Collision Leaders celebrates opening in Grain Valley

     Members of the Grain Valley Partnership gathered November 2nd to celebrate the opening of a Collision Leaders location in Grain Valley with a ribbon cutting.
     Originally Warrensburg Collision, the business went through a rebranding process last year as it added additional locations in Missouri. 
     The addition of the Grain Valley location increased their footprint to six locations, but a recently announced location in Lawrence now makes seven locations for the business. 
     Owner Casey Lund said the new name reflects the company's unique approach in the industry.
​     "We are vastly different than any other collision facility out there. The one thing you'll immediately notice when you walk through the door is our culture. I believe culture is the most important thing. If you take care of your people, train them properly, give them the authority to take care of the customer in the way they see fit, they'll actually go above and beyond if you take away the handcuffs a little bit," Lund explained.
     Lund, a former mayor in Warrensburg and current council member, has also served as past president of the Warrensburg Chamber of Commerce. Lund is a 2014 graduate of Johnson County CLIMB, a 2018 graduate of Missouri Leadership, and was also included in Ingram's Magazine 40 under 40 in 2018. Lund said his passion for civic leadership and serving the community has clearly filtered into how Collision Leaders is structured.
     "We are an employee first company, and they inherently reach out to the customers in a positive way, because they are safe and empowered to lead within the company."
     Unlike many collision companies, Collision Leaders does not operate on a commission basis for technicians.  Lund said the OEM certified facility focuses on ensuring a quality fix, rather than rushing to complete a vehicle within a certain number of hours. 
     "We slow down to focus on the quality. Our technicians focus on meticulously disassembling the vehicle. We spent a lot more time day one when your car drops off, rather than a 15-minute tear down, we spend hours disassembling the car, going through hundreds of parts, building a kit to put it together, doing all the research and documentation, and placing one parts order. We do all that day one. Rather than having one commissioned technician responsible for a car, anybody can step in to put that car together. We have multiple technicians per car, which allows us to fix cars faster and have a smaller footprint to be more efficient."
     Ongoing research and employee training is a focus and necessary given the continual evolution of car parts and technology, Lund explained.
     "Cars are much different today than they used to be. It's no longer about just making it pretty - it's about making it safe. We sweat the details to make sure to do the research to make sure we're doing the correct repair."
     Collision Leaders Grain Valley is located at 350 NW Jefferson, and can be reached by phone at 816-847-2311 or online at www.collisionleaders.com

Photo credit: Valley News staff