Body shop's success spurs spirit of giving back

Deep in the heart of Humble, Texas, near Houston, three I-CAR Gold Class body shops headed by two men are motoring away with a burgeoning business about to outgrow the 156,000 sq. ft. the shops encompass.

As Tim Gill, partner of D&D Collision, D&D Collision Specialist and Callaway's, puts it, "Business has been good and we are blessed."

In 1987, Gill's partner, David Niccum and another partner opened a 1,200-sq.-ft. building with a toolbox to work on ships, vessels and RVs – and later, wrecked cars. From that day forward the goal has been to never get so big as to forget "where we came from."

Delivering on that promise, Gill and Niccum decided that once they crossed the $1-million mark in revenues in a given month, a local youth charity in Montgomery County, Texas, would benefit with a $50,000 cut of the earnings. That happened in May.

Gill and Niccum first got to know each other's work skills and ethics by working at the same dealership in the 1980s. Niccum was a service manager in the motor home department and Gill was a parts manager.

Niccum ventured out in 1987, eventually opening what Gill refers to as the "mothership" of the shops, D&D Collision. Later, Niccum moved into a larger facility. "In that particular year, he did not get a paycheck for an entire year. Basically, he lived off his wife's salary, which, at that time was very minute," Gill says. At the time, Niccum had another partner, but was determined to bring Gill on board.

"With me being a parts manager at the dealership, I knew David's work ethic as a service manager. I knew he was the best gig in town," Gill says.

Several years later, Gill joined D&D. The operation now has three locations encompassing 13 acres or so in land. The shops' equipment includes: seven Blowtherm Ultra Spray booths, five custom paint-mixing rooms and two closed-top-open-front drive-through spray booths. Central to the body frame area and the finishing area is an elevated dispatch room that oversees the entire production process through close-circuit television screens.

"When I joined Niccum's venture, they were doing about $130,000 a month. And to think that we just hit the $1-million mark with our stores – we actually surpassed it at $1.987 million," says Gill, with a tone of disbelief. In fact, the shop that contributed the $50,000 check (D&D Collision Specialist) may be the largest shop in an eight-state area at 84,000 sq. ft., according to Gill.

But it may not be big enough for future business. Plans are underway to develop a fourth body shop. "We just purchased a Chrysler dealership – they dropped the price $2 million in a three-month period. So we jumped on it," Gill says. If all goes as planned, operations will begin in October or November.

But it hasn't always been about success in the initial years of business. When D&D Collision Specialist opened in 2002, Gill says, "All we had was our reputation. We lost $116,000 in the first month and a half of business. It was scary. Then the next year, we barely made a profit. The third year everything started turning around," he says.

When they opened that shop, insurance companies had begun to stop DRPs. "The only DRP we had in the first year was State Farm. Then our reputation started getting out there. Every year we saw new growth – from 30 percent to 45 percent," Gill explains. "At that time in early 2000s, we were doing more business in Humble than all the dealerships on the freeway combined."

But the growth comes with a price. "Yes, we're the largest independent in Houston, but that means we've got a bull's eye on our head every day. People are constantly trying to steal our help. Everybody wanted us to fail," says Gill.

Yet it never phased he or Niccum. "The way we looked at it when we opened new shops is, if you're a good body shop, you have nothing to worry about. The people who are doing shoddy work and tinkering with deductibles are the ones to raise concern," says Gill.

"Our motto with our employees is, 'Don't lie, cheat or steal, and everything else will work out,' " he says, referring to just how many unethical body shops commit fraud every day by saving deductibles. "We won't do that. All the insurance companies want to pay is for what needs to be done. If they overpay us, we send them a check back, which is very rare in our business."

That has paid off, as the D&D Collision group has a number of DRPs, which contribute notably to the bottom line, Gill said, without noting actual figures.

Their trustworthy reputation equally applies to their 150-person workforce. "Everybody wants to come to work for us," he says, recognizing it as an honor.

Nevertheless, they still face a fair amount of turnover – not unmanageable, but "I would like to have less," Gill says. One incentive to try to lower the turnover is a vacation program that the shops offer. Once an employee has worked with the shops for five years, he or she receives three weeks vacation. "We encourage longevity, because of all the training we invest in them," he says, noting that the shops will cover any I-CAR training or ASE certifications for employees.

As for having a Web presence (www.danddcollision.com), Gill acknowledges that it's "a big deal" for some customers, but some still simply prefer a phone call. Although the Web hasn't made a huge impact on business, Gill suspects that will change.