Jim Moyer expects to close on the sale of his body shop Aug. 28. He’s retiring, and he’s not alone.
He and his collision center comrades countrywide are linked by the work and that they’re exiting the industry. The comparison ends there, and then it’s all contrast.
Running a body shop is personal: multi-generational care and craftsmanship defined by relationships.
Leaving it is just as heartfelt. Individuals who sell, do so for highly individualized reasons.
Auto Body Shops Selling Nationwide
Moyer’s Auto Body is in rural Clearfield, PA, pop. 12,000. Moyer was mayor for 13 years.
He’s worked at the shop more than 47 years, running it two-thirds of that time. Of former employees, one had 42 years’ experience, two had 29 apiece, and the "rookie" had 14. The top veteran retired; the youngster’s gone to seek his fortune in heavy construction.
“In Central Pennsylvania, we have one helluva time trying to find techs,” he said.
Meanwhile, Frank Hodulik’s exit in June was a bit of a "honey-do" -- his wife Debra Hodulik wanted it.
Debra and Frank Hodulik.
“She turned 65 in April and I said, ‘What do you want for your birthday?’ and she said ‘to retire,’” Frank Hodulik said.
The duo co-owned the operation for 40 years; they sold their two locations in Henderson, NV, in June to Brightpoint Auto Body Repair, a growing MSO in Memphis, TN.
Frank Hodulik, also 65, has been in the industry for a half-century -- he ran the body shop for a Delorean dealership in New Jersey, out of trade school. Health issues were also involved in selling, but the main driver was loving his wife.
“I made her a lot of promises over the years; I said when you’re done I’m done. I couldn’t do it without her," he said.
Brian Patton co-owns American Collision and Hail Repair in Wichita, KS, with Paul Blissett and Keith Hellyer. They bought it from seller Aaron Lonergan earlier this year, who Patton said was shifting to a more recreational lifestyle.
“He has some land, about 160 acres,” near Mulvane, KS, Patton said. “He built a big pond, sold his house, moved into his fifth wheel.” Lonergan now runs a "Jeep club" where people pay monthly dues for access to the land, to camp and fish.
“When he told me he was ready to sell, it was to do what he wanted to do,” Patton said.
Patton has done paintless dent repair for 29 years and co-owned body shops over the last 10. He’s adding 3,200 square feet to the 8,000 already there, and plans to get to three or four shops in the market.
Bill Beckett’s been in body shops all his life. “I was born into it.”
His granddad founded Chestnut Auto Body -- “it used to be on Chestnut Street” -- in North Attleborough, MA, in 1952.
Beckett’s dad moved the shop in 1978. Beckett began work there in the 1980s, inheriting it last year, on his father’s death. But he can’t run it anymore. A health scare for Beckett, 59, was a catalyst.
Brian Patton and two business partners bought American Collision and Hail Repair in Wichita, KS, from Aaron Lonergan earlier this year
“Doctors gave me an EpiPen,” he recounts. If he needs an EpiPen to stay in the game, “I’m not staying.”
But regulatory restrictions and insurance company constraints were the nail in the shop’s coffin. Local labor rate reimbursement in Massachusetts runs $40 an hour. Nearby Rhode Island gets $75 to $80.
Acquirers are active in New York, New Hampshire and Maine, but “no real consolidators are pushing here,” Beckett said.
Moving On
So Beckett is selling his shop -- but not as a shop.
He’s expecting possible warehouse interest in two buildings totaling 9,000 square feet. There’s also a chance for the proverbial "highest and best use" of the two acres of land.
“Real estate’s really big here,” he said. “New condos are going for $550,000.”
At one point he thought a buyer who’d won $15 million in a state lottery would bite. “He wanted a place to store his cars,” Beckett said. “His wife said no.”
Plenty of others are saying yes, at least to selling.
After 20 years of big consolidators getting the high hat from Hodulik, Brightpoint bought his Henderson shops.
“Guys with 40-plus years in the industry are moving on,” said principal Paul Williams, whom Hodulik knew.
“Time is more valuable than money when you get older,” said Hodulik, whose daughter still works at Frank’s.
Brightpoint has also bought from pre-retirees in Idaho. It has two locations now and plans four by year-end.
“Boise’s a great market for us,” Williams said.
Autobody News also found retiring owners selling shops in Bozeman, MT, Bremond, TX, and parts of Michigan. Consultant Laura Gay has helped sell shops for hopeful recreators in, for instance, Arkansas.
Moyer agrees with Williams and Hodulik -- “it’s hard, dirty work” -- and found consolidators didn’t want to do it either.
“We were looked at by an MSO but they said, ‘We’re not coming to Clearfield,’” Moyer said.
The shop had nine working bays and a paint booth, expanded four times in 47 years, and “did a large volume.” It’s been closed a year for lack of staff and is getting ready to re-open.
“I have a couple from New York City coming to buy it,” Moyer said. They look to be in their late 30s or so, and the man “worked in a body shop; that’s all he’s ever done.” Now he wants to own one.
The best part?
“They’re bringing a couple employees with them.”
Paul Hughes