Hamilton, Ontario — CARSTAR Canada welcomed its industry partners to its Hamilton, Ont. headquarters on Thursday for a special summer kickoff event celebrating the company’s 30th year in operations–and announcing a new initiative aimed at franchise profitability.
With perfect weather and stellar attendance, CARSTAR Canada welcomed franchisees, corporate team staff, industry vendors, insurance representatives and other industry friends to celebrate summer. Local radio station 102.9 BOUNCE was also on-site.
CARSTAR Canada founders Sam Mercanti and Larry Jefferies were special guests of honour at the event, which was also attended by Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horvath.
Mayor Horvath awarded Michael Macaluso, Driven Brands’ EVP of Paint, Collision and Glass, a framed certificate congratulating the company on 30 years of success. She also thanked CARSTAR Canada for being a staple to the local Hamilton business culture.
Restore the Star
The company simultaneously announced its ‘Restore the Star’ program geared at driven franchisee profitability.
“CARSTAR has a 30-year legacy because of our premier network of owners,” said Macaluso. “We must keep franchisee profitability at the centre of everything we do to sustain this position as industry leaders for the next 30 years.”
The plan is centred on five key pillars: franchise profitability, safe and quality and repairs, people and recruitment, world-class KPIs as well as addressing growth and subsequently, turnover.
The Restore the Star program is being announced throughout CARSTAR’s Spring Regional Meetings across the country by Dave foster, CARSTAR’s SVP of operations and development.
“We have a clear and defined action plan to ensure our strategic goals are achieved within the designated timeline,” said Foster. “This means improving gross profit percentage, adding more OE certifications, improving touch times, helping stores amplify their job opportunities and elevating our top performers, which includes succession planning for the bottom quartile.”
“It’s time we face our longstanding industry challenges head on, so we can find solutions that help all stakeholders. We’re excited to pave the way with this new initiative.”
“The Restore the Star initiative will provide CARSTAR franchisees the tools and resources. It will include the creation of an Elite Performance Group; the establishment of a Performance Management Report; opportunities for industry-leading technical training and access to new advertising to reinforce the CARSTAR brand to customers and industry partners.”
CARSTAR Canada added that it has already made stride in building supportive mechanisms for this new initiative, including the first meeting for Restore the Star, happening this July at the 30th anniversary CARSTAR conference in Victoria, B.C. This is in addition to the work the CARSTAR Store Advisory Council is doing to educate the industry on longstanding needs to provide safe and quality repairs, added the company.
Franchisees out in full force
CARSTAR Canada was sure to note the strength of its attendees and thanked the dozens of shop owners that stopped by to show support.
Special shout-outs were given to the first-ever CARSTAR franchisees: Joe Saputo of Saputo Capital Collision, who took over from his father, Sam Saputo, as well as Domenic and Rosanna Lucarelli and their sons, Joseph and Domenic.
CARSTAR Canada also teased that “this is just the beginning” of its 30th anniversary celebrations, adding that there’s much more in store at its annual conference this summer.
Check out Collision Repair mag’s photos from the kickoff below.
