Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Turn5 relocates, expands its location
Move triples the amount of space, allows for additional staff
POTTSTOWN >> Turn5, an aftermarket online specialized auto parts seller, has moved to a new Pottstown location.
The new facility is triple the size of its previous location and will allow the company to double its Pottstown staff.
Turn5 — which sells parts online for Jeep Wranglers, Ford Mustangs and several pickup truck models through three websites — officially opened its new 15,000-squarefoot customer contact center at 80 Robinson St. on Jan. 10.
A ribbon-cutting for staff and invited guests preceded the first work shift in the new facility, and a job fair for potential new Turn5 employees.
“Today is a really exciting day,” Steve Voudouris, Turn5 co-founder and CEO, said during Thursday’s event, adding that the company had outgrown its previous location. “Now they (employees) have this awesome home and can really be comfortable and continue to do the fantastic job they do every day. I am excited
“We’re an auto enthusiast company. We were interested in expanding and there was the feeling that Pottstown was the right place in terms of auto enthusiasts in the area.” – Steve Voudouris, Turn5 cofounder and CEO
for our Pottstown team.”
The company moved into a space that formerly housed a grocery store — building out the space to include a modern open office, video set, employee training rooms, conference rooms, a Turn5 branded huddle space, five offices, on-car training ability and a product lab.
The company had previously occupied about 5,000 square feet at 374 Circle of Progress, with 38 customer service em--
ployees. The new location has room for about 80 employees.
When Turn5 initially opened its Circle of Progress location two years ago, it was an extension of the company’s customer service team in Malvern, according to Voudouris. Now, the two facilities are about the same size.
Planning for the expansion started about a year ago, according to Jayme Guenther, Turn5 employee projects and buildings manager, who added that construction took about six months to complete.
One of the construction companies Turn5 works with knew about the availability of the Robinson St. building, according to Mike Cunningham, Turn5 creative director.
“We had specific criteria we needed. The Pottstown location at 80 Robinson Street checked all the boxes,” he said, in terms of “square footage, an existing doc ramp for vehicle access, close proximity to our current headquarters in Paoli and close to amenities for employees.”
In an interview, Voudouris said the company’s initial commitment to Pottstown wasn’t a coincidence. “We’re an auto enthusiast company,” he said. “We were interested in expanding and there was the feeling that Pottstown was the right place in terms of auto enthusiasts in the area.”
“We have a lot of car enthusiasts in this area, a lot of great people. We’ve built a really solid staff here in Pottstown and this just gives us an opportunity to grow that staff and do a great job for customers,” added George Dietrich, Turn5 director of contact center.
Walking into the new building — it’s immediately clear something automotive is going on — as visitors are greeted by an overhead lighting fixture made out of tires.
On one wall in the contact center are the words, “Dream, Build, Drive.”
“And that’s what it’s really about — helping customers create that vision for their vehicle, and have some great staff here to help them find their way through that process. It’s really a big part of our business and what we try to do here,” Dietrich added.
Customer service is key to the Turn5 experience and to the growth of the company, according to Voudouris.
“Making sure we know the product inside and out and can go the extra mile to help customers. The other piece is technology,” he said, adding that the company has a video studio in Paoli shooting videos that show customers how to install the parts.
“We do sound comparison videos — where customers can hear before and after sounds.”
On the Jeep side, Voudouris said the company has an app that starts by asking what color a customer’s Jeep is. As the customer looks at accessories they can see what it might look like.
“It allows it to be an easier hobby for people, and takes a lot of the complexity out of what will and won’t work. That has resonated well with customers,” Voudouris added. “If you think about what that looked like 15 years ago. People were shopping out of black and white catalogs.”
At the heart of the company is customer service, which Cunningham said differentiates Turn5 from other players in the market.
“Those other places don’t have a person you can pick up the phone and call on a Saturday,” he said.
Turn5 was started in 2003 by brothers Steve and Andrew Voudouris in their parents’ garage. Since then it has grown into an awardwinning e-commerce business that provides aftermarket auto parts, content and customer service through the three e-retail stores, AmericanMuscle. com, ExtremeTerrain.com and AmericanTrucks.com.
The company employs more than 400. Last January, Turn5 moved into a new 90,000 square foot headquarters in Paoli — double the size of its previous headquarters. The company also opened a West Coast distribution center in Las Vegas in 2017 and just recently opened a fulfillment center in Kansas City, Kan.
“We had no clue it would take off the way it has. We were passionate about technology and cars and we’re auto enthusiasts. We saw an opportunity to make the experience better and got started,” Voudouris said.
For its first 10 years, according to Voudouris, Turn5 serviced just the Mustang enthusiast, expanding into the Jeep market about four years ago and the truck market two years ago.
“People are into trucks. That is what we’re seeing growth from and the need for our growth,” he added.
As part of its opening day Jan. 10, Turn5 hosted a job fair at the Pottstown location for customer service positions. The company is also hiring for positions at some of its other locations. For information about jobs at Turn5 visit www.turn5. com/careers.