Local and family-owned Perry’s Auto Repair & Care, located in Milford, celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon cutting event on Sept. 27.
Husband and wife team Kevin and Erin Perry, residents of Miami Township since 2003, own the shop, which specializes in a variety of auto repair services for all makes and models, including standard maintenance, engine, tire, electrical and exhaust.
Area officials turned out for the event, which featured free hamburgers and hot dogs and a tour of the shop.
“For us, these types of businesses are kind of our backbone for our area,” Chris Hamm, president of Milford Miami Township Chamber of Commerce, said. “It’s very exciting.”
He added, “Whenever you have a couple or family that starts a business, you know they’ve made an investment in the area, they’ve made a commitment, and we’re going to do whatever we can to support them.”
The shop is located at 938 state Route 28, in what used to be a Monro Muffler Brake, Inc. car care center.
“It’s exciting to have a mom and pop store started by residents,” Jeff Wright, Miami Township administrator and chair of the Clermont County Transportation Improvement District, said.
He added, “Five years ago, when the township and Clermont County cooperated to make these streetscape, gateway and safety improvements to business 28, this is the type of return on that investment we made that we were hoping for; a lot of our formally empty buildings now have a lot of interest and are being filled, so we’re satisfied that the end goal for those improvements has come to fruition.”
Kevin Perry has a lifetime of experience working on cars. When he was seven years old, he was “a little” pump attendant at his father’s gas station in Detroit, Michigan.
“I pumped gas, filled battery acid and changed tires,” Kevin Perry said. “My passion was for people; I loved helping people, and that was a great way to take care of people because it was a full service station.”
Kevin Perry went on to own a couple of auto centers and a towing company in Anderson Township, but for personal reasons he let them go 20 years ago.
Since then, he’s been working as a regional manager, overseeing customer relations and business operations, for an array of auto repair chains, including Pep Boys, Midas International Corporation and Monro Muffler Brake, Inc.
In fact, Kevin Perry closed down the Monro Muffler Brake, Inc. car care center where Perry’s Auto Repair & Care is located.
The Perrys have been working to open the store for the past six months, including renovations.
“We gutted the store, and we put in a lot of elbow grease,” Erin Perry said.
She left her job as a regional manager with the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, covering southwest Ohio, in May to focus on the shop. With 20 years of experience in sales for radio and television, she manages business sales and marketing.
“After twenty years of working for somebody else and knowing this industry like the back of my hand, I figured we could do it again together with her knowledge and my knowledge and be very successful,” Kevin Perry said.
The business, which employs five people, opened on Sept. 12.
So far, things have been going well, according to Kevin Perry.
“I sell the jobs, I do the jobs and I teach the new technicians that I have,” he said, adding, “Nobody will compete with us on customer service. We’re competitively priced and, our attitude is – the answer’s ‘yes,’ what’s the question?”
Erin Perry noted, “We’re not a franchise. We don’t have corporate to report to, and we’ll do what we need to do to take care of the customer.”
Perry’s Auto Repair & Care is open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 8 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information about the shop, visit their website at www.kperrysautorepair.com or call 513-239-5792.
This article originally appeared on clermontsun.com
