After 13 years of being away from my hometown of Thunder Bay, spending those years in B.C., the first of those years were spent in the upper interior helping with the development of the new town of Tumbler Ridge. There I was involved in many different companies, from being one of the owners of the construction camp that housed the men that were building the new town of Tumbler Ridge along with many other construction businesses that were involved in building the new town. Being a new town development, built from absolute wilderness, there were many business opportunities available. At this time during the early 80’s this was the biggest project in North America, the development of a brand new town called Tumbler Ridge. One of those opportunities was the opening of a new Shell Service Centre. Being a car guy at heart and having my first business at the age of 23, a Gulf Service Centre back in my hometown, I proceeded to investigate the possibilities of being the Shell franchise dealer for Tumbler Ridge. I did and that became the first permanent business to open in Tumbler Ridge being the new Tumbler Shell Service and Tumbler Automotive Supply LTD.
After 5 years we decided to sell Tumbler Shell, and sell the shares of the other companies I was involved in, my wife and I moved to Vancouver during Expo 86 year. Still being the car guy that I am, I was able to buy an established Corvette specialty business and another business involving auto detailing and cleaning as well as a restoration and auto protection centre.
After many years of establishing businesses in Vancouver and creating many relationships and many different business dealings, I was able to sell my business interests in Vancouver in the mid 90’s and move back to Thunder Bay to spend time with our parents. After 3 years of retirement, I saw an empty building that was a former Firestone store and I started to think of what I could do with it and how I could create a hobby business. Hence the development of Auto-One Car Care and Service Centre. My vision was to create a Service Centre and Complete Car Care Centre that no other Automotive Service facilities were offering in Thunder Bay at the time. So as a customer of Auto-One your vehicle would have any services that were needed from a basic oil change to any mechanical repairs, full tire and wheel service, collision repairs, rust protection, complete car cleaning and detailing meaning full interior shampoos, custom paint polishing, paint touch-up, full detail shop and at the same time being a non-franchise facility.
My other vision was to create a Used Car Sales facility with an inside showroom and outside sales yard with all used cars detailed like no other used car facility in Thunder Bay. To this day, people still comment on how clean our cars are. With this vision I created Auto-One Car Care and Service Centre.
From the first day of opening on October 1st 1997, the new Service Centre was the buzz of the town. Customers started to come. Our shop was full and now we had to hire more staff and train them to the vision I had for Auto-One Car Care and Service Centre. Open door policy. Every customer’s car problems were handled the same day if possible and all our customers started to learn of all the services we were offering. It was not long before we had hundreds of customers. Now after being open for 22 years we have thousands of customers and I am still treating all my customers with respect and giving their vehicle the best service that I can with attention to detail. I always try to go one level above what my customer expects - so much for a hobby business. I have had the pleasure of meeting and servicing many of my customers car problems over the years. Many customers that have purchased our reconditioned used cars have come back again and again over the years to purchase another used vehicle from us. I am very appreciative for the many repeat customers that I have.
From the detailed person I was blessed to be, I hope that I have made all my customers happy that have had their vehicle serviced, repaired, polished or waxed by our staff at Auto-One Car Care and Service Centre. For the past 22 years I want to thank all of our customers for trusting in Auto-One Car Care and Service Centre…the name you can trust.
