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<title>Media Mentions | The Philadelphia Inquirer | Wheel Collision Center</title>
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<center><font size="2"><b>7286 Penn Drive Bath, PA 18014<br>
</b></font><b>Phone: (610) 837-8792 Toll Free: (800)
292-RIMS Fax: (610) 837-8967<br>
E-mail:<a href="wccemail.html">WheelCollisionCenter</a>
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<font size="+1">"The Philadelphia Inquirer"<br>
</font><font size="-1">May 1994</font><br>
</center>
<i><font size="+1"><b>"Reinventing the Wheel"</b></font></i><br>
At least this Bath, Pa., company can fix it.
<p>BATH, Pa. - Daryl L. Robbins, president of the corporation, was
sitting behind a dark, dented desk old enough to qualify for
Medicare.<br>
There was no aesthetic redemption for the distressed desk
elsewhere in the room, a dingy, white, 10-by-12-foot space that looked
more like
a monastic cell than the office of the president. The closest thing to
interior
decoration were a half-dozen used automobile wheels scattered around
the floor.</p>
<p>Clearly, this wasn't what Robbins had in mind when he got his MBA
from Harvard
in 1985.</p>
<p><i>"Everyone has these romantic notions about having their own
business,"</i>
observed Robbins, a 35-year-old mechanical engineer turned
entrepreneur. <i>"They
think about how glorious it will be."</i></p>
<p> But as it turns out, a
new business is often something other than a large, well-appointed
office.</p>
<p><i>"It's hard work and heartaches,"</i> according to Robbins. <i>"You
don't know if there's going to be a paycheck, and there is no guarantee
you will
succeed. If you are a nervous person, you can get very nervous."</i></p>
<p>Happily for Robbins, co-progenitor of a clever new niche business
called the
Wheel Collision Center, the color of the ledger entries has darkened
considerably in recent times. And that black ink has lightened the
spirits of
Robbins and his vice president and partner, a 49-year-old machine
designer named
George J. Herschman.</p>
<p><i>"We're starting to make money, and things are feeling relatively
easy
now,"</i> Robbins reported. <i>"But until recently, it was a scary
proposition."</i></p>
<p> The root cause of the Wheel Collision Center's
improving bottom line was to be found in those wheels on the floor of
Robbins'
executive suite.</p>
<p> Those expensive cast aluminum-alloy wheels had been
med-a-vaced in from all over the country with serious injuries. Some
had been
grievously bent. Others had chunks broken out of them. But by the time
the
Wheel Collision Center was done with them, a visitor couldn't even
detect where
they'd been repaired.</p>
<p> Here's the thing: Aluminum-alloy wheels like
these cost an average of $350 each to replace, which is what most
people do with
them when they are damaged. But thanks to the techniques and machines
developed
by designer Herschman, the center repairs them for $75 to $150.</p>
<p>Obviously, that is quite a replacement-repair cost differential, and
that
disparity has not been overlooked by the auto insurance industry in its
never-ending search for truth, beauty and a cheaper way out.</p>
<p><i> "About
50 percent of our business is with insurance companies,"</i> said
Robbins.</p>
<p> The Wheel Collision Center started to take shape about three
years ago, when Robbins and Herschman formed a company to design and
build
packaging machinery. The two had worked together for a similar
machinery firm.</p>
<p>Designing and building machinery for specific applications is a long
process,
and the distant paydays it engenders can cause real cash-flow problems
for a
shoestring company with pygmy reserves like this one. So, Robbins
thought it
would be a good idea to start up a second business that would produce
steady
revenues, and thus bridge the gaps.</p>
<p> Robbins, who also operated EuroCal
Wheels Accessories in West Chester, had earlier noticed a need
among his
store customers for repair of alloy wheels. He was able to help
customers with
bent wheels by sending them out to a shop that could straighten them.
But if
the wheels had chunks broken out of them, or cosmetic scratches, the
customers
were out of luck. They had no alternative but to shell out an average
of $300
for a new wheel.</p>
<p> So Robbins got the idea of developing a comprehensive
service that would not only straighten bent rims, but renew ones with
cracks,
scratches and missing pieces.</p>
<p> He and Herschman checked into the field,
and found there were similar services here and there around the
country. But
most were relatively small, primitive operations that confined
themselves to
straightening. The two entrepreneurs reasoned that if they could
develop an
efficient, automated repair service that included fixing broken and
scratched
wheels, as well as bent ones, they could carve out a virtually
uncontested niche
in a potentially huge market.</p>
<p> <i>"We estimate there are 250
million aluminum wheels on the road now, and that number will just get
bigger,"</i>
Robbins said. <i>"We think the size of the market is somewhere between
$100 million and $200 million a year."</i></p>
<p> The duo decided to
give it a go. Working in his barn in this village near Allentown,
Herschman
designed several machines to facilitate the wheels repairs, including a
press-like device that applies heat and pressure to reshape and balance
bent
wheels. After applying for patents on several of the prototypes, they
rented
space in a Bath commercial park, hired a seven-man crew, and started
repairing
wheels.</p>
<p> The repairs fall into two categories; the simple straightening
of bent wheels, and the full renewal of broken and scratched ones. The
renewals
generally entail welding, machining, polishing and refinishing, and
result in a
like-new rim.</p>
<p> <i>"It's largely an art at this point,"</i>
Herschman said of the repair process. <i>"We're trying to make that
art
into a science with the next generation of machinery, which will be
more
automated. We hope to do that in the next six months."</i></p>
<p> The
needs and success of the wheel business have placed the machinery -
design
company that spawned it on the back burner. Robbins expects the wheel
operation
to be grossing more than $1 million by the end of next year. If plans
work out
to start 15 franchised and company-owned wheel centers in other regions
during
the next five years, Robbins believes the company could ultimately
gross as much
as $30 million annually.</p>
<p>- by <i>Al Haas</i>, Inquirer Staff
Writer </p>
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<h6>This page, and all contents, are Copyright (C) 1996 - 1999 by Wheel
Collision
Center, Bath, PA, USA.
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