Owner: Tom Lambert
Location: Layton, Utah
Staff Size: 19
Shop Size: 12,000 square feet
Number of Bays: 12
Average Monthly Car Count: 305
Average Repair Order: $1,400
Annual Revenue: $4.6 million
Tom Lambert’s father opened the Layton, Utah shop in the 1990s. It ran out of a storage unit until the early 2000s, when the business acquired it's current building. Originally divided up for different businesses to operate within it, Shadetree rented parts of it out until they grew large enough to take over the entire place.
Car Guy With the Cookies
Being a NAPA Auto Care Center, the building’s gray stucco exterior features NAPA’s signature colors striped across the siding, with Shadetree’s logo prominently stamped over it. A giant LED sign display outside helps attract business from the high-traffic highway they’re located off.
Upon entering through a set of double glass doors, to the right is a play area for children, with beanbags and toys sitting beside a wall covered in tree murals. To the left is an expansive showroom where service advisors are lined up ready to help in front of a glass wall that provides a look into the shop.
A display is set up for Shadetree’s referral awards program, and customers can treat themselves to cookies freshly baked in-house every day. After getting their vehicles back, it’s common for customers to find some cookies in a to-go bag, along with a thank you note, left for them.
“You don’t expect your car guy to be baking tasty cookies,” says Lambert.
The Community’s Shop
Shadetree’s shop features white walls, epoxy floors, and one large bay door in the center, with technician bays placed diagonally on each side.
Techs keep their toolboxes in between each of their bays, and big bulk oil tanks with hose reels allow them to access the fluids they need without making trips back and forth. Shop apprentices have their own wing with three bays found about 100 feet from the main shop area.
The ceiling is tiled, insulated, and equipped with sound deadening and plenty of fans for adequate air circulation. It’s always kept clean, as Shadetree often invites customers back to the shop area for community events, such as its annual Shadetree Country Auction.
“It's a very family-friendly environment. And that's what we're known for,” tells Lambert. “You walk into our office, it smells better than you expect, it's cleaner than you expect, and there is people in that office with a bigger smile than what you’d really expect walking into an auto repair shop.”
