Caliber Collision widens area footprint with new Arlington location
Daily Memphian
Michael Waddell
Following the merger early last year of Caliber Collision and Abra Auto Body Repair of America, Caliber is growing its Mid-South presence with a new auto body repair and paint shop in Arlington.
The company also has new locations planned near Germantown and in Hernando.
Caliber acquired land in Arlington last year at 5757 Airline Road for its new 18,000-square-foot facility.
“It’s absolutely a beautiful center,” said Caliber Regional Manager Phil Allen, who oversees six of the Memphis area locations, including Arlington. “It’s nice and new and clean. I’ve been in the business 48 years, and it’s one of the nicest ones I’ve seen.”
After merging with Abra and its 400-plus stores last year, Caliber established its Memphis footprint. Abra had operated in the Memphis market for more than 20 years. Caliber now has 10 locations in the Greater Memphis and Northern Mississippi area, including a new location in Jackson, Tennessee, which opened about the same time the Arlington location opened.
“We want to make sure we have locations in every city in the market so we can serve the entire area,” Caliber Business Development Manager Darryl Carey said. “Arlington is an up-and-coming community, and we felt like it was a great opportunity for us. (As a company), we’re opening up stores every day. We’re very aggressive on the market.”
The company’s closest location to Arlington is in the Wolfchase area at 2965 New Brunswick Road.
Caliber Collision technician Andy Davis works on replacing a bumper at their new location in Arlington on March 20, 2020. The company established a Memphis presence last year after merging with ABRA. (Mark Weber/Daily Memphian)
The new Arlington location becomes the company’s central location in Memphis for its Ford aluminum certifications.
“So that means that all Ford aluminum trucks will be serviced and worked on at our Arlington location, so that’s a big deal for the Arlington community,” said Carey, who oversees all of the company’s 25 Tennessee locations in the Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville areas.
“I’m really excited to have Caliber Collision in Arlington,” Arlington Chamber of Commerce Director Tonia Howell said. “They bring additional services to our citizens – and more than that, they want to be partners in our community. We look forward to working with them.”
The new shop employs a staff of 10, and that number will likely increase once business ramps up.
“Our mission statement is to restore the rhythm back into people’s lives, and that’s not about just fixing cars” Carey said. “We’re committed to working in the community with veterans and underprivileged children, and we have our first food drive coming up.”
Last year, in an effort to better capitalize on the $47 million per year collision repair industry, Caliber and Abra merged to create a 1,000-shop national chain with a presence spanning 37 states. Today, the company counts 1,147 locations and growing.
Like most businesses throughout the Mid-South, the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is impacting the new shop.
“People are not driving as much, so that’s obviously going to slow the business down a little bit,” Allen said. “We’re sanitizing at least twice a day, if not more. We sanitize the cars as they come in, wiping everything down to make sure they’re as clean as possible and putting steering wheel covers on the steering wheels.”
The shop keeps its employees at least 6 feet away from the customers, and the employees are staying as far away from each other as possible.
The new location’s upcoming ribbon-cutting planned for later this month has been postponed due to the virus.
Next up for Caliber in the local market, a new shop is under construction near Germantown at Winchester Road and the Tenn. 385 interchange. Allen said it is scheduled to be open within the next 90 days. A new location is also planned for Hernando, and it could be open within the next six months.
