By Steve McLinden
ZACHARY, La. — Just over a decade ago on a sunny late-August afternoon, Doug Reed Jr. locked up his Chalmette, La., body shop early in anticipation of another storm. It was a regular ritual in hurricane season for the 30-year-old, family-run Custom Body Shop, which Reed had just taken over from his dad, Doug Reed Sr.
But this storm, unlike others, seemed intent on bearing down directly on the New Orleans area, including Chalmette, immediately adjacent to Orleans Parish to the west along the Mississippi River. So Reed and his two small children and pregnant wife joined Reed Sr. in evacuating to Baton Rouge at first, then to Conroe, Texas, near Houston, when it was clear the approaching Hurricane Katrina had grown into a fierce Category 5 storm that could travel well inland.
Katrina hit hard and its aftermath was shocking even for storm veteran Reed. The 15,000 square-foot shop, which had employed 25 and was a direct-repair shop for six insurers, had been swallowed up whole by the storm surge, which reached as high as 15 feet after overflowing the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet Canal. His father’s business, Reed Performance Motorsport, was ruined as well, though a few classic cars that had been moved to the second floor survived. Fortunately, the Reeds had taken their computers so accounts receivable and other financial records were saved.
The entire city, in fact, was underwater, and only the Custom Body Shop sign was visible at the high water mark. Reed’s home was also destroyed; to add insult to injury, an oil refinery holding tank nearby had leaked 60,000 barrels of crude oil into his neighborhood.
It was obvious there would be no returning to Chalmette; most of the shop’s customers no longer had homes. So Reed and family would return to Baton Rouge in September 2005 where he’d have to take work in a car dealership’s body shops to support his family. There were a few FEMA checks that came, but they didn’t go far.
About eight years later, Reed and a partner would gravitate north of Baton Rouge to open Complete Auto Collision in the far north suburb of Zachary. Reed had been scoping out shop sites for awhile when in December 2013 he happened upon a nearly fully-equipped collision center for sale on busy Plank Road (Highway 61) in the town of Zachary, which also by chance had one of the most desirable demographics and school systems in the state.
The town had even been named one of Family Circle’s “Top 10 Best Towns for Families in America” the year prior.
“I really found it by chance; I was on my way to Natchez [Miss.] and saw a for-sale sign and I stopped,” he said. “I looked at the shop on a Sunday — I kept thinking it was too good to be true, the community, everything — and we bought it on the next Thursday,” Reed said.
Reed needed to move fast. Another buyer, it turned out, was eyeing the 3.5 acre property and its well-maintained 20,000-square-foot building. Long-time friend and business associate Bryan Boothe, an ASE-certified master technician and mechanic, had quickly determined he too was “in” on the deal after Reed drove him out to the place and the two partnered to launch the operation the following spring.
“We had talked about doing this sort of thing when we worked together at the collision shop in a Toyota dealership,” Reed said. “Bryan is talented; he started there as a body tech and then became assistant manager.”
The previous owner had passed away suddenly after a thorough retrofit and finish-out of the place, Reed had learned, and the built-ins were a huge break for the upstart partners. But there was one major expense they hadn’t anticipated: forking out $22,000 to redo the shop’s expansive and weather-damaged 18,000-square-foot lot, a project that was beset with delay after delay due to heavy rains.
Boothe oversees production and quality assurance at the body shop, while Reed manages administrative chores, customer service, insurance and the shop’s 15 workers. The partners also opened two complementary businesses nearby, Complete Automotive mechanic shop that employs five and Complete Towing & Recovery, a 24-hour-a-day service.
“There is a natural synergy with the three businesses; they tend to feed off one another,” Reed said.
The body shop entryway at Complete Auto Collision is clean and attractive and makes a positive first impression for incoming customers, with its checkered floor and a colorful custom counter that sports the shop’s signature logo — a project of the former owner. A classic 1968 Chevy Truck is on display in the adjoining foyer, although the shop no longer does custom work because margins in such work are too thin. About 90 percent of the Complete Auto Collision’s business is insurance-related, Reed said.
The shop, a General Motors-certified collision center, employs four body technicians whom Reed considers “top notch in the industry,” but he is not averse to trying out and training entry-level personnel. Paint work at the shop, done with the aid of a computerized color-matching system, comes along with a lifetime warranty, which is rare in the industry. Other shop equipment includes a pair of frame machines, a laser measuring system and two down-draft spray booths.
The shop has enjoyed continued growth since re-opening “and that’s a credit to Bryan and the rest of our team,” Reed said. “We are seeing lots of referrals and repeat business and have a lot of satisfied customers.”
Complete Auto Collision (www.completeautomotivezachary.com) was even the subject of a recent profile in the regional The Business Journal.
The shop, like so many others, is being squeezed by rising costs that are not adequately compensated by increasingly conservative estimates and parts allowances from insurers, so Reed spends a lot of time on the phone wrangling with them to make things right for patrons.
“We always let the customers know we are here to work for them and not the insurers,” he said. •
