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Coming Out of the Dark: Texas Shops See Light at the End of the COVID-19 Tunnel

Things are beginning to look much brighter.

As we enter the final months of 2021, it’s easy to look back on the past year and a half and wonder how we survived. But as the auto body community in the Lone Star State has proven time and time again, it always comes back strong.

Now that the COVID-19 threat is beginning to finally subside and a sense of normalcy is returning, body shop owners are finding themselves on the busy side once again. Looking back on the past year-plus, Alex Gonzalez of Excalibur Collision Center (Dallas) feels fortunate that his shop made it through. Sales were down about 28 percent during that time, but the facility managed to receive a lot of help via PPE loans, which afforded Gonzalez the ability to keep everyone on his staff on the payroll. Now, things continue to look up.

“We are at the point where we are bursting at the seams and have actually had to add on two employees.”

Sales are up roughly 20 percent from pre-pandemic numbers, and he’s about a month behind in work. His only main challenge these days is finding parts, as he’s had some jobs waiting about a month for items to arrive.

Rick Gardner, owner of Auto Tech Services of Mansfield, says his shop is close to where things were before the pandemic. “We’re basically holding our own against the past two years for the most part. It seems like right now, things are trending in the right direction. With the new variant coming in, we have to hold our breath and see what that brings.”

Although things at his shop are positive overall, he has been met with the challenge of getting certain parts. He believes that the COVID-19 shutdowns possibly affected all the steps involved in manufacturing parts, therefore disrupting the supply chain. Now, shops are feeling some of that halt in their day to day. “It’s pretty frustrating when you can’t get parts; some are on indefinite hold and you can’t even find [anything] out from the OEM. Some don’t even have a projected manufacture date.”

Rene Rodarte of Artisan Paint and Body in San Antonio definitely felt the effects of the pandemic, but things are looking better as his business wraps up the summer. “We survived COVID-19. It took its toll on us. We were down about 70 percent, and reserves were tapped. But we continue to serve the community.”

These days, Rodarte finds himself doing a lot more administrative duties, as the pandemic left him short three estimators. While he now has fewer hands on deck than he had last year, he is quick to note that business is getting back to where it was before.

Precision Auto Body of Arlington is also seeing business resemble how things were before the big shutdown of 2020.

“As far as business goes, we are pretty much in the same position we were two years ago,” owner Bruce Lessner says.

Although things are working their way back in a positive light, Lessner noted changes he sees in this almost post-COVID-19 world. Like Gardner and Gonzalez, he’s also experiencing difficulty in getting parts as suppliers are unable to get necessary materials to manufacture them.

With business already trending upward and keeping shops afloat as the pandemic continues its decline, the industry is finally seeing signs of better times to come. TXA