7 minute read
"They take good care of us" Capital Collision Center manager on Heritage Bank
ARTICLE BY JOHN STEARNS
When Capital Collision Center was busting at the seams with more collision repair business than its facilities could support about 10 years ago, Heritage Bank was there to finance expansion, said Rick Conley, manager of the facility in Olympia, Washington.
The bank also has supported three other collision centers in a four-shop family that includes shops spanning the greater South Puget Sound region from Chehalis, 30 minutes south of Olympia, to Lacey, which neighbors Olympia to the east, to Shelton about 30 minutes northwest of Washington’s capital city.
They operate under the names: Capital Collision Center, Lacey Collision Center, Chehalis Collision Center and Extreme Collision Center in Shelton. The centers’ relationship with Heritage dates back to 2015.
“They take good care of us,” Conley said of Heritage. “It seems like any time we need something, they’re there for us and the partnership that they’ve extended out to us has been great.”
The group’s first shop in Lacey opened its doors in 1976 under William Doyle and Creighton Mueller. The two expanded with Capital Collision Center in 1993, Chehalis Collision Center in 2012 and Extreme Collision Center in 2020, the latter an acquisition. Mueller passed away in 2021. Mueller’s wife, Linda co-owns the four shops with Doyle. Jeff Durkin, who manages the Lacey shop, and Conley, who’s managed the Olympia collision center for 16 years, were given ownership stakes in the Chehalis and Shelton shops. Conley and Durkin would like to own all four someday.
As the shops’ names imply, the centers do vehicle body and mechanical repairs after accidents plus painting and refinishing. The four shops combined completed nearly 7,500 repairs last year.
The Olympia and Lacey shops also do recalibrations of advanced driver-assistance systems that include technologies that assist drivers with the safe operation of a vehicle, such as calibrating blind-spot monitors, forward-facing cameras, front radar, surround-view cameras, lane-keeping assist, millimeter wave radar, rearview cameras, seat weight sensors and more. The Shelton and Chehalis shops can scan those systems’ functionality, but recalibration work is done at the Lacey or Olympia shops.
As vehicle technology gets increasingly sophisticated, the shops have worked hard to ensure they’re trained for all such repairs, Conley said.
Automakers have invested billions of dollars in research for today’s vehicles, “and we want to make sure that we’re ahead of the curve,” he said. “Investing in the tooling … over the years has been a benefit to us and a benefit to our customers.”
As more vehicles transition to electric vehicles (EVs), the shops are adapting there as well, Conley said. The Lacey and Olympia sites have separate areas specifically for EV repairs and have invested in more training to keep current with EV technology and repair. The two shops are also in the process of becoming Tesla-certified for repair work.
In addition to repairing environmentally friendly vehicles, the shops employ their own sustainability initiatives, including using all waterborne base coats from paint manufacturer PPG, Conley said. That greatly reduces use of solvents that need disposal and recycling into reusable wash thinners, he said.
All four locations also have state-of-the-art spray booths for painting and filtering air and emissions, which greatly minimizes airborne particulates, he said.
Chehalis has a 65-foot spray booth that can accommodate tractor-trailers, boats, even airplanes, which are typically painted in sections, Conley said.
All the shops also recycle large amounts of metal from parts that must be replaced.
Training the next generation
The Capital and Lacey locations also partner with New Market Skills Center through the Tumwater School District to help train high school students for jobs in the industry, Conley said. His own path into auto repair began at New Market Skills Center when he was a student at Olympia High School. He’s been in the industry 31 years now.
The shops help advise the Skills Center on the best curriculum for the industry’s direction and for students and host student apprentices onsite.
“We put them with a skillful tech that has the ability and patience to teach them what we do, and how to do it correctly,” Conley said.
Students need to learn about the advanced technology in vehicles today, he said.
“It’s not the day of just fixing dents and painting—we still do that—but there’s so much more involved in our industry than just that,” he said.
“It’s an industry that also can provide a good living because there’s such high demand for skilled labor,” he continued, noting his rise through the ranks from washing cars and sweeping floors to paint preparation, painting, learning body work, then estimating, management and now co-ownership.
“Helping the Skills Center isn’t just about helping fill the labor pipeline for their own shops, but it also shows youth other career pathways,” Conley said.
“You don’t have to go to college to be successful,” he said.
“It’s great for some people; it’s not made for everybody.”
The shops also support the New Market Skills Center Foundation, a community-based organization that solicits, receives, manages and disburses funds to support New Market Skills Center students, programs and Skills Center projects.
The shops’ community involvement goes beyond training future tradespeople. They also support community events that include Olympus Rally, Lacey in Tune, Lacey’s Independence Day celebration, Tumwater’s Fourth of July fireworks show and parade, Tumwater Artesian Brewfest, Boys & Girls Clubs, Lacey Cultural Celebration and local schools’ sports programs, among others.
The locally owned collision centers want to support the community that supports them, Conley said.
“If your insurance company gives you three options (for repair facilities) … I want them to remember Capital as the first thing that pops in their head, ‘Oh, they’re local, I’ll go there,’” he said.
Heritage’s personal touch
Conley said the shops’ banker at Heritage, Scott Michie, has been great to work with and is always responsive.
If Conley has questions, he said he’s able to reach out to Michie, a senior vice president, commercial banking officer in the bank’s Olympia office, and if Michie doesn’t have the answer, he finds it, Conley said.
“He’s been a great partner as well,” Conley said.
The same applies to Daryl Fourtner, Heritage’s commercial banking regional manager in Olympia, Conley said.
“They give you the ins and outs of everything,” he said.
The bank also arranged Paycheck Protection Program loans in 2020 for the Capital, Chehalis and Lacey shops to help deal with some of the pandemic effects on business, providing financial peace of mind until the worst of the pandemic passed and business returned to normal.
Asked what insight he could offer on working with Heritage, Conley said “I think the biggest benefit is it’s more of a personal level,” Conley said. “You don’t feel like a number; you feel like they’re a true partner. They’re there for you and they’re fighting for you, I guess is the biggest thing for me.
And when somebody puts forth that much effort and gives you that much definitiveness, I think that means more to me than just being able to get a loan from anybody or to have banking through somebody else.”
He added, “The size of your bank account doesn’t seem like, from my perspective, that they give you any less attention one way or the other.”
And they’re responsive.
“I can email any one of those guys right now and they’ll respond within probably minutes,” he said.
