Our mission at P-Town Auto and Offroad is to provide the highest quality automotive and off-road vehicle repair with extraordinary customer service. We do this so we may continue to maintain the highest standards to meet and exceed customer expectations. Our goal is to not only repair your vehicle and get you back on the road, but we also want to ensure 100% customer satisfaction 100% of the time.
Funding is needed for an amazing opportunity for our auto repair shop to open a second location which will have a gas station, tire repair and car wash. P-Town Auto and Offroad, LLC was created in September 2022, and we opened our doors in November of 2022. I am Gabrielle and the business is owned by my husband Nicholas DiNunzio and me.
Nick and I grew up in Patagonia Arizona, a small but booming mining town. We have known each other since 2nd grade. Nick was always the go to mechanic, and he has been working on my vehicles since high school. After high school graduation we went our separate ways. Fifteen years later we reconnected. We have been together 14 years and have been married for two and a half.
Both of my parents were born in Patagonia, my grandmother was an English teacher at the high school for 21 years. Both of our grandfathers worked in the copper mine here. Our roots run deep in this town and after 28 years we were blessed to be able to come back. Several years ago, they discovered one of the largest lead, zinc, and manganese veins in the world. This vein is in the mountains of Patagonia and a huge mine is set to open. The mine has been in this area for over 15 years, but they have just been doing all of the predrilling and research. The mine will be fully functional within the next year to a year and a half. They will be running 1000 men crews 24 hours a day for the next 40 years. The population is set to double within the next year. They are in the process of building new homes and access roads. The population is set to increase every year for the next 40 years. The town is growing and the opportunities for our business are limitless.
At the time of this opportunity Nick was not working as a mechanic, although he is ASE certified and this is what he has done for over half of his life. He was working as a flooring contractor and was installing the floors on a remodel job for the current owner of the shop. My father, who Nick was working with, made a comment that he should open the shop and the owner overheard and offered us the amazing opportunity we have been waiting our whole lives for. The opportunity to be self-employed business owners.
This garage had been closed for many years and there is no other repair shop in town. The residents were starving for the much-needed services. In addition to not having a mechanic in town, the local gas station, tire repair and propane vendor had recently shut their doors. There were literally no automotive services in this area. The current owner of our garage was using the space as a paid storage facility.
My background is in the medical profession, it is what I have done my entire adult life. I went to nursing school and at the time of opening our business I was the office manager for the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and Research facility. I have an extensive background running a successful office. I have years of experience with HR, training and customer interactions. A huge part of my career is billing and collections. Having a strong computer background has helped me teach my team the Mitchell 1 software we use. It also helps with QuickBooks, which I use for payroll and as my accounting software.
Although we both have the experience to make us successful, we were not planning on opening a business and we had no money saved up to do so. I didn’t have a business plan and have been unable to get a business loan due to our company being so new. I was able to take out an equity loan for $10,000 from one of our vehicles and my mother gifted me an additional $5000. With the equity loan and the gift from my mom we began this venture. We are an LLC and only have one employee. He was a student from the local high school, and we obtained him through the JTED program. After graduation he came to work full time. We are planning on hiring another full-time ASE certified mechanic within the next few months.
Our start-up money was used to buy a two-post lift, tire equipment and office equipment. It also helped with the money we needed down to rent the garage. The garage has 4 bays, 3 with roll up doors on each end, the 4th bay is a closed space with a staircase to a mezzanine. The 4th bay also has a bathroom. There was an installed alignment rack, but the previous owner sold the computer that went with it. It also came with an oil burning heater with an oil waste tank in the back, fully functional air supply system, a hand washing station and a washing machine. At the front of the garage there is an add-on with three full office spaces. The front office is my check-in and waiting area and is equipped with a split-level temperature system, the middle office is our break room and has a full sink and cabinets, the third space is used for our parts storage and manager office. This office also has a split-level and a bathroom. The garage sits on ¾ of an acre of fenced property, with a well and new septic. There is plenty of land to store vehicles and there is a home on the property, which we rent as well. The residential and commercial areas are separate.
We have a triple net lease with the current owner for the shop and a year’s lease which is up in November 2023. Upon renewal he wants us to sign a 5-year lease with an option to buy after that time. It is our hope to find funding before that. If we can obtain funding, we would like to make him an offer he cannot refuse and buy the business in November.
We have been blessed with an amazing contact, the manager of a parts supplier who agreed to deliver to us several times a day. We are an hour away from his store and he chose to do this when no other vendor would. He has helped us get the computer and upgraded software for our alignment rack, shelving for our parts storage, products to stock those shelves, and we now have a monthly charge account with them for parts. In addition to helping us set up, we recently became a nationally certified auto repair shop with them. Our services come with a warranty for 36k miles or 36 months coast to coast. If there is a labor claim the parts and labor are covered at 100%.
We offer full automotive and off-road vehicle repair. We sell tires and propane, have a small engine repair department and do our own fabrication when needed. Our sales in tires and propane alone have been outstanding. Since opening our doors in November, we have also procured several service contracts from multiple fleet accounts. We have the service contract for South32, which is the mine in this area. They have a total of 41 fleet vehicles and will be adding more as production picks up. We do all their vehicle repairs as well as tire and propane sales. We also do the work on many of the subcontractors with the mine. We have Sundt Construction, Boart Longyear, American Power, KES and 5D Mining to name a few. We also have the fleet accounts for the local fire department, high school, plumber, Senior center, several local ranches, and the maintenance contract for the U.S. Border Patrol in the Sonoita sector. Their fleet consists of 200 trucks plus ATV’s. In addition to the fleet work, we do all the locals as well. The reviews of our work and customer service in Patagonia are great and we are getting busier every day.
Our monthly revenue has been close to $50,000 and steadily increasing every month. My latest profit and loss report shows that our total income since November is $215,959.77. We are busy every day, even in what is usually the slow season for our area. Despite the town being elated with the new repair shop, they still need a gas station.
We were recently approached by the owner of the local gas station with another amazing opportunity. He is selling his service station with all the equipment. This shop is only a single bay with one lift, and he recently took out all the gas tanks and filled the void with cement. He has had many offers from interested buyers, but he would like to see Nick and I take it. Our vision for the second location is to add a automatic, full-service car wash, a tire repair shop and a gas station with at least two pumps. We will also move the propane tank back to this location. This property is in the heart of Patagonia and again there is no other competitors. The mine has expressed much interest in the car wash facilities as their fleet vehicles get destroyed with the dirt and mud from their site. With the mine and all the subcontractors, the gas will sell itself. We have asked around to the locals and they have all voiced a great interest.
If we can obtain funding, I will be using it to buy our current location as well as the second location. At the second location we will be adding a car wash, new gas tanks and pumps and upgrading the current facilities. I know that there will be a return on this investment, especially with the expected growth of this area within the next five to ten years.