The 2023 Shop of the Year winner is…

CARS magazine is proud to announce the Shop of the Year 2023 winner: Art Turney’s Garage.

Located in Peterborough, Ontario, Art Turney’s Garage was chosen for its dedication to fostering a successful shop by encouraging training, allowing for a flexible work schedule, longevity in the community and maintaining loyalty among its patrons. Notably, even though the Turney family no longer owns the business, they continue to visit the shop for their auto care needs.

The award is sponsored by Milwaukee Tool. The winning shop received a prize pack for the recognition.

In charge of the shop is Mike Howard. He works with his technicians on what they need to be successful and customers to ensure they understand the work being done on their vehicles. The business services both heavy-duty fleets and light vehicles.

But he is not a technician. So he relies on his quality foreman to fill him on the technical aspects. He returns the favour by offering his business insights.

 

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The business, which dates back to around 1930, is owned by McWilliams Moving & Storage, one of the garage’s first customers under its namesake owner when a new location was opened in the 1980s.

Like most shops, Howard is concerned about the lack of available and quality talent. Increasing wages — long overdue — is one of the strategies top of mind.

“And in order to attract and retain staff, we’ve had to increase wages, which is due. I generally think the whole business, the whole trade is underpaid. And we’ve increased wages, trying to remain competitive with our competition. And, in turn, therefore, we had raised door rates and the price parts have gone up, and everything’s gone up. And it’s all part of keeping the lights on and trying to make a profit,” Howard said.

He’s also developed an environment where staff can work four-day workweeks and choose their hours while in the shop. They can start early in the day or later, so long as they’re in the shop during core hours. It’s not unusual to find someone working in the bays as early as 6 a.m. and continuing well past the 5 p.m. closing time.

That’s just a snippet of Art Turney’s Garage’s story. The full feature will be in the December issue of CARS magazine — keep an eye on your mailbox for your copy — and will also be posted to Auto Service World in the coming weeks.