left over vehicles and parts. When it finally grew into its own, it took a year and a half to separate the books. Don’t do what I did! Make your self-service its own busi- ness from the start so you can identify how the decisions you make impact it.”

Self-service yard map guides customers to the right isle at Wilbert’s U-Pull It of Williamson.

ly-owned, second-generation business. It all started when brothers Randy and J.C. Cox founded Cox Auto Parts in 1978, and in 1997 Randy Cox and his sons, Joey and Jason, branched off from that business and started CTV Inc. Eventually the team bought the original business, as well.

Located in Moultrie, GA, in Colquitt County with a population of 45,000 and serving the South Georgia/ North Florida areas, CTV Pik-a-Part is the sister com- pany to CTV Full-Service, also in Moultrie. The company has a new CTV Full-Service location in Gainesville, GA (located in Hall County with a population of 200,000) serving the Atlanta area (population 5.6 million), with future plans to open a self-service facility there, too. CTV Pik-a-Part and CTV Full-Service uniquely share a 60+ acre location, back to back, with 18 acres dedi- cated to the self-serve. Of the 50 CTV Inc. employees, 12 employees process about 6,800 vehicles through the Pik-A-Part. “Our set-up is quite unique to our property since we are able to have both businesses that are back to back, yet both enjoy roadside frontage on the same road. This set-up allows both facilities to physically share some functional space to process and crush vehicles in between both locations. Even though both companies have road- side frontage, they are separated enough to not interfere with one another. We really like this set-up, however, we have found it very difficult to duplicate this arrangement elsewhere in our plans to expand.” As two companies, space and ownership is all they

share. They have their own managers and employees to manage daily operations, and are run as financially inde- pendent businesses. “In the beginning,” Cox says, “we had both businesses together, and the Pik-A-Part got the

40 // March-April 2019

Business-Building To grow a self-service model, it takes an abundance of inventory. Wilbert’s U-Pull-It has leveraged relationships in regards to maintaining theirs. “We have spent a sub- stantial amount of time and money to develop great rela- tionships with our area dealers and our street customers,” says Wilbert. “We have purchased from salvage auctions in the past, however, we have developed great working relationships with many car dealers, towing companies and repair shops to supplement our vehicle purchasing with the goal to avoid auctions. This purchasing strategy has developed into a rather successful campaign.” They also utilize Craigslist, Facebook and Letgo to assist in vehicle purchasing.

Getting product at auction is always a challenge, whether it's for full- or self-service. “Self-service operators need a buying formula that uses weights and recoveries of vehi- cles,” advises Cox. “This gives your buyer a vehicle average price for a given month, using those numbers and total number of vehicles you need to buy for the yard to process. Then track weekly progress with vehicle average cost.” Then, once you have the inventory, there is the chal- lenge of getting multitudes of people coming through the gates to pull their own parts. To attract customers, the Wilbert’s U-Pull-It team uti- lizes social media and online advertising. “New and rel- evant content is what we strive for in our online efforts,” says Petrie. “Our Facebook and Instagram are highly active. Google business listings are utilized tremendously. Our website, www.wupi.com, has frequent new blog posts under the ‘News’ section, and we are constantly tweaking the website. We also use Google Ad Words for a few different campaigns throughout the year.” Their website is also mobile-friendly with live updates on inventory. “Our site has live vehicle inventory search and recent arrivals notices from past seven days. Also, we have text notifications, ‘Just in at Wilbert’s,’ that run through Texn Rewards to notify customers when desired vehicles arrive in the yard.” “To get our start,” says Cox, “we got educated on pick- a-part yards in an organized peer-to-peer group. I enjoyed these more than anything. You get to see the numbers on the front side, and people generously help you to not make the mistakes they did. When we were young, we leaned on a lot of people for a lot of help. Now, it is nice to give back.” To establish market share, “We sell parts on eBay through our full-service,” says Cox, “and we also use out- side salesmen with promotional items and utilize mailings that are directed at shops and garages. For both the

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