Merchant Automotive provides industry-leading product offering. The brand’s staff of professionals has intimate knowledge in all the Duramax/Allison platforms it represents and is dedicated to 100% customer satisfaction. Merchant Automotive provides you with highly specific technical information not found anywhere else. Many of its products are custom designed and manufactured in-house to maximize the performance and reliability of your truck.
The emphasis on product design and specialized manufacturing means that Merchant Automotive can offer you low pricing on products not found at other companies. Merchant Automotive can build anything from pulling hitches to traction bars and all the way to custom twin turbo build ups.
Merchant Automotive has earned great recognition for building the engine and transmission in the well-known truck “Nasty Girl". This truck has dynod over 1000 horsepower on two separate occasions and is used as a daily driver by its owner.
HISTORY
Merchant Automotive, LLC was founded in 2004 by Eric Merchant. Eric was a long-time employee of GM dealerships before forming Merchant Automotive, LLC. Eric got his start in high school where he discovered his passion for anything with a motor. He took his passion and turned it into a career in 1993 working in a small shop doing brakes and alignment work.
Eric Merchant accumulated knowledge daily and soon took a position at a GM dealership in 1995 and advanced up the ranks over the next 10 years. Along the way, Eric studied the industry hard, taking over 3000 hours of GM training and maintaining ASE Master Certification since 1998.
In April 2008, Merchant Automotive moved into its current location in Zeeland, MI. The move was a huge undertaking that involved a complete remodel of the building. That building, having over 10,000 square feet of space, has allowed for greater expansion and a large retail front.
CORE VALUES
POSITIVE
Simple really. You must be an addition. You must add something to the organization. Positive influence plus action will build the team. Positivity is the fuel in their tank. It is what pushes the entire organization forward. It is contagious and will spread to those around you. Unfortunately, so does Negativity. In fact, negativity spreads even faster sucking the life out of everybody. Only you can choose your attitude, it does not cost anything and is available everywhere. You will never see darkness if you always face the sun. If you find yourself stuck in Negativity, ask yourself what you need to do to change that?
TEAM
A team consists of a group of individuals all working together for a common purpose. The word Team is actually an acronym for “Together Everyone Achieves More.” Each person on the team must hold themselves personally accountable for their own success in order for them to have a Positive impact on the team. A great team will all accomplish their individual responsibility but will back each other up to accomplish the end goal. Every person in this organization will be a vital part of this team. Bench warmers will not be needed.
PERSONALLY ACCOUNTABLE
Are you pushing the success of the team? A strong desire to win is needed, a desire to improve your process by recognizing and eliminating bottlenecks. YOU are Never Satisfied and fulfill your responsibilities without being forced or reminded too. By doing so you continue to push the Team forward and spread a positive vibe to all. Nobody likes to pickup the slack of somebody else and they should not have too. Everything they do affects their impact on the team, their punctuality and attendance, quality use of time during the day, avoiding distractions, right down to the cleanliness of company work area.
NEVER SATISFIED
People by nature are very competitive and always have a desire to push to the next level in nearly everything they do. Somebody who enjoys the back-yard BBQ is always looking for ways to make their rib recipe a little bit better. The fisherman is always looking to improve his technique or bait choice to find the bigger fish. The golfer will continue to adjust his technique to be more accurate. Even if you do not realize it, just about everything they do they naturally push to do more or better. As part of a winning team, they know that they can make a huge impact on its success with their actions, accuracy and ability to get the job done without hesitation. Continuous improvement should be in their mindset, even the little things will add up to great outcomes! Remember, at some point, somebody decided to put the toilet paper next to the toilet!
CUSTOMER CARE
The reason they do what they do, it is what their goal is as a team, it is the greatest measure of company success as a Team. It is the reason they get up in the morning and want to succeed. Something greater than a paycheck even. The satisfaction of taking care of company customers is what drives us. If they exhibit a positive team environment, holding themselves personally accountable to the team with a never satisfied attitude, their customer care will almost come naturally. Customers will recognize this and reward us with their patronage and loyalty. Customers may buy from us once as a result of their advertising or visibility. But they will buy from us for life as a result of the experience they receive.