If you’ve ever ordered a part from Radiator.com than you are probably familiar with our amazing doorstep delivery.  Getting you back on the road is a top priority, and our speedy delivery has helped our customers out of some tight squeezes.    We get our parts out fast, sometimes even within an hour or two. 

Our awesome delivery service is made possible by the network of warehouses we share with our mother company, 1-800 Radiator, by the service-oriented franchisees who own and operate these warehouses, and by the delivery cars that help get these cars to your doorstep.  Radiator.com delivery vehicles range from simple white trucks and vans to cars that are decked out in Radiator.com and 1-800 Radiator decals and car wraps.  Below we have an example of one of our cooler delivery vehicles:

This picture of franchise owner John Czaplicki and his custom PT Cruiser shows how creative our franchisees can get with their delivery cars.  John operates two of our Illinois warehouses, and if you are lucky enough to be one of his customers your part might be dropped off at your doorstep by this fantastically awesome car.  With a car as hot as this one it sure is a good thing that John has a full stock of Chrysler radiators on hand (heehee!  Radiator humor never gets old).

 -Emily

Hello again video viewers,

This video makes me feel good about the 1-800-Radiator approach to doing business. Rapid franchise growth can be risky but Chief Operating Officer, Joseph Rippey, explains the company’s expansion in a way that makes sense. Jumping from a two store mom-and-pop operation to 120 stores in less than two years is a gutsy move for any company. When you franchise that fast, lots of things can go wrong – everything from cash flow to critical elements like service and quality that people came for in the first place. Joseph explains that 1-800-Radiator strength is actually in those growth numbers that gives some key advantages.

Volume lets them use sophisticated purchasing systems that can compare prices and quality with 16 vendors at a time. That is more than just impressive. It is the kind of buying power can only be done when you are big and growing and it benefits the owners and the customers. Their warehouses are huge (which is clear from the video shots) but equally impressive is the way that franchises share inventory, which translates into satisfied customers who get what they are looking for when they want it, and always at discount radiator and auto parts prices. With 250 stores planned by the end of the year, it’s a good bet that if one store doesn’t have what you need, another will. Kudos for a smart business model that supports local community franchise owners by giving them a big-company edge and their customer the savings through genuine price breaks.

Susie

In response to the comment from the last posting, a large portion of the 1-800-Radiator customer base is auto repair shops. In the old days mechanics and radiator shops used to be able to fix the brass and copper radiators that had leaking tanks or clogged fins. Now it is more cost effective to buy and install a new radiator, especially one that comes with a lifetime warranty, than to repair an old one. The key to supplying radiators to repair shops is getting parts their quickly and making sure it is the correct application and fit. It doesn’t hurt that our radiators come with candy as well.

I recently flew into Birmingham Alabama last week to meet our newest franchisee. He will take over a strong 1-800-Radiator start-up territory. I’ve been to Birmingham before on a short visit to see potential franchise candidates but that was about the extent of my travels into the state. After having a nice dinner with our new owner and his wife, I headed up to Gadsden Alabama, a smaller city about 60 miles Northeast of Birmingham. I wanted to meet some very strong candidates who were interested in opening up a 1-800-Radiator distribution franchise in the Gadsden/Anniston area. I never thought of myself as a “Yankee” until I got into rural Alabama. I was immediately struck by the beauty of the area as I headed up Interstate 59. There was a full moon that silhouetted the pine trees along the way and the beginning of rolling hills that would eventually lead to Lookout Mountain. I met our Gadsden candidates at a restaurant in the downtown area called “The Fish Market.” We showed up 45 minutes before they closed and were persona non grata as we stayed well past their restaurant closing but the staff was friendly and I got a good sense for what kind of owners these people would make.

At the heart of a 1-800-Radiator franchise, we look for owners who will be good at establishing relationships with our wholesale customer base and be very service focused. When a radiator goes in a car, the part needs to be replaced right away and the car will not run without a functioning radiator. Part managers and owners of auto and collision repair shops look to buy radiators and other cooling components from someone who can get them a good quality part quickly and at a competitive price. Their customers hold them to a standard for quality and service and we communicate the integral role our franchise play in that process. It’s all about earning the business by earning trust. Gadsden is a friendly town and a great market for automotive cooling products; hot, humid summers and a former industrial center (Good Year, Republic Steel). Prior to meeting my people the following day to tour a potential warehouse location, I had breakfast at a place off of Highway 280 called “Jacks.” Clearly the place had it’s regulars and as I came in and set up my computer, I realized how much I stuck out. Lamenting the lack of healthy choices on the menu, I decided to indulge in hash browns and sausage, eggs and gravy. If you’re going to be a bear, you may as well be a Grizzly. It struck me thinking about the strong Southern accents our new potential owners had and their insistence that we have a nice dinner before discussing business the night before that the key to the success of our franchise model was having locals run their own markets.

Good morning entrepreneurs, radiator repair and car part enthusiasts. As I write this dispatch from the 1-800-Radiator Franchise seat, we are on the verge of opening our 195^th franchise territory in the United States and talking to some very sharp Canadian candidates in key provinces. I talk to a lot of people interested in learning about our franchise model. The most commonly asked question is ‘do people really need new radiators that often?’ As we continue to grow we’re seeing Radiator Repair shops that used to fix leaking side tanks and re-core radiators either fall out of the market as newer radiators became the more cost-effective way of keeping engines cool. The ones that stuck around will stock some new radiators or contact a distributor like 1-800-Radiator if their customer’s Honda Accord has a leaking plastic side tank and repair is not an option. The discount radiator market has become a huge niche over the last 20 years or so and 1-800-Radiator has seized upon the opportunity by doing a few things very well.

Our size provides tremendous leverage with cooling part manufacturers who offer us the most competitive pricing on radiators. We’ve also utilized technology to create a robust, streamlined web-based point of sale system for looking up parts, managing customer buying data and running effective sales warehouses. We were also one of the first to jump into the online auto parts market by purchasing several doming names that consistently rank high for retail customers or do it yourself guys that don’t go to shops. Handmade radiators and used radiators are no longer marketable even in the most frugal markets when a brand new radiator can be purchased on one of our web sites and shipped at no cost. Finally, allowing local owners the opportunity to grow a protected territory puts customer relationship building with our wholesale buyers in the hands of highly qualified individuals who have a lot invested in insuring optimum service, competitive pricing and quick turnaround times on customer issues.

Our old corporate distribution model had some junk in the trunk that the franchise model has gotten rid of. As we look to the immediate future, radiators will only be one of several key parts that we sell. Some key acquisitions have ushered in the addition of air parts and radiator component parts such as fan assemblies that out franchise owners will all eventually stock.