Auto Detailing News Winter issue

ALL THE
DETAILS
Introducing Enrique Villegas of Kompetenz Body Shop Automotriz
NAME:
Enrique Villegas II
BUSINESS:
Kompetenz Body
Shop Automotriz
S.A De CV of Mexico City.
Let’s Take a Trip to…
MEXICO
How long have you been in
the auto detailing business?
I have been in the business for 40 years.
Do you have any employees?
Yes, 210 in operation
and 25 in administration.
Is there a big retail market in
Mexico for auto detailing?
Yes, it is a huge market in Mexico.
Approximately how many
detail shops in Mexico City?
Maybe 10, but there are many
auto dealers.
What was your background
before the auto estetica
business?
It was a primitive car wash service.
Washing by hand and buckets full of
water, but [my way of doing business]
was transformed by Bud Abraham.
Do you have a fixed
location or mobile?
Fixed location.
What kind of work do you do?
Retail? Auto Dealer? Fleets?
Kompetenz is open to the public plus
we have auto fleet accounts all over
Mexico. Also, we are partnered with
Grease Monkey Inc. and we work with
corporations such as Banregio Bank,
Femsa-Coca Cola, EuropCar Rental
and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City
and “consulates” throughout the area.
[We mostly compete] for fleet accounts
because that market is huge.
What are you biggest
problems?
The continuous fluctuation in
exchange rates because all of
the best supplies are imported.
Also, extortion and violence.
Are there many suppliers of
detail products in Mexico?
Yes, but we get most of ours
from America and Germany.
Anything else you can
tell me about the detail
market in Mexico?
Any kind of crisis is a very good
opportunity to grow in this business
because customers prefer to keep
their cars in good condition.
In His Own Words…
Presenting
Enrique’s Story
I had been detailing for a while and in
1993 my parents Enrique and Laura told
me to find the best detail supplier in America.
So, I visited the American Chamber
of Commerce office next to the American
Embassy in Mexico City and I got a long
list of suppliers. One of the hundreds of
that list was Mr. Bud Abraham of Detail
Plus, Inc. from Portland, Oregon.
I was very lucky when he came to
visit our location at Jardin Balbuena
in Mexico City in the 1993 and I remember
his words... “Don´t feel insulted,
but your operation is so primitive”
...and that was the beginning of the
transformation of our business and we
trusted in this smart man and he became
a part of the Villegas family.
We began to invest in many kinds
of used equipment during an economic
crisis that went on for several years. But,
with Bud’s advice and business vision, he
helped us to continue innovating and developing
and we opened the first professional
auto detailing business in Mexico in
December 1997 with the new name and
brand: KOMPETENZ.
In 1999 we opened a semi-automatic
car wash in the same location but in the
beginning, customers were afraid to wash
their cars in this new mode and we were
worried that no customers would ever
come. We marketed and kept at it, and
eventually customers started coming and
liked the new way to wash their cars. Les
Wickham was a very important friend of
mine and taught us with his brilliant mind
and engineering ideas. I will never forget
his words, “Enrique, now you have all the
aces in your pocket.” I understood what
those words meant many years later.
We completed our dream, which was
to have a full-service car wash business,
in the following years. We increased sales
and opened a new freestanding Detail
Shop business, and we got the Detail Plus
Paint Touch up System and began a new
era in the industry in 2001.
We are very thankful to Bud Abraham
and his family with their kindness to us
over the years. We were also about to visit
them in America, and we consider them
family. Bud is my American father and
I´m blessed to know him.
10 | AUTO DETAILING NEWS | VOL. 5, NO. 4 • WINTER 2020