SANFORD — It is an interim step for both businesses, but it is one that is working, the owners say. And while there will be another change in a year or so, right now, Sanford Radiator and Chandler’s Automotive, LLC are working together in the same building.
For Tony and Kim Wolfinger, it is a step closer to moving the Sanford Radiator business home to Waterboro. For Kyle Chandler, it was an opportunity to expand his business that had outgrown its former location in Springvale.
Wolfinger, 50, has been in the radiator business for many years. His father worked in the industry and he has had an interest in it since he was a lad. He started in a part-time job at 14 years old, working after school and summers in Dover, New Hampshire. He worked for a couple of well-known radiator repair shops and then decided to open his own, buying an existing business in 1988. Ten years later, the business had expanded, and so Tony built a new shop at the corner of Route 4 and Jagger Mill Road.
Along the way, he expanded his repertoire, adding general automotive repairs to his cooling system and radiator work, he said earlier this week.
But his heart has always been with radiators and cooling systems. He didn’t want to leave his customers in the lurch, but at the same time, he said, he was longing to get back to the roots of his business.
Wolfinger once employed 13 people, but has gradually cut back over the years and now employs three. He’d much rather be hands-on than managing a larger operation, he said.
“I miss having a torch in my hand eight hours a day,” he said.
He’s apparently not alone in his thoughts.
For small business owners, the bottom line is not the only the measurement of success, writes columnist Susan Ward in the online publication Small Business Info Canada. “We need to achieve work-life balance to have a true quality of life,” Ward writes.
For Wolfinger, that quality of life means looking forward to eventually moving the business home. The Wolfingers live on West Road in Waterboro and operate a maple syrup business there. Wolfinger has begun the process of working with town officials to build a new shop on the property specifically for the radiator business.
In the meantime, until all that can happen ”“ Wolfinger expects it will be about a year ”“ the two businesses are sharing quarters. There was a lot of thought put into the decision before it was carried out.
“We’re working together, and it’s working,” said Wolfinger this week. “I’m seeing happy customers, his and mine, so I think I made the right choice.”
Kyle Chandler employs seven people at Chandler Automotive, LLC, and operates four tow trucks, as well as doing automotive repair. If his name is familiar, that is because Chandler, 34, raced monster trucks for 10 years, all over the world, from Israel to Europe to North America. It was a good time, he said. But life brings changes, and Chandler opened the Springvale shop three years ago.
“We ran out of space,” Chandler said. Teaming up in the same building with Sanford Radiator has strengthened both businesses, he said.
Wolfinger said he’s heard all sorts of rumors since the change started to take place ”“ from a mid-life crisis to an illness and more, and none of them are true. It’s just time to make a change, and he said he’s looking forward to eventually working in the home shop.
Tony and Kim plan to break ground once the frost is out of the ground.
“My wife and I decided to concentrate on the cooling system trade so I can have a torch in my hand and a smile on my face,” he said.
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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