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History
 John
Varga opened Varga's Body Shop in March of 1969 and was
initially located in the downtown business district at 418
1st Street. At that time, John employed 2 part-time
people along with himself. In June of 1984, the business
had grown to the point where more room was needed.
A location became available on Galena Avenue when Jack Keegan's
Cardinal Auto Parts business closed down. John
and his 5 employees moved up to the North Galena location
where he had approximately 5700 square feet, 168 feet of
which was office space.
At his new location, John's
equipment consisted of a Chief E-Z liner frame rack and
a homemade paint booth. He also continued his towing
business, which incorporated both a wrecker and a flatbed.
John's five technicians did all the repairs on the vehicles,
beginning with one car and taking it through the entire
process. John was the only person in the front office
and he wore many hats including parts manager, production
manger, customer service representative and bookkeeper.
However, John's business continued to grow in the next seven
years and by 1992, he realized he needed to add more office
staff as well as technicians. He was able to hire
a customer service representative and a parts/production
manager thus allowing him more time to concentrate on the
growth of the business. And over the next year, John
gained four new technicians.
As soon as more people were
hired, it was clear that an addition was needed not only
for the technical work, but also for the office. In
1993, the issue of growth was explored and it was determined
that a small office of approximately 100 square feet would
be added and an additional building of 3900 square feet
would be added to house the paint department. A new
state of the art Spraybake Paint booth was purchased as
well as a prep station and mixing room included. It
was at this time that the technicians began specializing
in specific areas of the repair process--frame, body or
paint and in 1994, the addition began and was completed
in 1995.
 The
business continued to grow and John's wife joined the business
as office manager and bookkeeper. In 1998, it was
clear that another addition was needed in both the front
office and in the shop. As options were explored,
it was determined that a separate building, roughly 4500
square foot, would be added to house the body department,
the detail area and parts area would be moved up to the
front in the original building and the offices would expand
by approximately 400 square feet. The addition to
the front of the workplace would include an office for John,
and office for Nancy, an office for a marketing representative,
two bathrooms, storage and a conference room. Efforts
for this addition began in the early fall of 1999 and concluded
in January of 2000 and in the interim the business name
was changed to Varga's Collision Center, a marketing representative
was hired and additional part-time people were also engaged
to help run the wrecker business.
Varga’s
Collision Center became a Certified First facility in April
of 2001. The Certified First Network is a branded, national
network of auto body repair facilities with a set of high
standards on important factors, and it allows us benefits
from coordinated national, regional, and local marketing.
To assure our customers utmost satisfaction, we had to measure
up to the program’s high standards. The Certified First
designation cannot be bought, it must be earned. To participate
in the Certified First Network, a repair center must first
meet stringent requirements in these areas:
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Have
adequate facilities and equipment
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Provide
the full range of necessary auto body repair service
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Utilize
designated products
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Offer
a prescribed warranty on the workmanship and paint finish
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Consistently
achieve high levels of customer satisfaction
Certified
First repair centers provide dependable, courteous service,
a consistent quality of workmanship backed by a written
limited lifetime warranty and a lifetime paint performance
guarantee.
Who
determines whether we are meeting the proper requirements?
Compliance to Certified First standards is independently
verified by:
“To be eligible to participate
in the CertifiedFirst™ Network, we underwent a facility
audit conducted by Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) to
verify that the Network’s standards for repair equipment,
facilities and personnel were met.“
“Designated paint products,
used in conjunction with the Lifetime Paint Performance
Guarantee, have earned the highly influential Good Housekeeping
Seal. This revered symbol is licensed only to products that
have been evaluated by the Good Housekeeping Institute,
a trusted name in North American households since 1902.”
"Approved repair centers in the CertifiedFirst™
Network like ours must continually meet high standards for
customer satisfaction, as measured by Customer Research,
Inc., an independent research firm."
To learn
more about our Certified First facility, click on the Certified
First logo below.
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