With all the doom and gloom surrounding Northern Manitoba’s economy this summer, Hayes Auto Body & Glass co-owner Doug Sime is understandably nervous about the expansion the business that is currently underway.
“It’s scary to build right now,” he says. Then again, there’s always been that back-of-the-mind worry that comes as part of living in a community dominated by a resource industry. “We’ve lived with that cloud over us that the mine’s going to shut down some day. I’ve lived with that for 35 years.”
On the bright side, financing isn’t a problem.
“Banks are willing to lend you money provided you can pay it back,” Sime says. What’s more, the body repair business is somewhat recession-proof, he’s found.
“People still need vehicles to drive,” he said. “People will still get into accidents and maybe people will hang onto their vehicles a little longer. Rather than buying a new vehicle, they’ll tend to fix what they have.”
The shop will have about 25 per cent more space at ground level once the office and service bays are complete - 1,500 additional square feet to complement the 6,000 square feet there already was, which includes the original building, constructed in the 1970s and a second building that was built later. Those buildings were then connected by a breezeway and now the newer of the two is expanding toward Hayes Road. The new section will also have a mezzanine area of more than 600 square feet with a full eight-foot-high ceiling, though what that space will be used for hasn’t been finalized yet.
The motivation behind the renovation is partly out of necessity, Sime says.
“There’s some new technology in the vehicles that demand we have isolated areas to work on them,” he says, referring to Ford’s move to using aluminum bodies. “We’re hoping that Ford stays with that product because we’re spending a lot of money to make the changes.”
Automobile construction has changed a great deal since Sime started working in the auto body industry at the age of 17, especially over the past decade or so.
“The construction of vehicles has seen enormous changes,” he said. “The key thing that they do when they build the vehicles now is to make them safer if you’re involved in a collision. They make vehicles lighter and more able to take collisions without occupant injuries.”
At the same time, some vehicles have increased in size, particularly pickup trucks.
“Some of the new pickups are just like a train,” Sime says. “They’re huge. Some days you can fit in twice as many vehicles depending on the size of them that day. Other days you have a lot bigger vehicles that you have to work on so you have to have more space.”
But Sime admits there are elements of the expansion that fit into the “want” category as well. His partner and co-owner, Jo-Ann Adam, is eager for a better office space.
“The little office we had downstairs before, we had two people working in it, customers coming in, my staff coming into the office, phones ringing,” he says, making it difficult for everybody to concentrate on what they were doing.
Comfort is also a consideration - both the customers’ and the staff’s and owners’. The new addition will make it easier to do estimating work indoors.
“People won’t have to stand outside while they get an estimate,” says Sime. “We want to take care of the customer in a better way. Summer’s great because I get to do a little bit of work outside in the daylight and have the doors open at least but in reality Thompson’s got six months of winter so you’ve got to get the vehicles inside and get them worked on inside.”
At this point, with more than 30 years in the auto body business, Sime has no plans on making a career change and he and Adam spend a lot of their time at work.
“We’re not going anywhere and we’re not doing anything else and we want a comfortable place to work in,” he says.
The construction is being handled by A & B Builders and the Hayes Autobody owners are happy to support another local business.
“We want the new space and we’re proud of Hayes Autobody,” Siem says. “We want to put back into the community what it’s given us.”
And while everything in the expansion isn’t an absolute necessity, Sime and Adam have had plans for awhile to improve the office area and realize that you can’t always wait until something becomes a must-do.
“In life, if you did everything just because you need it, well, life becomes pretty boring,” Sime says.
