Family Business Awards: Fuller's of Auburn

FOCUS: FAMILY BUSINESS AWARDS

Fuller Automotive, Auburn: Cars have changed; the name hasn't

BY TARYN PLUMB
SPECIAL TO THE WORCESTER BUSINESS JOURNAL

Fuller Automotive of Auburn knows cars. Now in its fourth generation, the company has been around for nearly as long as gas-powered vehicles have been.

Family patriarch Willis Fuller started out in the early 20th century doing general repairs on horse-driven buggies. But once the inexpensive and easy-to-drive Model T began to gain in popularity around the time of World War I, he saw a great opportunity.

The business, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2014, has since flourished, and Willis' traits of ingenuity and forethought have been passed down through the generations.

"Success relies on responsibility to each other, whether it's today, 20 years ago, 60 years ago," said Chris Fuller, who runs Fuller Automotive. "Our great-grandfather was a great guy, our grandfather was a great guy, our father is a great guy. We've all been very supportive of the community and the people around us."

Fuller's is split into several entities spread across four buildings on one "campus," as the family likes to call it: Fuller Automotive, run by Chris, encompassing its automotive and tire center and SpeeDee Oil change; Fuller Auto Body and Collision Center, overseen by his brother Josh; and Fuller Auto Sales, handled by a longtime family friend, Dana Stoico. The company also provides towing and rapid auto rental services.

Chris and Josh's sister, Kerri Cunningham, is involved with the family business as well, handling administrative and marketing duties.

And, as Josh explained, their father, Richard Fuller, who ran the business for nearly 30 years, still keeps an eye on things. "He's not active in the day-to-day," he said. "It's more for moral support, guidance and wisdom."

Willis Fuller started out in 1914 — the year when Model T sales passed 250,000, according to the Ford Motor Co. — doing automotive ignition wiring in Worcester before he moved his shop to the family farm on Pakachoag Hill in Auburn. It has since moved to several locations and gone through expansions, finally settling on a 3-acre site at 505 Washington St. in Auburn (Route 20), and employing roughly 50 full and part-time workers.

Chris, a graduate of Assumption College, came to the business in 1996, followed in 2003 by Josh, a Bentley University grad who initially started out working in finance and accounting in Boston.

"I realized that working in the family business was a great opportunity," Josh recalled. "I saw it as more of a challenge, trying to do greater and better things than the contributions before us."

Chris, meanwhile, said he was drawn to the business by a sense of pride, and a fear of working in a cliched workplace.

"The idea of sitting in a cubicle scared me," he said. "I saw (the family business) as my best opportunity to make the life that I wanted for myself."

Offering the spectrum of automotive needs — from repairs to tune-ups to sales to rentals — the company credits its success to its ability to be flexible and down-to-earth with its customers, and to offer personalized service.

"There's no automated step of how things must be handled," said Chris, who loans out his personal truck a few times a week for customers who are in a bind. It's "operating on a level of one human being to another human being. That's how we've earned trust."

Fuller's has experienced some of its most rapid growth in just the last few years; in 2012, the auto body unit finished construction on an 11,000-square-foot expansion, and the following year, the automotive mechanical repair branch added 2,000 square feet. The collision center is also in growth mode, currently adding 7,000 square feet, according to Josh.

"This is a rapidly changing industry that needs to blend customer satisfaction with the needs of the insurance companies, all while working with a shrinking talent pool," said longtime Fuller partner Rick Hutchinson, of Auto Body Supplies and Paint in East Hartford, Conn. "Fuller has been able to excel in all areas, putting them where they are today."

How do they succeed?

"We focus on simplicity: Work hard, be good to people, generate slow, stable growth," Josh said.

As for other plans? In keeping with his grandfather's open-minded mentality, Chris summed it up: "Always be ready for an opportunity."

Knowing their jobs

Keeping family members productive, happy and — most importantly — sane comes down to having clearly defined roles and goals, the brothers agreed.

"It comes down to who we are as people," Chris said. "We both love and respect each other. It's a credit to everybody — there's no shortsightedness, jealousy, anger."

They're a close family; between the four Fuller siblings, there are eight grandkids, so the brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, sons and daughters "all like to hang out together, like to be together," Chris said.

Maintaining a strong local bond has also been tantamount to success. Over the years, Fuller's has donated time and money to numerous sports teams, groups and clubs, including $10,000 for a new scoreboard at Auburn High School, and $10,000 to Pappas recreation complex in Auburn. Customers also have the ability to register for periodic, on-location wellness clinics.

As Chris noted, "There has to be an honest and earned respect and relationship between a business and its community."

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