Customer loyalty keeps Larry's Auto Body running
By Jonathan Knutson
The Forum - 09/25/1999

In World War II, Larry Fortier fixed the fuselages of U.S. military planes. When the war ended, he decided to tackle auto bodies.

Good decision. The business he founded, Larry's Auto Body Inc., 128 16th St. N., Moorhead, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

The shop employs seven and provides complete auto collision service. It works primarily with autos and pick-up trucks, but through the years has worked on a wide range of vehicles, including tractors and school buses.

Larry Fortier died two years ago, but his shop remains a family business. His wife, Gloria, owns it. Sons Terry and Dave run it. Terry is manager, Dave assistant manager.

"It's been a good, solid family business for 50 years. We're kind of proud of that," Terry Fortier said.

Larry Fortier learned the repair business while growing up in Crookston, Minn.

The U.S. Air Force tapped that experience and sent him to the South Pacific in World War II. For nearly four years, the Japanese kept damaging U.S. war planes and Fortier kept fixing them.

"Dad was very proud of his military service," Terry Fortier said.

Larry Fortier returned home after the war and spent about three years with Schum Pontiac of Fargo.

In the summer of 1946 he struck out on his own by opening Larry's Auto Body shop in north Fargo. The shop specialized in auto rebuilding, straightening, glass replacements and painting.

The shop's site was hardly plush.

"It was in an old building. Dirt floor," Terry Fortier said. "When you start a business, you have to work your way up. That's what he did."

A few months later, Larry's Auto Body moved to another, somewhat better, building in downtown Fargo.

The shop stayed there until 1956, when urban renewal in Fargo forced Fortier to seek new quarters.

The body shop moved to downtown Moorhead, where it stayed for 14 years.

Larry's Auto Body had a busy year in 1957, when a tornado hit Fargo and damaged many vehicles, often in unusual ways.

"Dad was busy seven days a week. A lot of the damage was things he really hadn't seen before," Fortier said.

In 1970, urban renewal in downtown Moorhead forced the body shop to move again, this time to its current site on 16th Street in Moorhead. The building has been expanded and renovated through the years.

"It's been a good location for us," Terry Fortier said.

About 80 percent of the shop's customers come from Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo and Dilworth, the rest from the surrounding area.

Fortier said Moorhead customers are particularly loyal.

The auto body business has become much more sophisticated since Larry's Auto Body was established five decades ago.

"The use of computers, for one thing, is a big difference," Fortier said. "Technology helps us do a better job for customers."

Another big change: Auto bodies in today's vehicles use lightweight materials, such as fiberglass, instead of the sturdy metal found in vehicles of the past.

Though some drivers may think otherwise, it's a change for the better, Fortier said.

"People may perceive today's lightweight, energy-efficient cars to be less safe than cars of the past," he said. "But people need to realize that today's cars are designed to be safer than ever before. They have crumple zones that absorb the collision impact, rather than have the passenger absorb it.

"Believe me, if I was to run into a brick wall at 30 miles per hour, I'd much rather be in a car built today than one built 30 or 40 years ago."

On the downside - at least from the perspective of an auto body repair shop - today's vehicles are much more complex.

"People want to be dazzled by gadgets" such as power windows, Fortier said.

Such gadgets make auto body repair costlier and more complicated, he said.

The auto body industry, like many other industries, is in transition. Chains and franchises are becoming more popular, and consolidation is becoming more frequent.

Fortier said Larry's Auto Body is doing fine as an independent, single-location business.

"We're staying busy," he said. "You can never predict what the future will bring, but things are going pretty well."