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September 17, 2013
Benny Lee Baker II
September 18, 2013
No one looks forward to getting work done on an automobile.
The employees at A-1 Brake Muffler and Tire Center know that just as well as anyone.
That’s why they take pride in doing efficient work to get customers back on the road and out of harm’s way.
Now in business for more than a decade, the Houma-based business said it holds true to its motto: “Where service matters.” The family-owned business touts smooth service, short wait times and a quality job as the keys to operating a successful business in the automobile industry.
“We try to take people in as quickly as possible,” A-1 employee Christy Chauvin said. “We try and get people in and out. Nobody likes to wait around. So that’s pretty much the key – getting people taken care of right away, while also doing a good job. If we can do those things, I think that’s the key to maintaining a successful business.”
A-1 Brake, Muffler and Tire Center is a family-run operation – owned and operated by Chris Antee and his family.
Chauvin said the store has been operated by the family since 2001.
A-1 was previously owned by another group before that acquisition.
She said her family members have always been interested in cars, automobile work and repair jobs.
From there, the ideas started to surface about a business.
“My brother-in-law had the idea,” Chauvin said. “He looked into it and he went with the idea and took it to my dad (Chris Antee). And my dad decided to go with it, so it all sort of started from there. We all rallied together and came into business together.”
The family bought A-1 and immediately expanded the store’s name from A-1 Brake and Muffler to its full name, which includes the business’s tire center.
“We wanted to do the tires, too,” Chauvin said. “So we decided to add the tire center to our name and add that to our repertoire.”
So with more than 10 years under its belts, A-1 said it is a virtual one-stop shop for anyone in need of automobile work.
Chauvin said that the business hopes to appease all of its customers who have any laundry list of needs.
“We do front-end work, we do AC work, we do tires,” Chauvin said. “Really, it’s just about anything that you can think of. We do regular maintenance work, oil changes, flushes and alignments, too. We take on muffler work, exhaust. The most common things that we handle on a day-to-day are probably tires and breaks, though.
“We do a lot. It’s pretty much everything that we can do.”
The reason why that is possible, according to Chauvin, is the experience and talent of A-1’s repair team.
She said that the business has five full-time employees, each with a specific craft.
Chauvin said that the store’s workers are why the business continues to thrive through the test of time.
“We have employees who have been here a while, definitely,” she said. “They know how to do the work, but they also know how to do it well. Having people with that knowledge base is very important, and we’re blessed with that. Those people know what they’re doing.”
So with everything gliding smoothly on the business front, Chauvin said A-1 is actually eyeballing its future.
She said that A-1 has hopes of broadening its services in the future with a hope of being able to appease the needs of more and more customers.
“We’d probably like to expand,” Chauvin said. “We’d probably like to get into doing a little bit more in maintenance and remodeling and stuff like that. But I think we’re doing great. I think we do pretty much everything here in the brakes, mufflers and tires, so we can’t go any further in these offers than we do here. But we would like to expand and see if we can possibly do more in the future.”
A-1 Brake, Muffler and Tire Center employee Jason Lee works on a customer’s tires at the store’s Houma location. With more than a decade in service, A-1 boasts a quality staff. Store owners tout that reliable and speedy work are the keys to running a successful repair shop.
