Vancouver, British Columbia — June 15, 2017 — Every repairer has strange stories to tell. After 40 years in business, Craftsman Collision has some doozies. Since founder Bill Hatswell opened the first location on Vancouver’s Cambie Street in 1977, the company has grown to 40 locations and served literally millions of customers. Staff have dealt with fires, customers using courtesy cars as getaway vehicles and the occasional cheetah.
Okay, perhaps there was just one cheetah. That’s still one too many. For whatever reason, a customer who performed as an exotic dancer with her pet cheetah allowed the cat to take up residence in one of Craftsman’s customer replacement vehicles. According to Craftsman Collision, the cheetah turned the “formerly pristine interior into a tangled mess of fabric, foam and wires garnished with the ineffable aroma of feral sweat and excrement.”
Then there was the not-too-brilliant customer who made a large unauthorized withdrawal from an unsuspecting bank, using a Craftsman replacement vehicle emblazoned with the distinctive red, white and blue Craftsman livery as a getaway vehicle. It didn’t take long for the Vancouver police to track him down and haul him in.
Oddly enough, that wasn’t even the first Craftsman car used in a bank job, recalls Chief Operating Officer Rick Hatswell. One of them had to be shipped back from Knoxville, Tennessee, after it was used to commit a crime.
One windy day in 2006, Craftsman’s advertising blimp was found missing from its Maple Ridge shop on Lougheed Highway. Arriving to open in the morning, the shop manager was aghast to see half of a frayed rope where the 20-foot, helium-filled behemoth had been anchored. Craftsman offered a $1,000 reward for its safe return, but the blimp was never found and the reward never claimed.
In December 1986, heavy winds took out some of the roof supports at Craftsman’s Main Street location, causing the heavy roof overhang to land right on top of a nearly new Jaguar XJS in the parking lot. The car was a write-off, which probably upset the owner: Craftsman Collision founder Bill Hatswell.
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| No estimate was needed when a windstorm blew the roof off the Main Street location {source}<br/>{/source}and onto Craftsman owner Bill Hatswell’s Jaguar XJS. The car was a write-off. |
Over the years, Craftsman has given away several news cars in promotions. In Craftsman’s 2005 Take a Spin contest, the winner of a new Mini (apparently a rodeo fan) was delighted with her prize, but asked for one custom modification: full-size, 3-D Texas-style bull horns. The job required a grimacing Craftsman body technician to take a drill and welding equipment to the Mini’s virgin hood to mount the two giant fibreglass appendages.
Expecting the unexpected is part of what keeps collision repair interesting to Hatswell, even after 40 years. Today, Craftsman employs more than 600 staff under the banners of Craftsman Collision and Distinctive Auto Works. According to the company, most employees participate in an array of company-sponsored social events: annual boat cruises, golf tournaments, ski trips, family days and gala Christmas parties at premium venues including, for employees working in BC’s Lower Mainland, the swanky Pan Pacific Hotel ballroom.
“Employees who genuinely enjoy themselves on social outings bring a greater sense of caring to the workplace – to one another and to customers, and to doing a better job,” says Bill Hatswell. “By continually aiming to create a work environment that feels like one big, happy family, we set new sales records every year, and keep winning all the top consumer awards.”
Craftsman’s success has trickled down to the community at large, with more than $2 million in donations to dozens of charitable causes through the years. Among the most prominent are the Salvation Army (whose food bank is replenished by Craftsman’s annual Making a Dent food drive), the Heart & Stroke Foundation, the BCIT Foundation and School of Transportation, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Vancouver Symphony, and the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation, to which Craftsman has donated more than $1 million and helped create the hospital’s Craftsman Collision Cast Clinic.
“Creating a successful business and building stronger communities go hand in hand,” says Stacey Cook, Marketing Manager for the Craftsman Group of Companies. “Our corporate charitable ventures are often paralleled by our shop managers also getting involved in charities, sports or volunteer efforts in their local communities. Giving back is as important to us as financial growth.”
Most recently, Craftsman has paid $150,000 to sponsor the Craftsman Collision Signature Aquarium, a 14-foot, 3-tonne acrylic structure soon to be towering over the new Gibsons Public Market on BC’s Sunshine Coast.
Notwithstanding the many speed bumps, early struggles with the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), two fires, sluggish economic times, expansion hiccups and other temporary setbacks, Bill Hatswell says he has enjoyed every moment.
“I could write a book on the many things that have happened in the last 40 years,” he says. “Sad things, exciting things, disappointments and fun. They are all part of the Craftsman success story, and have helped us make our mark, make Craftsman a household name, and create the great working environment we enjoy today. But with our continuing rapid growth, expansion into new markets, acquisitions, real estate developments and other successful ventures, it would be a bit premature. The book is still being written.”
For more information, please visit craftsmancollision.com.
