Elite has announced that Randy Pickering has joined the company as its newest business development coach. In his new role, Pickering will utilize his 39 years of experience as a shop owner to provide one-on-one business building guidance to current shop owners throughout the U.S.

Pickering is a fourth-generation shop owner. His family has been serving their communities for more than 100 years. When Pickering first took over the family shop, Pickering’s Auto Service, it was a two-bay operation. He quickly grew the business to an eight-bay, leased-building operation and continued its expansion until it became the 15-bay, state-of-the-art, property-owned shop it is today. In 2010, Pickering was able to open up a second location, and today his two shops have a total of 25 bays and 17 employees, and service more than 500 vehicles per month, bringing in more than $2.5 million in annual sales.

Pickering is a past Auto Service Association (ASA) national mechanical division director, a past president and a board member of ASA of Colorado. Today, his shops are affiliated with the AAA and also are branded as NAPA AutoCare Centers. Pickering also is a 30-plus year member of the Better Business Bureau.

“When I asked Randy to tell me about his shops, he replied, ‘We’re not in the business of fixing cars, but more in the business of building relationships through honesty and integrity, quality work and superior service.’ After hearing a response like this, and seeing that he had an impressive track record of success, I knew that Randy was an absolutely perfect fit for the Elite family,” said Bob Cooper, president of Elite.