A series of moves, literally, at Phil Long Collision Center contributed to “epic” 2024 revenue — $1.1 million a month in average sales — with other benefits. While Duane Meszler, co-owner and general manager, isn’t so sure he’d want to relive the changes, he’s enjoying them.
The Colorado Springs, CO, collision repair operation serves its eponymous dealership group, among the larger indie car sellers in the state with north of 20 locations, Meszler said. Not long ago it basked in 52,000 square feet for its body shop work.
“We were pretty spoiled,” Meszler said. The shop was using its bays, he said, but he learned it could do better.
Then Ford Motor Co. came calling.
It sought space for a Ford Pro Elite mechanical service center for commercial fleet accounts. This now takes 68% of the main site — 35,000 square feet and some change. And that’s not all that changed.
The dealership’s collision work today is in three locations, which you could say sounds kind of bad, but that’s no way to treat lady luck. It means Phil Long is flying the body shop flag in concentrically more far-flung parts of town. Meszler is also eyeing possible expansion into Denver, to the north.
New markets. New space. New customers. New EV and ADAS work.
What’re body shops in business for, anyway?
Three’s the In-Crowd, with More to Come
Meszler at first didn’t want to give up his $2 million WIP (work in progress) space. Seen from new angles he’s got more than ever, with less.
Duane Meszler.
The collision center is now in three locations within three miles of each other. The 17,000 square feet at Long’s original site does more or less what you expect from a dealership collision center. A warehouse within walking distance adds 8,000 square feet of leased space. And a longer walk away, Phil Long bought 9,000 square feet, just under half of it office-showroom area, which had been a repair shop at one point.
Refurbishing continues, and “we’re still looking for expansion in Colorado Springs, even in Denver,” Meszler said. The dealership group has a big Ford layout in the latter, and parts of town in the former — an area called “Motor City” to the south and another, the “Auto Mall Loop” to the north — can absorb some more of his hub-and-spoke activity, with the main site as epicenter.
But you can already see how the two new locations plus the base camp craft a kind of Venn diagram where no matter what the specifics, all the circles and overlap include the words “Phil Long.”
Specialization is for Body Shops
Talks continue with indie shops that might sell. They’ve said “no” to consolidators, but the local guy with three decades at it could have a shot.
“I grew up in the industry; my dad always had a body shop,” said Meszler, who since the early 1990s has also owned them, run them, worked on hot rods and muscle cars, and served a year with Caliber.
Meantime, his new second location for Phil Long handles all ADAS of its calibration and PDR work.
“It’s quiet, it’s clean, there’s no dust because no body work,” Meszler said. “We also have mobile glass, and our warehouse and dispatcher for that is over there.”
The third location still has the freshness of new and deciding what to do. There’s space for customers, glass for watching work get done — it’s a little bit leisurely, a little bit luxe. The center certifications include Mercedes-Benz, Rivian and Corvette, and “we’re chasing Tesla.” Taken together then, this site can be “maybe our high-line-ish shot, or EV shop.”
Meszler would renew the lease on or buy the second site. The third sits on 2.5 acres, so he’s looking to triple usable space, possibly “turn what’s now the body shop into just paint.”
Handed Lemons, Make Hard Lemonade
Point being, across the three sites — three for now, anyway — each can now expand more than if all were in one place, and not just contribute to but generate growth: new branches from one tree.
Meszler calls it “opportunistic expansion” and he’s always looking for it — or at least, it’s looking for him.
“It was a headache, but it did kind of force me to become more efficient,” he said.
The focus isn’t on space per se, of course, but sales dollars. November through January he was doing the same $1 million or so, with fewer bays. With the slowdown this year, recent monthly average sales have dipped to about $800,000 — and his rent his higher now on less space.
The upside is a higher ceiling — higher in a visionary sense than the physical ones he enjoyed at the main site. He can build now toward, say, a $2 million monthly average. Squeezed down tight, Meszler’s finding how the juices can still flow, and better besides.
“A lot of people say, ‘If you want to do more work, what do you need?’ and the answer is ‘Get another tech,’” Meszler said. It isn’t necessarily wrong — he has 43 employees, including new hires for the new real estate, and sees 120 cars a month, give or take.
At the same time, “Maybe get someone to come in and look at your efficiency,” Meszler said. He’s had I-CAR in for a blueprinting class and has tapped vendors to talk repair planning. “I lean hard on my paint jobber,” he said.
“Look internally first, to maximize efficiency,” Meszler added. “How do we make this work, how much do we have to get out of each piece. People always think of ‘another paint booth’ — but is that the answer? Is it?”
Paul Hughes