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Show A large number of important folks so many they wouldn't all fit in our picture and all of them contributors to the Syrett family operation that has been the backbone and precedent-setter in the motel industry in Garfield County joined in the ribbon- BRYCE Remarks of one grandmother in the audience gathered for the grand opening and ribbon cutting held Friday at the Best Western Ruby's Inn new American Car Care Center (ACCC), epitomized the feelings of many. "I am thankful to Ruby's Inn. I have six grandchildren currently working here or who have worked here in the past and all have been able to go on missions, attend college and have learned a good work ethic from their employment over the years at Ruby's Inn." She spoke the sentiments of many throughout the valley who would like to give something back to the Syrett family for their many years of providing work opportunities to so many households house-holds in the area. Ruby's Inn, in the tradition of better serving the needs of the traveling public, could see the cutting ceremony at Best Western Rubys Inn's new American Car Care Center on Friday. The facility, the first of its kind in the county, will provide some much-needed services unavailable elsewhere in the county. Rubys Inn Car Care Center Holds Grand Opening At New Facility need over the years for a comprehensive com-prehensive automotive center. As people travel and as auto and bus breakdowns occur, their vacation time is a precious commodity. Having to be towed to major cities for repair because Bryce Canyon is so remote, has been a big problem for disgruntled patrons pa-trons at the popular resort. Although a concept of an automotive center had been in the offing for years, the first step for Ruby 's Inn was the purchase of the local AAA towing franchise and bringing Alfred and Toni Foster on board. Ruby's new Car Care Center boasts 18,000 square feet, not including the car wash. There is a comfortable customer waiting area with padded seats and color television with refreshments, a salesroom with car care products, recreational vehicle amenities and a large selection of tires, a Chevron gas station, state of the art repair equipment, eight service ser-vice bays, three car wash bays and AAA roadside service and towing. In collaborating for a full automotive repair center with ACCC, Ruby's coupled with an organization that "combines pride of ownership with independent business," according to ACCC founder Larry Nicholls. He noted in Friday's ceremony that the same fundamentals that have helped the Syrett family succeed are shared with his company. The midday event Friday brought out numerous family members, many representatives of vendors who will supply the center, financial backers and local citizenry. On hand were ACCC personnel Christie Stock, ACCC Coordinator; Art and Geneal Hoffman, Territory Managers Mana-gers over Bryce Canyon; Gary Grako, owner of the first-ever ACCC outlet in Price and later in Richfield; Roger Bennett, a trainer with the McGee Company in Salt Lake City, an automotive equipment supplier; and Ron Lorensen, wholesale tire distributor, distribu-tor, Salt Lake City. Also on hand were Larry Pendleton, Parowan, contractor; Dave Simonsen, representing First Security Bank; and Ferrell Brinkerhoff, Rocky Mountain Company. ACCC Founder Larry Nicholls noted that his company is dedicating Ruby's Inn as their 900th automotive outlet and the only one this strategically located near a national park. He said this is perhaps "the most scenic place to get a car repaired." Nicholls recounted how his franchise operation came about back in the early 1990s. He said early on there were huge tire factories, each taking pride in their workmanship and placing their name on their product like Michelin, Firestone, Goodyear, Siberling, etc. Dealers competed with each other, then as tire manufacturers died off, competition competi-tion came from retail outlets such as K Mart, Cosco, Wal Mart, Sears. Tire dealers saw these huge retail outlets as able to purchase and sell products below what they were able to cover. As a result, over 40 percent of tire dealers went out of business in the 1970s. Nicholls and four other individuals got together and Rubys Inn Car Care Center Holds Grand Opening On Page 6A) Rubys Inn Car Care Center Holds Grand Opening From Front Page tried to come up with a program that would allow them to compete with the national retailers. Nine years ago 18 tire dealers banded together and are now able to offer tires at same price as national outlets. ACCC, whose corporate offices are located in Memphis, Tenn., placed their first outlet in Utah at Price in April 1990 which is owned and operated by Gary Grako. Grako just recently this past year opened a second outlet in Richfield and was on hand for this prestigious 900th outlet opening at Bryce. Grako and Nicholls led a small contingent of family and news media on a personal tour of the facilities, later sitting down to personally answer media questions. Grandma Jean Syrett was spry and interested as she accompanied accompan-ied this group for the personal tour. Jean Seiler, public relations specialist for Ruby's Inn, welcomed the dignitaries and family involved in the opening ceremonies. Seiler gave a brief background on the rugged history behind the making of Ruby's Inn. Seiler pointed out that Ruby's Inn was currently the largest employer in Garfield County with 425 on staff. The Inn boasts a total of 369 rooms, a new conference center which can accommodate 300, indoor pool, on-premises shopping, hair stylists, styl-ists, one-hour photo, camper store and RV park, rodeo grounds, dining, etc. ACCC Managers Gary Syrett, Bryce Syrett, Mike Stevens and Andy Monroe will oversee the day-to-day operations of the automotive center. Because of the state of the art equipment and national standardization of ACCC services, workers at the Ruby's Inn facility have and will be receiving ongoing comprehensive automotive training. Mechanics will now, by virtue of the training they receive, become technicians and some, ultimately, master technicians. ACCC prides itself on providing standardized comprehensive compre-hensive guaranteed maintenance and repair with cooperative arrangements with over 10,000 car care center providers throughout through-out the nation. A Motorist Assurance Assur-ance Program hinges on two important tenets: 1) that technicians techni-cians will never do work not authorized in advance and 2) a national criteria is set in place to determine when and if and at what point a part should be replaced. Technicians once certified in seven separate areas of expertise become master technicians but all employees will receive ongoing on-going factory-sponsored certification certifica-tion training. Workers cover all aspects of automotive care including in-cluding tire mounting and balancing, bal-ancing, alignments, lube, oil and filter, full brake service, complete muffler outfitting. In addition, technicians can deal with recreational recrea-tional vehicle and bus repair using us-ing their 30,000 pound-capacity hoist. The service center uses NAPA parts and has a business management manage-ment computer program which tracks maintenance on all vehicles vehi-cles while building a maintenance mainte-nance record for future reference. ACCC boasts a state of the art warranty center located in Denver and staffed with master technicians techni-cians who can zoom right in on automotive problems and assist patrons nationwide finding exact directions to the closest ACCC locations. |
