“Uh-oh… better get Maaco!” has been a household phrase since the early 1980s when the first Maaco commercial aired on TV. Now, in 2015, residents of Wellington will easily be able to find a Maaco location now that one is holding its grand opening on Thursday, May 14 in the Wellington Business Center off Pierson Road.
Luis Diaz has opened Maaco-Wellington Star Hands Auto Body Shop right in the heart of the community as a means to offer superior service to residents.
Diaz, an entrepreneur and investor, had a vision of coming to the United States from Venezuela to create his family business. He saw the opportunity to fulfill this dream with Maaco.
Diaz represents his family as a group of entrepreneurs and investors from Venezuela. Given the political, social and economic crisis that Venezuela is going through right now, he and his family researched the market thoroughly before finally deciding to come to the U.S. — specifically, Palm Beach County.
“We started this process of acquiring four licenses from Maaco collision repair and auto painting. The first is in Wellington, with a grand opening on May 14,” Diaz explained.
The location held its soft opening March 30, and this new Maaco location is not your standard auto-body shop. Diaz wanted to make it a model shop. Rather than linoleum tiles, he is putting in large ceramic tiles and is using other ways to truly make it stand out from the standard body shop.
With new, top-of-the-line technology and equipment, Diaz is using his passion to create a successful family business that offers superior-quality service through employees with a passion for what they do, Maaco support and a company that cares.
Through his holding company, Pactum USA Investment Group, he plans to open a store in Riviera Beach within the next few months, one in Royal Palm Beach by the end of the year and one in Jupiter in 2016.
“After several meetings with Maaco’s board of directors, including President Jose Costa, who is also from Venezuela, we found a lot of support from them,” Diaz said. “They gave us all of their support, and we decided to do the investment in this area.”
Son-in-law Carlos Andrara, director of Pactum, is working closely with Diaz and Leo Romero, Wellington Maaco store manager, to get the store ready for its May 14 grand opening. There will be music, food, dancing and more as the company introduces itself to the community.
Through market studies and Maaco guidance, they chose Wellington as their first location because it is a growing area, Diaz said.
“Wellington people are really amazing. We felt that they needed a nice collision repair and auto painting place to give them a professional job with professional service that fits their needs,” he explained, noting that they want to give back to Wellington and are looking forward to being part of the community.
The commercial park has a lot to offer, so they thought it was the perfect location to house their auto body shop.
The Wellington Maaco location now employs five people on the production side and one on the sales side, but Diaz expects those numbers to double in the next few months.
“Besides our direct employees, we also have a lot of support from the vendors,” Romero said. “For example, we buy paint from Sherwin Williams, but they don’t just sell paint. They’re part of our Wellington Star Hands Auto Body Shop family.”
The shop is utilizing the top products from Sherwin Williams, the top professionals and taking advantage of the excellent support Maaco offers to its franchises to bring great results to the Wellington area.
“When you combine professionals with the best products that we can have, and Maaco support, and our support as well, we’re sure that we can give you the highest quality that you can get,” Diaz said. “We really appreciate the efforts of Maaco’s headquarters, and what they did for us, especially Maaco’s President Jose Costa.”
The support from the community, Diaz continued, has been outstanding.
“We want to thank the Village of Wellington,” he said. “They were extremely helpful. We want to be a community shop. We want to serve the community and do our best to help out in any way that we can.”
Diaz invites the entire community to the grand opening celebration on Thursday, May 14 at 6 p.m.
“We’re going to have a live band, authentic cuisine and cocktails,” he said. “It’s going to be a really nice evening with Latin music and Latin cuisine.”
Maaco offers auto painting and cosmetic car repairs. They work with major insurance companies on claims and repairs, and works on fleet and industrial service vehicles.
To learn more about the new Wellington Maaco, visit www.maaco-wellingtonfl.com, call (561) 328-6969 or e-mail maacowellington@gmail.com. Stop by the shop at 3132 Fortune Way, open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
ABOVE: Luis Diaz, Carlos Andara, Leo Romero at the new Maaco shop in Wellington.
