Fabrion Franchise Best Kept Secret In The Automotive Business

Posted on June 20, 2007 by

One of the best kept secretes in the automotive business is a 23 y.o. company that goes by the name of FABRION.  FABRION is a division of Cartex, Ltd., headquartered just north of Detroit in Sterling Heights, MI.  FABRION is an international franchisor with over 100 franchises thru ought the US and Canada, all of whom specialize in automobile interior repair.  The FABRION Repair System also works well on any furniture surface.  FABRION franchisees and their technicians are able to perform invisible repairs on virtually any surface and with any materials, such as those found in autos and boats, as well as furniture in both the residential and commercial settings.

The current owner and chief operating officer is Paul Marvin.  His background was in large market sales, having owned at one time the largest group of computer-training centers in the US, as well as being owner and operator of one of the largest and most successful cell-phone distributorships.  Mr. Marvin bought the Cartex business approximately tthree years ago from the founder. 

When asked why he chose Cartex Marvin responded, “I looked at quite a number of businesses that were for sale but couldn’t get good, complete information from the majority of them, so I couldn’t really evaluate their worth.  When it came down to the bottom line, most potential sellers just couldn’t justify their asking price.  I was looking for a business that had a lot of potential, one that I could expect a good return on my investment from.  I chose Cartex for a number of reasons.  I liked the idea that, being a franchise company, it was highly regulated by the government.  Everything was out in the open.  I also liked the fact that individual franchisees could really make a good profit.  I talked with a great number of the existing franchisees, and quite frankly, I couldn’t get anyone to say anything negative.  Because franchisees do their repairs on dealer’s lots, they do not get bogged down with paying a huge portion of their profits toward overhead.  Our franchisees don’t have to support an expensive building and an office staff.  Ours is basically a route business.  We travel from car lot to car lot and do the repairs on site.  A franchisees biggest expense is his van.  I soon realized that this was as recession-proof a business as I had ever seen.  There will always be a market for autos, and auto dealers will always look for ways to make it easier to sell a car.  It just made sense in every aspect.”

Discussing his plans for the future of Cartex and FABRION Marvin said, “We are in an aggressive expansion mode.  I didn’t do anything as far as selling new franchises the first year or so after I took over.  I just wanted to get to know the business and to learn as much as I could from the existing operators.  We began selling franchises again about a year ago and that is going well.  We have also decided to market Master Franchises, both here at home and internationally.  Each Master Franchisee will have the responsibility for selling and supporting individual franchises within a designated territory.  We feel that this will help us to expand faster and to provide more direct support to our franchises.  Many of our products and repair methods are proprietary, so having central locations for supplies really makes sense.  Especially overseas.”

“We expect to continue to be the true leader in our industry for a long time to come,” said Marvin.  “We have franchisees who have been with the company for over 15 years and we have franchisees that are building little empires.  We encourage expansion.  It only takes, on average, 8 to 10 car dealers to keep one man busy and, with a minimum of 70 dealers in each franchise market, it is not unusual to see more than one van.  We have a franchisee in Texas who just added his 12th van.” 

Marvin concluded by stating, “I feel better about my decision to buy the company every day.”