MAACO PRESIDENT APPLAUDS FRANCHISEES FOR RESILIENCY, ADAPTABILITY AND RESULTS AT THE 2020 MAACO VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
Maaco Collision Repair and Auto Painting, the leader in the $43 billion automotive paint and collision industry, and part of the Driven Brands family of automotive brands, recently held their North American Maaco Convention virtually on December 2, 2020.
The theme of the 2020 Maaco Convention was Moving Mountains, which was appropriate to describe the efforts that were made to deliver 2020 results in the face of one of the most challenging years the industry has faced. Chris Dawson, President of Maaco, applauded the Maaco family of franchisees for their resilience in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic.
“I am very proud of our franchisees and our support teams for how they met the challenge head-on,” said Dawson. “The entire Maaco organization — operations, marketing, fleet and franchisees — rallied together and reacted quickly to adapt to the situation. We enlisted the help and input from our franchisee Advisory Council, and the overall results were outstanding.
Franchisees were recognized for their outstanding performance, leadership and operational excellence as “Best of the Best” for 2020. As a unique twist, due to the virtual nature of the event, Maaco operations team members surprised the winning store by showing up to the facilities with their awards. The winners were unaware that they had won until their names were announced during the convention broadcast.
In other highlights from the convention, the marketing team showcased the continued strength of the Maaco brand and outlined a refreshed marketing strategy and expanded resources to support franchisees both nationally and in their designated market areas. With a new contactless sales process, Maaco was one of the first to market with a paint pricing online estimating tool to accommodate the hands-free environment and drive new business. Already, the online estimating tool has added thousands of cars to the system and is engaging a younger demographic, the next generation of Maaco customers. With a goal to drive more cars to the door, the additional marketing support is working, as marketing-driven car count is growing.
Maaco center certification continues to gain momentum, growing over the last six months, as owners took advantage of the temporary slowing of business to invest in training and equipment upgrades necessary to meet the criteria of the Gold, Platinum and Diamond levels of Maaco certification. Certification ensures that each Maaco center ascends to be the best version of itself, representing the brand, and opening doors to fleet work and insurance company Direct Repair Program (DRP) opportunities.
Certification goes hand-in-hand with the national fleet program, which continues to grow, providing franchisees with increased flow of business to supplement the retail auto painting and light collision repair.
From an operations perspective, the operations team is focused on ensuring solid execution, helping franchisees follow the operations playbook, and sharing best practices from top performing franchisees throughout the system. As vehicles change and become more complex, the operations team helps keep centers prepared to repair vehicles safely and properly, now and in the future.