business model. Rodney worked on shop procedures and Laura combed the local insurance industry looking for relationships.

"Being familiar with the insurance industry really helped us," says Laura. "We knew very well what insurers were looking for and what they wanted for their customers."

As for many of the new ideas they molded into their own, the Gays studied every book, magazine and resource they could find on the industry (they and their staff continue to read and study the industry extensively). They also looked for input from vendors and industry groups.

"MACRO, the Mid Atlantic Collision Repair Organization, was especially helpful," says Laura. "A number of their members are multi-shop operators. They gave us a lot of helpful advice and tips."

Inside the shop, out went old ideas and in came sweeping changes.

The Gays say investing in quality equipment when they purchased the shop was money well spent.

The Gays instituted standard operating procedures designed specifically to proactively prevent problems before they arise. They also began handpicking new employees as other employees left the business after the Gays began instituting new procedures. All but one of the employees from the previous ownership remained, leaving plenty of positions and opportunity for the fresh hires the Gays targeted.

Unassuming from the outside, Fort Washington has a unique history, which it continues to build.

"We went out of our way to hire the best of the best," says Rodney. The Gays also looked for one key quality in their hires. They wanted family people – workers whose devotion to home and job reflected their own values. The Gays also made sure to check out the background of each hire. Laura says they we're already familiar with most of their new employees through their contacts in the industry.

They also hired for what Laura calls "the long term." That strategy in particular has paid off since nearly every hire from the Gay's first year in business remains. (On an interesting side note, Rodney says of the previous employees who left, he estimates 75 percent have since asked for jobs.)

Fort Washington's employees have helped turn the shop into a smooth-running machine that repairs on average more than 40 cars a week and generates $5 million in annual revenue.

So successful has the Gay's venture been in just a short time that they're already expanding.

The couple recently partnered with a second facility in Calvert County. Much like the shop they bought six years ago, their new site has lots of potential and room for growth.

More than 50 customers a week are greeted in the reception area.

They report very few problems so far bringing the new shop up to speed on their systems. In fact, the couple says the biggest difficulty they face is no longer working together, as each concentrates on a different location.

"The only real challenge is that we're both not here. It's a real difference since we're used to working together and making decisions together," says Laura.

"On an emotional level, we don't have each other's support."

The Gays don't take such feelings lightly. They stress the bonds they have for each other and the family bonds they share with their employees, whom they credit for their business's success.

"Family life is the most important thing to us," says Rodney. "If any of our employees has a problem and brings it to us, we do everything we can to help them out."

Those aren't mere words. After a 26-year-old employee – a single father with sole custody of a 5-year-old child – reported he was suffering from a non-operable brain tumor, the Gays and their staff raised more than $11,000 for him and his son. When that same employee's father was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, the shop donated $2,000 to the family.

In another case, the shop and employees split costs to help pay for the medical coverage of an employee who suffered a stroke. They also helped an employee from Pakistan gain U.S. citizenship.

Even in an industry as family-friendly as collision repair, such steps are a bit unusual.

At Fort Washington, making history – even very personal history – is the norm.

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