ATD of the Heartland Moves On

For those who may not have heard yet, one of our long-time members and one of the Restylers International Owners, was able to successfully sell his business and move into other areas of interest.  Guy Howie, Owner of ATD of the Heartland, sold his ATD business last summer, but he has remained one of the RI Owners.

Guy started out like so many of the rest of us, a one-man operation, as a mobile installer, out of his garage in 1977.  As the business grew, those people that worked for him would come by the garage, pick up product for their daily work and scheduled jobs, then at the end of the day would return to the garage and write up invoices.  As his business continued to grow, he made the decision to actually set up shop, and leased a building which also housed a glass company that he bought and continued to work.  Then he began to do sign work, and as that part of the business grew, he saw the need to build his own shop in 1994 to house the various operations he was now working.  By the late 1990’s, he had 18 employees working for him.

During the last 10 years of his business ownership, Guy had been working part time.  He had been wanting to make a change, had been involved in doing volunteer work and wanted to devote more time to volunteer projects.  He had a realtor approach him about selling his building, but he didn’t want to just sell the building and then have to move the business elsewhere.  So he worked out an arrangement to sell the business along with the sale of the building.  He sold all property and assets, which included Blue Sky (this refers to his reputation, his existing relationships and/or customer base).  Of course he had to open his books for the prospective buyer, he kept his accounts receivable and he signed a non-compete agreement which added to the purchase value.  Part of the deal/sale was that the buyer would retain Guy’s current employees and then Guy himself stayed on as a consultant for an agreed period of time.  He is now able to devote more time to the interests that motivated him to make these changes.

To be able to help him pursuit his other interests and continue to support his family, Guy is still actively involved in servicing a couple of out-of-town dealerships with tint and PPF.  He and his wife Karen also do commercial tint.  The company that bought out his business had no interest in traveling to other locations nor did they have any interest in the commercial/residential tint arena.  Guy still enjoys the restyling business that supported him so well for so many years, and especially now that he sets his own schedule (works when he wants to, not because he has to).  He has many good, longtime friends in this business and is glad to be able to stay connected and keep in touch.