Held in Cancun, Mexico, the annual convention brought together nearly 400 franchise partners, corporate team members, vendors and industry leaders from the U.S. and Canada.
Maaco recently hosted its 2023 convention, themed “The Future of Better,” Nov. 7-10 in Cancun, Mexico, gathering nearly 400 franchise partners, corporate team members, valued vendors, industry leaders and special guests from the U.S. and Canada for four days of networking, main stage presentations, a vendor trade show, breakout sessions and family activities.
The event, celebrating the franchise's 51st year of operations, was kicked off by a "Maaco Does Mexico" party, which included the annual awards ceremony honoring franchise partners who excelled in key performance categories:
- Rookie of the Year (New Unit Growth): Ahmed Mahmoud, Pflugerville, TX
- Rookie of the Year (Resale): Ali Hakim and Kaseem Bazzi, Detroit, MI
- Top Sales Growth: Nick Patel, Addison, IL
- MSO of the Year: Helmuth Mayer, MSO, Dallas, TX
- Regional Cup Central: Nick Patel, Addison, IL
- Regional Cup East: Justin DePasquale, Ft. Myers, FL
- Regional Cup West: Robert Reid, Mansfield, TX
- Regional Cup Northeast: AJ and Katie Inge, Chesapeake, VA
- Regional Cup Canada: Peter Flannigan, Airdrie, AB
- Maaco Cup: Liesenfelds family, M1960, Burnsville, MI
- Terry Taylor Award: Jake Brown, Jake Morrow and Gene Boiseau Jr., Freedom Group, MSO, Phoenix, AZ
- Top Sales Second and Third: Joseph Ambuul, Colorado Springs, CO; Liesenfelds family, Burnsville, MN
- Tony Martino Hall of Fame: Tim Wright, Farmington, MI
“What a great night coming together with our franchise family to celebrate our achievements in Mexico and honor the top performers across our system,” said Daryl Hurst, president of Maaco. “Our franchise partners have done an incredible job delivering excellent performance and high-quality vehicle painting and repairs. We applaud them for their success and look forward to seeing what they accomplish in the future.”
The next morning featured Maaco Beach Olympics, featuring a variety of beach and water games that raised more than $7,000 for the Maaco Charitable Fund.
Day three of the convention featured mainstage presentations on Maaco’s performance, operations, marketing and more from Maaco’s senior leadership team, as well as inspiring and entertaining guest speakers, including Anthony Trucks, former NFL athlete, "American Ninja Warrior" contestant, international speaker and author, and John Di Domenico, actor and comedian.
The senior leadership team---including Hurst; Dave Gross, vice president of strategic integration; Bryan Jones, vice president of operations; Hannah Whitesides, SVP of revenue operations and Madison Gates, vice president of marketing---also participated in a media roundtable.
Hurst said there is a "ton of interest in the brand," as new and existing franchise partners have opened 19 new shops this year through July, and more than 30 owners have renewed their contracts in the past 12 months, with many more in the pipeline.
Gross said he spoke about two programs during that morning's mainstage presentation: converting franchisees' shops to using CCC ONE for estimating and shop management, consolidating what is now several different platforms into one; and TenPoint Complete, a supporting vendor for more than a decade, calling back potential customers to try to book appointments.
"We have lots of things on the horizon," Hurst said. "We start with the customer and identifying what’s driving their needs, find the right systems and partners to take care of them, to capture every single customer that has interest in us. Operations excellence, customer experience and technology---those are the main buckets that all have a lot of initiatives in them."
Whitesides reviewed recent changes in support team leadership, including Gross' new role leading strategic integration, and her own, focusing on growth opportunities and leveraging data to reach new customers.
Finally, the last day of the convention featured a vendor trade show.
Abby Andrews