Tipping Our Hat to a Long-Time Competitor

We’d like to begin by acknowledging 3+ decades of hard work and dedication by the ownership, management and staff of Berwyn Collision, who recently repaired their last vehicle after a generation of serving drivers from all over the Main Line. Over the years, though the ownership of the business changed hands a few times, we found their full parking lot to be a constant reminder that our own team had to bring its A-Game each and every day.

For a local small business, the challenges are never-ending. Financial management. Customer service. Investing in new technologies. Maintaining compliancy and meeting regulations. Hiring the right people. Knowing when to embrace change. In short, if you want to find something to keep you up at night, as a small business owner, you never have to look too far. That is why our hat is off to any team of pros in the collision repair business, or any industry for that matter, who puts in the work for 15, 20 or 30+ years. Turning down offers to sell the business and urges to retire come frequently to those who have been in the game for a lifetime.

It’s important, not just as a fellow small business, but as a fellow member of the Berwyn community, that we express how much value there is in having a thriving local small business presence in this area. Small businesses employ roughly half of the workforce in the US. It’s not Walmart or Amazon. It’s pizza shops, hair salons and contractors. It is these businesses who sponsor Little League teams and contribute to any number of fundraisers throughout the year. And, this past year, we did so with masks, hand sanitizer, remote workers, supply shortages and every other curveball that the pandemic threw our way.

To bring it back home for a moment—it is important to point out that there is no upside for Conestoga Collision anywhere in the news of a competitor going out of business. It may sound counterintuitive, but it’s true. Our business has grown leaps and bounds over the last decade all while sharing a property boundary with Berwyn Collision. We were going to be fine if the guys on the other side of the fence kept on going for another three decades. How did we take this news? Frankly, all we see is the closing of another fellow independent repair shop at a time when big-money direct-repair shops continue to open more locations throughout the US. It’s no secret that Amazon, Walmart and Home Depot have put countless mom-and-pop businesses out of business. In the auto body repair space, shops like ours are largely competing against big name direct-repair shops who are beholden insurance companies and shareholders. Put simply, buying local keeps your local body shop, restaurant and barber in business, and it keeps their employees paid as well. If you want your local small business owners to continue supporting communities like Berwyn, we are going to need your support as well.

Again, all of us at Conestoga Collision wish to offer our best wishes to the ownership and staff at Berwyn Collision on whatever their next chapter holds. We urge Berwyn Collision customers to allow our team at Conestoga Collision the opportunity to earn your business should you need collision repair now or anytime down the road.