The name Ellis & Salazar evokes thoughts of an accounting firm or perhaps a conference room full of lawyers. In reality, it is an auto body shop named after the founders - Mr. Ellis and Mr. Salazar. Started in 1953 as a mechanical shop, E&S began doing body work five years later. Fast forward 30 years to 1985, when a new facility was built to be half body shop, half mechanical shop. At the time, annual sales were $1 million. 

Mark Burklund

Lewright

Kubena

As too often happens, when the owners retired a few years later and passed the business to a family member, it was soon put up for sale and sold to the current owners, partners Wayne Burklund and Jack Nash.

The partners

Wayne Burklund had been in the body shop business "forever." At one time a painter, he started doing body work on the line, then moved into the office where he got hooked on the administrative side of the business. For seven years, he worked for Southwest Body and Paint. During that time he formed relationships with insurance company personnel and those relationships ultimately became a valuable referral source.

Jack Nash was also a lifer in the auto business. His family owned Austin's Capital Chevrolet, and he owned a dealership in Sequin, Texas. After selling the Sequin dealership, Nash returned to Austin, looking for a new challenge. He found it at Ellis & Salazar.

When Nash decided to invest in E&S, he went looking for a partner who could provide expertise in the day-to-day operation of the collision repair business. He found Wayne Burklund. The two joined forces and bought E&S. They quickly grew the business from $1 million to $2.5 million in sales. Employees increased from ten to twenty.

This impressive group of employees has worked at E&S Garage and Body Shop on South Congress for over 5 years each.

Over the years, they remodeled the office, added on to provide more service writers up front and two new downdraft spray booths in the back. Later, they opened a second body shop in North Austin.

E&S has DRPs with State Farm, Farmers, USAA and Unitrend. The new State Farm contract has not yet arrived, but E&S expects to be part of the new Select Service program. Since they already do a large proportion of State Farm work, discounts will not be an issue. E&S dropped Allstate when that insurance company removed E&S from the Pro shop list after opening a Sterling Auto Body just about a mile away.

Competitive approach to cycle time

Sterling "hasn't had a lot of effect on our business," said Burklund, but he can't say the same about the growth of Caliber Collision Center. With seven shops in Austin, Caliber was taking business. "Companies such as Caliber can offer discounts on a corporate level that no independent shop can hope to match," noted Burklund.

"We had to find a way to compete with shops like caliber that give big discounts to the insurance companies," Burkland explained. "Instead of going head-to-head with these large corporate operations, we implemented a new system for the way we handle cars in our shops.

"When a vehicle comes into the shop, with or without an estimate, it goes to what we call triage, where, like a medical emergency situation, the damage is assessed, estimate written and priorities set.

The fact that Eric, Billy and Steve have all worked at the Ellis & Salazar south location on South Congress Street over 15 years each bears out that E&S is a great place to work.

"Then two salaried vo-techs tear down the vehicle, taking out every nut, bolt and clip and putting it in a sack that travels with the car. Later in the week,

Owners of Ellis & Salazar -- an unusual name for a body shop -- Wayne Burklund and Jack Nash are both lifers in the auto business.

these same workers can help with the reassembly.

After the teardown, "we have a person who does nothing but write supplements come out and look at the car - getting any needed supplements okayed and parts ordered. At this point, the car goes outside to wait for parts."

Burklund continued: "Now this is the unique part - once the parts arrive, the car is assigned to a technician who then works on the car from start to finish. With each technician using only one stall and freeing up floor space, we can add technicians. We've already seen a big difference. Cycle time is down. Technicians like it because they don't have to come in each morning and figure out priorities for getting jobs done. If a car sits in pieces for a long time, it's easy to forget exactly how it goes back together. This system has proven to be more efficient in that respect as well.

"And there is a domino effect. Once a technician completes the car, there is another one ready to be worked on. Technicians are doing what they do best, and making more money than ever because they're doing what they're most experienced at."

Meeting need for recycled parts

This good-looking group of folks are responsible for smooth operations at the E&S Auto Body Shop on Research Boulevard.

When a job calls for recycled parts, E&S turns to Greenleaf. "The salesman, Pat Ray, has been in the collision repair business for many years. He used to be an insurance adjuster which is how we became acquainted. I can tell him what we need regarding parts, and he makes sure we get used OEM parts that we can use without much extra work."

Web site shows progress of job

Ellis & Salazar is so confident in its service that customers are invited to watch the repair progress online at the shop's top-notch website. Austin is the tech capital of the Southwest, so it's no wonder that the web site is popular with customers, allowing them to check in at any time and see pictures showing the progress on their vehicles. The website also makes it easy for the customer to e-mail questions to the estimator in charge of the job.

Concluded Burklund, "Our reputation brings in the work. Satisfying our customers is our ultimate goal. And I believe we are succeeding in that respect."