CEO's You Should Know x LKQ

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
How long have you lived and wrooked in Nashville.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
I moved down to Nashville in two thousand and eight
for LKQ, so I've been here ever since.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Tell us a little bit about yourself personally.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I grew up in Clumbus, Ohio, went to Ohio State,
traveled around quite a bit for different companies. Came to
work for a company called OLKQ in two thousand and four,
and I had a chance to relocate my wife and
my daughter down to Nashville in two thousand and eight.
So we live in Murphysboro today. I've been married for
twenty two years, eighteen year old daughter and a twelve

(00:30):
year old son.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
And how long has your business been in this area?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
So we were founded in nineteen ninety eight. We did
our first acquisition, which brought us into Tennessee Manchester, Tennessee
in two thousand and then a larger company we acquired
in two thousand and seven called Keystone Automotive, formerly known
in the market as Fenders and More. And so we
started moving our headquarters for North America operations into Nashville

(00:53):
in two thousand and eight. When I relocated down here.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Let me ask you, what is the mission of your business.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Our mission is to be the global value added distributor
of products and solutions services to our customers. Our customers
are primarily collision shops and mechanical shops. We want to
do that from a sustainabi sustainability away. I probably need
to say that a few more times. From a sustainable standpoint.
We were founded as a automotive recycler, so think of

(01:21):
a junk yard, but we much more professionalized a business
than your typical Sanford and Suns. We processed over eight
hundred thousand vehicles and so we like to make sure
that those vehicles do not end up in a landfill,
the chemicals don't end up in the soil, and so
we recycle, detoxify those vehicles and then sell those products.
And we make a money at it, but we're doing

(01:42):
it from a sustainable standpoint. But we want to be
a global value added distributor of automotive arts and solutions.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Describe what your business is about.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, So we were founded in salvage and fast forward
today from twenty five years ago. When we were founded,
we process eight hundred thousand vehicles, so selling used engines, transmission.
We've expanded into collision parts. We're now half of our
business is actually in Europe, so we saw a lot
of replacement parts and mechanical and maintenance parts, think of

(02:10):
oil filters, alternators and things like that. But we are
servicing the automotive sector, whether that's mechanical, whether that's collision shops.
But we typically only sell to other shops. So we
sell some retail, but most of our businesses to other
mechanical shops that are garageous that are doing the work.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Has the explosive growth of the Nashville area affected your business.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
You know, it's been it's been pretty impressive. I mean
I moved down here in eight We had a downturn
in the economy at the time, but national slowed down,
but it never really dipped like other markets did, and
so it's been great. From an employee standpoint. We have
over twelve hundred employees in Tennessee, around eight hundred of
those in a Nashville area, and so when we need
to find good talented people, there's a great pool here

(02:54):
to choose from. And four my Directs actually relocated from Arizona,
Ohio in North Carolina to relocate to Tennessee just because
if you look at wanting to bring rais of family.
You know, the people here, whether it's from the tourism
standpoint or just a culture is great. It's very vibrant,
and so we see Nashville is a great place to
recruit people. And like I said, I moved here and

(03:17):
love it.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
How does your business help out in the community? You
know charities, so one and so forth, etc.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
We support a lot of different initiatives and charities. We
created a foundation in twenty and twenty. We donate over
four million dollars. A million of that typically goes through
employees or employee families children, such as that for scholarships.
We also have an employee reslief fund. So think of
some of the hurricanes that have occurred in Florida and

(03:44):
some of the other markets where we will help not
just our employees, but also help the communities for which
we operate. It's critical for us to be known as
a good corporate citizen and a good community supporter. So
we created this foundation and make sure we have a
good opportunity to allocate that money out. We also help
we operate in Ukraine. We have fifty locations in Ukraine,
so we not just help our employees in Ukraine, but

(04:06):
also help some of the communities in those areas that
are suffering just from the Russian invasion.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
What else would you like people to know about your business?

Speaker 2 (04:13):
You know, we're a large company. Some people like to
work for large companies, but we operate very independently, so
we strive ourselves on entrepreneurship. We are a company of
over three hundred and twenty acquisitions since nineteen ninety eight,
so across different across the whole globe. We operate in
twenty five countries, so a lot of different cultures, a
lot of different backgrounds, diverse diversities and views, and we

(04:34):
pride ourselves on bringing in diversity from a view standpoint,
from an ethnicity standpoint. So it's a great company work for.
We have a great future ahead of us for the
products and services that we offer, but we still have
the autonomy to operate as independent businesses through throughout the world.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Where can we learn more about your business? Website, etc.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
On our website ww dot Lkqcorp dot com. That's lkqcrp
dot com.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Finally, anything else you want to mention?

Speaker 2 (05:02):
You know, I think LKQ being over sixteen hundred locations
across the globe, forty eight thousand employees. And if you
really want to work for a company or support a company,
buy from a company that is all about sustainability. That's
how we were founded. Once again, in use products that
we offer today, we have great opportunities for employees that

(05:24):
come aboard advancement opportunities. And so do the research on LKQ.
You'll find it very interesting. We're not your normal consumer
known company, but we are a great company. We're in Fortune,
we're in top Fortune three hundred as well