Autobody News: Wreck a Mended Collision Repair Highly Recommends GFS Products for Dependability and Efficiency

Carlsbad, CA, November 22, 2016 (Newswire.com) - ​​​​​Two years ago, Jarrod Krumwiede resigned from his job as a collision repair manager and decided to open his own body shop in Omaha, NE. He named it “Wreck A Mended.”

“The name is something I had in my head a couple of years prior to doing this,” said Krumwiede. Not only does the name describe what the shops focuses on – mending wrecked vehicles – it also sounds out the customer recommendations that his business depends on. “Customer referrals are huge for us, so yeah, we want to be recommended,” he said.

Wreck A Mended opened in May 2014, primarily doing paintless dent repair. A mere four months later, Krumwiede and his staff expanded to handle full collision repair as well as glass repair and replacement services.

When it was time to purchase equipment for his 7,500-square-foot shop, he knew that he wanted to include a semi-downdraft Global Finishing Solutions (GFS) Ultra® XS paint booth. “It was probably more than we needed when we first started the company, but I’m glad that we did it at the time because it’s a really good tool for us,” said Krumwiede. 

The Ultra® XS has a full-filtered ceiling that provides air filtration and contamination control. It also includes angled ceiling lights and vertical sidewall lights that minimize shadows, helping his painter with color matching and paint application. 

The body shop owner has used GFS products in the past and installed nine of the company’s paint booths while working at his previous job, Baxter Performance Auto Body in Omaha. “I was sold on them. I didn’t even price shop,” said Krumwiede. “I just said, ‘this is what I want, please put it in.’”

Global Finishing Solutions manufactures technological products for the finishing industry including paint booths, prep environments and finishing systems. Over the years, Krumwiede said he has found that GFS paint booths are very well built and the parts are easy to obtain.  Since he was already familiar with the product, training wasn’t necessary. “It was something we were used to, so I just said, ‘Just jump right in and do what you used to do.’”

Krumwiede said that one of the many benefits of the GFS booth is that it allows the paint to come out much cleaner. “We don’t have the dirt problems. We don’t spend time buffing,” said the body shop owner. “It has just been a really good tool for us to help the process go much quicker.”

Another piece of equipment on his list to buy was a GFS Ultra® XD mix paint room. Although smaller than the mix room he used at Baxter, he said it is the perfect size for the painter in his shop to hold all of the products needed for a job and allows him to mix any color on site.

His team includes Dave Reno, vice president at Wreck A Mended, whom he worked with at Baxter, as well as two of Krumweide’s five sons. Quinton specializes in paintless dent repair and Cameron focuses on detailing. 

When the shop first opened, Krumwiede was bringing in $20,000 a month. They are now on track to earn a $1 million this year. He said that having good equipment in his shop, such as the paint booth from GFS, has helped him repair vehicles properly so his customers leave satisfied. 

Although he never asks his customers for a review, he has found that the positive comments he receives on social media have been a big part of his growth. About half of his customers learn about Wreck A Mended from social media, Yelp or Google. “You’d think it is all kids – millennials, but it’s not. We have 70-year-olds finding us on Google,” he said. 

Wreck A Mended’s reviews on Yelp seem to be increasing as well. “It has been a good tool and seems to be working very well for us,” said Krumwiede. “Social media is huge right now, between Google, Yelp and Facebook. It has been a huge asset to the growth of our business.”

Another contributing factor to helping him run his business is his 10 years of experience in the insurance industry. Prior to his career in collision repair, Krumwiede worked as a claims appraiser and catastrophe damage administrator.

“There are a lot of companies out there that try to go against the grain with the insurance companies,” said Krumwiede. “We try to play by their rules and try to be better than anyone else with our cycle time.”

Krumwiede started another company this past summer named Cosmetic Car Corrections. Located near a DMV, the business is targeted to consumers with vehicles that they are either looking to sell or need to turn in as part of a lease. “It’s not as good of a quality of a repair, but it’s something that’s a little bit cheaper for them, and yet it’s still accomplishing what they want to do.” 

Meanwhile, his immediate goal for Wreck A Mended is to continue growing. “We want to be successful and to keep it a family-run organization,” said Krumwiede. “Finding a good body man is really hard, so I would rather be good at something that we do on a smaller basis than not so good with three or four different locations.” 

Wreck A Mended
4212 S. 133rd St., Omaha, NE 68137
(402) 502-1438
www.wreckamended.com

Company at a Glance
Type: Collision Repair
Facility Employees: 11
In Business Since: 2014
Number of Locations: 1
Number of DRPs: 2
Production Space: 7,500 square feet

Global Finishing Solutions
Brandon Lowder, VP Auto Refinish Sales
12731 Norway Road, Osseo, WI 54758
877-658-7900
[email protected]
www.globalfinishing.com

To read more body shop profiles like this and stay current on collision repair industry news, visit www.autobodynews.com.

Sign up to receive the free Autobody News electronic newsletter each week.

For more information, contact Deana Cacus, Online Editor at Autobody News magazine.

Source: Autobody News