Improving efficiency and service all in one location

Rich Palzewic

Staff

September 23, 2024

PULASKI – Before the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the nation, Joe Witt, co-owner of Witt Family Ford, said there were plans to expand the dealership’s service area in Pulaski.

But the pandemic, he said, changed all of that.

“All of that was put on hold,” Joe said. “We got some stage fright with the uncertainty of the car business – all businesses did, for that matter. We probably should have (done the expansion earlier) because interest rates were lower then, but hindsight is 20/20. It’s definitely due time (for an expansion), and it’s something we’re looking forward to – exciting times for Witt.”

Joe – who along with his brother, Dan, co-owns and operates all three of Witt’s local dealerships in Crivitz, Green Bay and Pulaski – said when they bought the Bonduel location from Tim Vanden Brook about 10 years ago, they always knew they were going to build a body shop at the Pulaski location.

“The old Bonduel Ford dealership is now Witt’s collision center,” he said. “At that moment in time, we weren’t ready to build a body shop from a financial standpoint because we had (built the Pulaski) location. Business has been good overall for the past nine or 10 years, so it was always in our plans, but I’d say we really decided to expand in the last two years after COVID settled down.”

Despite higher interest rates, Joe said, “we had to do this.”

“It was time to increase our service facilities and give better service to our customers at one location, instead of here and there,” he said. “In a nutshell, it will be a body shop and a service center, too.”

The expansion, Joe said, includes the addition of 15 bays and an external car wash.

“We’re also adding two high-tech paint booths – the best of the best,” he said. “We’ll be more efficient and be able to get people in and out faster.”

Because the new expansion will include space for collision work, Joe said the Bonduel location will no longer be needed and has been sold.

“We are currently renting that space, but once we move all operations to the Pulaski location, we will no longer be in Bonduel,” he said.

Joe said expansion work commenced about a month ago, with an expected completion date right around the New Year.

“They started by moving some dirt, and we already have some concrete work done for our paint booths,” he said. “I’d say we will have a full slab in and start putting the actual building up by Oct. 1.”

As for the new 14,000-square-foot building, Joe said, “it won’t be anything flashy.”

“It’s going to be a metal pole barn, but on the inside, it’s going to be state of the art,” he said. “We will definitely have the capacity once it’s completed.”

Having more capacity, Joe said, means hiring more help.

“We’ll probably want to at least double our technician capability,” he said. “We’ll be looking for quick lane technicians and body technicians to help us.”

Joe said another area the expansion will help is with oil changes – “we have the best price around.”

“With Witt doing oil changes for less than $30, once in a while – under its current conditions – bottlenecks form,” he said. “It’s first come, first serve and not your average quick lube service where a plug is pulled and people are out in 10 minutes. We do multi-point inspections and check your air filter, alignment and battery – it’s not a quick service. We can get somebody in and out in about an hour, but if you get 10 people who show up right now, it’s not an hour-long service because now you have to wait for the people in front of you. This expansion will expand our oil change capacity, so we can get people in and out more efficiently.”

Joe said the expansion will also help with vehicle repairs.

“The best technicians need two stalls at the same time to work on a vehicle,” he said. “If something is laid up and they’re waiting for a part, they can still work on another vehicle, and it’s more efficient (with the use of two stalls). We can be more efficient when somebody has a warranty problem, an engine problem or a transmission problem – more of those hardcore issues.”

A bit of history

Joe said Witt’s dealings in the car business go back to the 1950s.

“My grandfather and grandmother in Crivitz started with auto sales as a Plymouth dealership in the ’50s,” he said. “It was a gas station, convenience store and also a Goodyear Cooper tire dealer.” 

Joe said they eventually transitioned from Plymouth to Ford, and “then we were a satellite dealership from a Coleman dealership.”

“It became a full-fledged Ford dealership in the early ’60s,” he said. “My grandma and grandpa ran that, until my dad and uncle took over.”

Joe said he and Dan became owners during the mid-1990s.

“Of course, we always worked in the business washing cars and sweeping, but we became a big part of the dealership after we graduated college,” he said. “Our first purchase was buying the Ford dealership in Sturgeon Bay in 2003, (which we sold) in 2014. In the meantime, we bought the Bonduel location, and then we moved it to Pulaski to this location in June 2015. We’ve been here since. My dad has passed away, and my uncle has retired, so Dan and I bought them out. Now we’re officially the owners of all the entities.”

Witt and the car industry

Joe said 2015-19, “were some fantastic years for Witt.”

“But like I said before, COVID changed all of that,” he said. “Before COVID, we were growing by leaps and bounds. When we bought the Bonduel location, they were probably selling three or four cars a month – they only had one hoist. When we moved into this store in June (2015), we went from like five employees to 30 employees. We went from one hoist to service customers to 10.”

Joe said car sales also dramatically increased with the move to Pulaski.

“We went from selling four cars a month to 30 cars that first month here,” he said. “We’ve been moving up ever since, but then the pandemic hit.”

As the country rebounded from the pandemic, Joe said the car business has gotten back on track. 

“We’re not back to 2018 or 2019 by far, and it’s not 2022 either in the height of the pandemic when people were very aggressively buying cars, but it’ll come around,” he said.

Joe said if the Feds start lowering interest rates, the money starts flowing better and inflation stays down, he expects a surge in sales again.

“If all those things happen, people will have more money in their pocketbooks, and when that happens, they buy cars,” he said.

Joe said Witt also services all makes and models unless it comes to warranty work.

“We have the capability of doing all of that work,” he said. “We’re just not servicing Ford customers. We can do any maintenance work on all those vehicles and repair them through our collision center and service center (because of warranty stipulations).”