Owners of two local businesses liked the products and services so much provided by one of their vendors, they bought out the companies when they got the chance. Those purchasers are Northwind Property Management in Gearhart/Astoria and Hoggard Auto Sales in Seaside.
Northwind Property Management
We first wrote about Stan Brawley in December, 1996 when he took
over as manager of the Windermere Property Management office in
Gearhart. Roughly six months later, Windermere management decided
the company should stick more to its roots of property sales on
the coast and cut Stan and his staff loose. At that time Stan
formed his own firm, Northwind Property Management, which opened
July 1, 1997 in the Seacoast Village Business Park in Gearhart.
By December of that year, Northwind had taken over operations
of Clatsop Properties, a firm formerly operated by Doug Thompson
of Astoria. "Since the Clatsop Properties merger, Northwind
has grown," said Brawley, "We have doubled in size at
the very least, and now have a permanent staff of 10 people, with
two offices. We hope to move the Gearhart office into new quarters
in Seaside, across from the Factory Outlet Center, by June of
this year." Northwind currently offers property management
for vacation rentals as well as property management services for
long and short-term rental properties. For vacation rentals with
off-site owners, the firm will schedule guests, collect rents,
arrange cleaning and laundry services and provide monthly owner
reports. For longer rentals, they will screen prospective tenants,
handle repair and maintenance issues, establish and maintain a
"tenant retention program," and report monthly to property
owners. The firm oversees almost 200 units, including mini-storage,
vacation rentals, commercial properties and long-term tenants.
As of January 15, Stan's firm has grown by acquisition again,
this time absorbing a vendor whose largest account was, you guessed
it, Northwind.
The vendor that Northwind recently acquired is Advanced Carpet
Dryclean and Upholstery. Advanced was started by Chris Graves
in 1992 while Graves was also functioning part time as pastor
at the Gearhart Chapel. Graves felt the call to relocate to Idaho,
and when he did so, he thought of Stan. Stan's firm, Northwind,
represented about 20% of the business for Advanced so "it
was a good marriage," said Stan. Stan's wife, Trudy Brawley
will manage the business while area drywall contractor Dennis
Silva will come on board as the technician. Chris Graves spent
two months training Dennis, who also recently received certification
from a national carpet cleaning trade organization, the Institute
of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration (www.iicrc.org). Advanced
has commercial accounts, including the three Pig 'N Pancake locations,
which will be coming with the acquisition and Stan hopes to add
a quick response time to the mix. Advanced offers cleaning for
carpets and furniture, stain removal and odor removal for pet
stains, foods, oils, etc. They have equipment to perform dry cleaning
or hot water extraction methods of cleaning and stain removal
and may use a combination of methods, depending on the job. With
dry cleaning, the carpet is usually "dry within an hour or
less," said Stan," but a combination of methods can
be extremely effective." He said they rarely use hot water
extraction method alone, due to the moist climate here at the
coast. Stan prefers independent cleaning, versus affiliation with
a franchise, "because that lets us select the appropriate
method, rather than being tied into one particular brand or system."
They will work on commercial accounts from restaurants to lube
/auto body shops, vacation rentals to summer homes. The rate for
commercial customers is $.17 per square foot while Advanced charges
$.20 to $.22 per square foot for individual residential properties.
They charge $15.00 per linear foot for couches, larger or more
complicated furniture may cost $45.00 to $65.00 depending on the
size.
Advanced Carpet Drycleaning & Upholstery
Owners: Stan and Trudy Brawley
Address: 461 Lincoln, Astoria OR 97103
Telephone: 503/738-0179
Fax: 503/738-3159
Hours: By appointment
Hoggard Auto Sales
Dave Hoggard spent eight years with Lum's Auto Sales in Astoria
prior to opening his own dealership, Hoggard Auto Sales in Seaside,
in August, 1998. Right away, when parts were needed, Hoggard began
using the products and services available just up the road at
C & L Auto Parts, 861 Avenue A and Highway 101 in Seaside.
C&L was owned for eleven years by Carol and Larry Martel and
was part of the Parts Plus North American Parts Warranty system.
There was a lot going on at that little shop, including parts
sales and a machine shop, none of which was computerized.
When the business closed its doors in October, 1999, Dave Hoggard
initially considered just purchasing the parts inventory for use
with his dealership. "When I looked into it further,"
said Dave Hoggard, "I determined that Seaside needed to have
another choice (than just the Napa Auto Parts store operating
up the street from C&L)." He bought the inventory, took
over the space, hired staff and opened his own auto parts store
on January 6, 2000.
Warrenton resident Randy Hollaway has agreed to step in as manager
of the shop. Holloway spent 10 years working for Lum's Auto Center
as a mechanic and this will be his first experience as manager
of a retail store. The counter person, performing the day to day
retail operations will be Jay Hitchman. Hitchman has spent the
last 14 years in the auto parts business, working for 4 years
at North Coast Truck on heavy-duty equipment, and 10 years at
Warrenton Auto Parts on lighter trucks and cars. "We're sure
lucky to have Jay," said Randy. Recent graduate Tim Cavett
of Warrenton will be taking on the role of runner, rushing parts
as needed to customers. The company will offer free delivery to
their focus areas of Seaside, Gearhart and Cannon Beach. The shop
will have a mix of walk-in do-it-yourselfers and commercial customers,
such as Hoggard Auto Sales.
The machine shop portion of C&L did not come with the business,
nor did the affiliation with Parts Plus. Dave instead chose to
go with CARQUEST Auto Parts. CARQUEST Corporation began 26 years
ago with 100 auto parts locations. Now there are almost 4,000
stores serving North America, with over 60 distribution centers.
There are over 15,000 part numbers at an average CARQUEST store
and over 150,000 at each distribution center, with parts for both
foreign and domestic vehicles.
Fifteen CARQUEST representatives came down from Portland to set
up the new Seaside store, spending two weeks setting up the store,
installing a computer system and training the local people. The
Seaside store has started out with $90,000 of inventory and hopes
of growing in stock inventory as the retail business progresses.
LCB
DH Auto Parts/CARQUEST
Owner: Dave Hoggard
Manager: Randy Holloway
Address: 861 Avenue A
Seaside, Oregon 97138
Telephone: 503/717-0100
Fax: 503/717-8390
E-mail: dhauto@seasurf.com
CARQUEST info: www.carquest.com
Toll Free:800/492-PART
Hours:8a - 6p weekdays,
8a - 5p Saturday, closed Sunday
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