|| Shop Profile
Transmissions
Are No Trouble Specialization is the formula for continuing success
F
or some, success is measured in larger than life superlatives. Does having a massive shop providing everything to anybody really spell success to a shop owner? Tucked into a residential area in West end Toronto is Toronto Automatic Transmission. At first glance one might be tempted to dismiss the shop as an aberration of zoning laws. I’ve passed by it many times beforehand and scarcely gave it a notice. How can
a shop survive in a residential area? How do the neighbours tolerate the commotion? Is it a retiree, fixing cars at a slow pace? Fleeting first impressions are often mistaken. A good second look tells more to the story. The cars that crowd around this small, tidy shop are all gleaming late-model imported cars. We are not talking about Kia or Toyota models here. BMW’s, Jaguars, Mercedes are stuffed cheek by jowl.
Toronto Automatic Transmission owner Bob Maderic who took over the business from his father Joseph Maderic in 1993. 24 SSGM August 2012
p 24-26 Shop Profile.indd 24
By Nestor Gula
Running Toronto Automatic Transmission is Bob Maderic. He’s a secondgeneration owner of this business, taking over from his dad, Joseph, in 1993. Joseph started the business in 1961, not long after arriving in Canada from his native Croatia, just as automatic transmissions started becoming more available. “My dad started working for the first guy to open a transmission shop in Canada, John Jerbic at Annex Motors,” said Maderic. “He was one of the first people to work on automatic transmissions in Canada.” Although automatic transmissions were developed in the 1930s, the depression and World War II delayed their mass introduction. The company was started east of downtown Toronto, on Berkley Street, near the intersection of King and Parliament. The company moved from this industrial area to its new location in 2010. It was not just a big move in location, but also in downsizing. “We had seven bays on Berkley Street,” said Maderic. “We have four now.” For some people, cutting your bays in half would signal a business failure. For Maderic, it was a deliberate move and liberation. “I wanted to slow the pace down. I did not want to have to take on every single job,” he said. He doesn’t do fleet vehicles or trucks like he used to when he was in the city. “I like it better this way. It is definitely better.” Maderic said he makes more now because of the higher overheads in the city. The shop is small, about 2,000 square feet. Back in 1926 it used to be a blacksmith shop. It was a service shop when Maderic bought it. “I fixed it up and put an office onto it,” he www.ssgm.com
12-08-07 2:26 PM