Frank McClosky doesn’t accept mediocrity. As the president and CEO of Frank’s Collision Repair — an eight-shop independent MSO in the Houston metro area — he doesn’t have a choice.
That doesn’t mean he’s not enjoyable to talk to…he certainly is. Or that he doesn’t have a great sense of humor…he does. If you need proof, just ask the insurance agents he’s visited over the years dressed in costumes to drum up business. But he knows that in order to stay competitive in a market that’s increasingly becoming saturated with “big box” consolidators, he has to be the best in the market. That means constantly learning, growing, and striving for his personal best, all the time…and requiring the same from everyone around him.
“I have this uncontrollable curiosity and competitiveness to say, ‘Well, they might be bigger, but they're not going to be better.’ We try to just literally be the best option in our markets.”
With revenue exceeding $30 million in 2023, Frank’s is the last large independent MSO in the region without any outside financing — maybe even the last in the state, McClosky says.
And he plans to keep it that way.
Growing in a Sustainable Way
When McClosky opened Frank’s Collision Repair in Sept. 2003, he didn’t necessarily have ambitions to expand. Fast forward 21 years, however, and the story is much different.
“Back in 2003, my only idea was to own that first shop to generate money to invest in real estate,” he says, something he’d already started doing while he was working as a territory manager for PPG after college. “And that's what I did, mainly single-family homes and such.” As fate would have it, the opportunity to buy his first location — Baytown — came about when a previous employer he’d worked for in college as a painter offered to sell him her business (fun fact: she still works for him 21 years later doing desk reviews!)
McClosky was immediately successful, taking the shop from around $40k to $70k in the first month and continuing the upward trend from there.
Sometime around 2008, he recalls, Service King entered his market, and he started getting encouragement from local insurance companies to expand his operations in order to compete. His revenue could support the expansion — a prerequisite he still adheres to this day — so he opened his second location in Dayton.
Crosby came next, followed by La Porte and Clear Lake — both in 2017 — before the idea for a truly unique shop came about. McClosky calls it the Complex Repair Center. The Texas City shop followed, and the eighth and newest addition, Liberty, is opening this year.
Every time McClosky has grown, he’s done it out of his own cash flow…it’s how he assesses the health of his business.
“We’re primarily a zero-debt company,” he explains, outside of money owed on real estate. “I think it's fine to borrow money for real estate because it's an appreciating asset. But borrowing a bunch of money for equipment that's going to depreciate 50% as soon as you buy it? I just don't think that’s a good idea.”
Expanding this way is a “slower growth pattern,” he says, “but a healthy one.”
McClosky hopes to continue opening new shops every year, but in a controlled way. “We're building a long-term, sustainable business model that can be competitive.” His goal is simple: he wants to own more shops than he did the year before.
A Complex Idea
One of the biggest mistakes McClosky sees other owners making, he says, is spending too much time and energy defending their current position instead of redirecting that energy toward finding better ways of doing things.
“Make sure you’re better. Make sure you repair better than your competitors and your customer service is better…if it’s not, figure out why. Be willing to look at your flaws and ask what you need to do differently.”
Before the pandemic, McClosky started doing just that, reviewing the efficiency of his shops and researching the equipment he needed to acquire to improve them. That led him to Car-O-Liner, which has been a game changer, he says, for returning cars to their pre-accident condition.
He’s also implemented PPG’s MoonWalk paint mixing system in every shop, which McClosky says produces an “impressive” paint match by digitally mixing to a hundredth, not a tenth, of a gram.
“I've always believed in investing in something that would improve the quality of the repairs,” he says, which is why he doesn’t hesitate to buy state-of-the-art equipment and products. The complexity of the automobile has increased astronomically in the past 10 years, he adds, and “if you're not fully committed to truly learning how to fix cars correctly, you’ll never be the best.”
In his countless hours of research and analyzing, McClosky came to the realization that a large percentage of projects that were sitting too long in his shops were gigantic, complex repairs…which gave him an idea. Why not open a shop that could handle all the complex jobs so they don’t create bottlenecks in the other shops?
Enter the Complex Repair Center (or CRC, as the team calls it).
Opened in 2021, the shop boasts the best-of-the-best in personnel and equipment, and a layout designed specifically for production and flow related to more complex repairs.
While all of Frank’s shops and technicians stay up to date with Gold Class and Platinum I-CAR recognition, respectively, the CRC techs “are some of our highest skilled and most efficient techs when it comes to equipment use and vehicle repairs,” says Carl McClosky, Frank’s brother and VP of sales and acquisitions.
“We use the CRC as a learning center, a training center, too…it's a place where we fix things to a super-high quality that no one else can fix. It takes those labor-intensive, highly technical jobs out of our other stores so we don't need every shop to be able to fix every job,” adds Frank.
That means that not only does the CRC cater to complex repairs; it facilitates load-leveling at Frank's, too.
“Load-leveling is instrumental in maintaining efficient cycle times across all seven of our locations, ensuring the best opportunity repairs are completed in a timely manner,” Carl says. “The CRC empowers our managers at each location to prioritize safe and timely repairs based on individual shop and vehicle needs.”
If it’s determined a job is a good fit for the CRC — usually larger projects involving frame damage or some other significant, time-consuming repair — the recommendation is discussed with the client and the car is towed over to the CRC upon approval. The total cost of the job, Carl says, is never the sole determining factor.
From there, the shops’ administrative staffs work together to move the assignment from the original shop to the CRC in the estimating software. Once the repair is complete, the customer can choose to pick his or her car up at the CRC or have it taken back to the original shop for pickup.
The concept has proven so successful that McClosky wholeheartedly recommends other MSOs consider following suit. He plans to add more CRCs as Frank’s continues to expand so he can meet the growing demand of higher sales volume and more complex projects.
Remaining Independent
The decision to remain independent hasn’t always been easy, says Frank, who admits that he’s been pursued heavily for “years and years” to sell.
“The collision market is volatile. I joined an elite group 10 years ago with 15 other shop owners…we all had to have over $10 million in sales, own four or more shops…and I’m the only one left who hasn’t sold.”
It’s not that he hasn’t thought about it — he agreed to talk to a major player just last year, in fact. It’s a decision he doesn’t regret, he says, because he learned a lot about the industry, himself, and what’s most important in the process.
“The end result was that we realized we don't want to exit,” he told me matter-of-factly. “We don't want to see all our hard work taken away.”
Above all, McClosky wants to protect his employees, many of whom have been with the company for years. That was something the consolidator couldn’t guarantee, and it was the ultimate dealbreaker.
“If the company is owned by a huge Wall Street fund, their only desire is to build the business up to sell it to the next Wall Street fund. They don't really have much loyalty to the guy who's been out in the 100-degree Texas heat for the last 15 years working for you.”
The repair quality you can get from an independent shop can’t be matched, either, in McClosky’s opinion.
“Restaurants are heavily consolidated, for example, but everyone knows the quality is going to be better at the local steakhouse. Same goes for the collision industry.”
McClosky knows plenty of other owners who want to sell to someone who will guarantee protections for their employees and maintain their quality standards, too…and they’re often willing to sell to a smaller MSO like his over a mega consolidator to make sure it happens, even if it means selling for a little less.
The Long-Term Employee Advantage
Frank’s has nothing if not loyal employees; several have been with the company since the beginning, and many have been there a decade or more. He offers excellent pay and benefits, training, team-building events, Christmas bonuses, and above all, a solid work-life balance.
“You have to facilitate a happy home life for your employees. If their home life's not good, their work life's not going to be good either.”
McClosky tries to involve his employees’ families in multiple events throughout the year — from a summer picnic to cruise-ins and a Christmas party — and he allows employees the flexibility to manage their personal lives.
“I don't want any of my employees to miss their kids’ doctor’s appointments or any important baseball games or anything like that. They can flex their schedule to do what they need to do. We trust them to make the right decision and ensure the job gets done.”
Like many successful owners, he’s trained and promoted most of his managers from within, too.
Kory Whitley, McClosky’s operations manager, is a great example — he’s been with the company nearly 20 years, since college. Ben Kasper, McClosky’s business partner, and Carl McClosky round out the upper management team at Frank’s. Together, alongside the company’s other 120+ employees, they plan to continue building on the momentum that’s been established over the last two decades.
Be the Best
To be the best, you have to model yourself after the best, says McClosky, who makes it a point to spend time with business owners who are further down the road than him. Learn from them, take their advice, read the books they recommend. Never stop learning and growing; seek out industry events, training, and mentors, he advises. And offer the same opportunities to your team. Quarterly training and “lunch and learns” are commonplace at Frank’s.
It goes without saying that exceptional customer service is essential, too, as is surrounding yourself with professional partners who are passionate about helping you achieve your goals. Keep your finances clean, and run the business “like you’re running it for someone else,” he says.
And most important of all?
“Never lose your passion for the repair…in the end, that’s the biggest challenge everyone — mega consolidators and small independents alike — face day in and day out…fixing the car.”
