Auto Body Shop Owner Steps into World of Consulting by Ed Attanasio
I was at a California Autobody Association (CAA) meeting recently and I couldn’t help but notice a welldressed man at the front table. It was an informational meeting with the Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) and after a few minutes I assumed he was a member of the BAR. At one point, he scolded another auto body shop owner for asking a question. He said, “The customer is your customer, not the insurance company! I taught you that, but maybe you forgot?” I almost laughed. After listening to him for a while, I could tell this guy is passionate about collision repair, as well as being very knowledgeable. I told myself I needed to meet him. His name is Alex Kuang, owner of Redwood City Auto Body in Redwood City, CA. He wants to sell his shop to become a consultant and share his knowledge with the collision repair industry.
Kuang is the current president of CAA’s Golden Gate (San Francisco Area) chapter, and is trying to increase its membership by recruiting many of his friends who own or manage shops in the Bay Area. Kuang came to the U.S. from China at age 10 in 1988 for a better future. His father was originally a
The collision repair industry has been good to Alex Kuang, but now he’s ready to change hats from shop owner to consultant
butcher, but when he immigrated to the Bay Area, he became a chef specializing in Hong Kong-style cuisine. Today, Kuang wants the world to know he can cook, and if you don’t believe it, take a look at his Facebook page when you have a
moment, where he posts photos of his culinary creations regularly. Kuang’s first job was as a painter, but he quickly decided he wanted to sell the paint instead of spraying it. “I loved the product I was using and wanted to share the news, so I got a job with a distributor to educate other shops about it,” he said. “I did that for eight years and I learned so much because I was visiting multiple body shops every day. I was surprised to learn a lot of painters weren’t knowledgeable about the paint they were spraying. I told them the more you know the better you can be as a painter, and you could see it in the finished product. I enjoyed helping them to becoming better painters and better managers.” In 2010, Kuang made the move from employee to employer when he purchased Redwood City Auto Body. “One of my customers called me and said he wanted to get out of the business and he offered me a very good price,” he said. “I was selling paint and I didn’t really know how to run a shop, but I was ready to
jump in. I was the new kid on the block in a competitive market, but I knew at least I could succeed by working harder than the guy down the street.” The numbers showed Kuang’s passion and incredible work ethic were going to lead to healthy profits. During his first month as the owner, the shop did $16,000 in volume, but within just five years, the number— pre-COVID—had grown to approximately $300,000 monthly. Kuang is a major advocate of the right to appraisal, to say the least. It’s a technique he’s perfected over the years by learning from the experts and through trial and error. Many shops stay away from it because they find out it’s complex and feel as though the insurance companies will win anyway, Kuang said. It’s not an old scenario that happens every day in shops from NYC to LA. The body shop writes an estimate to fix the car, and then the customer’s insurance company comes in with a lower number. A lot of body shops will bite the bullet
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