SHOP STATS: Nick's Auto Body Location: New Castle, PA Owner: Shane Caldararo Average Monthly Car Count: 120 Staff Size: 20 Shop Size: 30,000 square feet Annual Revenue: $5.2 million
1. Calling it Complete
Every shop owner strives to make continual improvements to his or her business. But after more than six decades and eight additions and expansions to Nick’s Auto Body in New Castle, Pennsylvania, third-generation owner Shane Caldararo has said that’s enough. There’s not really anywhere else to go anyway, unless it’s across the street.
“That's the original building (from 1958), so it was on one parcel, and now it sits on six. We took over the whole block,” Caldararo says with a laugh.
What was a one-bay shop when Shane’s grandfather Nick started the business now has 30 bays. The original New Castle location is the flagship of a Nick’s Auto Body network that includes shops in Clarion and Sharon as well as a truck and trailer shop and estimating facility elsewhere in New Castle. While the business continues to grow, the expansion of the original shop is at an end.
“If I expand more, I'm going to need more employees,” says Caldararo. “And that's getting more difficult. So, we are focusing on proficiency, making sure cars get out faster.”
2. Quality, Quickly
The presence of the estimating facility up the road is a big boon for customers. They can drop off their vehicle and get into their rental without having to leave the facility. So that lets the New Castle shop focus solely on doing body work.
“We do the full teardown and blueprinting, which I feel makes the cars go through, well I don't feel, I know, makes the cars go through a lot faster,” says Caldararo. “So we can get the job done a lot quicker for the customer.”
There are three frame machines, two paint booths and four hydraulic lifts. The shop is I-CAR Gold and ASE certified. Caldararo notes that environmental responsibility is a priority at the shop. As a “green” body shop, Nick’s uses filtration systems and water-based paint, something they’ve done since 2010.
3. The Future is Family
The shop stakes its reputation on quality repairs and outstanding customer service, which Caldararo is still involved in on a day-to-day basis. There is also a full-time employee dedicated to customer communications. Caldararo’s father is also still involved with the business after passing control to his son in 2020—"My dad is still in every day, he does all our deposits. And I like to say he causes problems and then leaves,” Caldararo jokes.
Caldararo’s brother is also an estimator at the truck and trailer location. Caldararo owns all the businesses and while things are set for the time being, he’s always keeping an eye on the future as far as new locations.
“Do we want to expand? Of course we do,” he says. “But it's not a dire need, we kind of just play by ear. It seems like we find shops just at a whim, someone calls you and you look at it, and you like it. You always say you're going to stop, but you never do.”
