Coach Builders grows with expanded plant

Springfield Coach Builders is stretching its capacity.

The builder of stretch limousines is moving to a new location, a 35,000-square-foot site at 2177 E. Thoman, at the corner of Blaine and Thoman. The company is now occupying 18,000 square feet at 1725 N. Packer and 2,500 square feet at another site on Division, said company president John Bumgarner.

The company plans to close the Division site and use the Packer Road site for its used limousine restoration operation, while moving its new limousine manufacturing business to East Thoman.

"We're really cramped in here right now, and we don't have room to really set up the operation in the way we need to. The new location will give us more room, and we'll be able to set up more of an assembly-line type operation," Bumgarner said.

Bumgarner has been in the limousine business since 1977, when he started Executive Coach Builders, the first manufacturer of limousines in this area, he said. He sold the business in the early 1980s and the company is still operating under different ownership in Seymour. In February 1994, Bumgarner opened Springfield Coach Builders, with 12 employees who made four or five cars a month. Now he has 41 employees who produce 12 limousines a month and recondition eight to 10 used limousines a month for sale, Bumgarner said.

"The majority of our business comes from limousine services who rent out cars for proms, parties, weddings, etc. That probably accounts for 99 percent of our business," Bumgarner said.

The company occasionally sells a car to an individual, but in today's world, where limo services are plentiful, Bumgarner said most individuals would rather call up a limousine service and ask for a car rather than pay to maintain their own vehicle.

The company is planning to add staff up to 10 new workers this year and to increase its production to 18 limousines per month, Bumgarner said. That is why it needs the additional space its new location will provide. The company will lease the space from Still Investments, the owner and developer of the new property. Bumgarner said the company will maintain its location on Packer to refurbish used limousines.

"There's always a demand for the used limousines, perhaps among those people in smaller towns who can't afford a new model or among those who just choose to spend less money on a car," Bumgarner said.

Springfield Coach is expanding because of a strong demand for its product, Bumgarner said. He is expanding the company's dealer network, and is planning to contact dealers in large markets in the Midwest about representing Springfield Coach's products.

"For example, in Chicago there are two or three dealers there who I'd like to set up and get going selling our product," Bumgarner said.

Bumgarner got into the limousine business because he's always "been fascinated by luxury cars." Locally, Fisk Limousines uses some of his cars, as do a few other local services, but the majority of his cars are in larger markets outside the state, he said.

When Bumgarner first got involved in the limo business, Cadillac made the limousines, and he would buy them and resell them in the Midwest. The business evolved, and Lincoln began producing a Town Car model that was built for stretching into a limousine. At Springfield Coach today, the company buys the Town Cars at Springfield Lincoln Mercury and fits them with either a 70-inch, 100-inch or 120-inch stretch. The 120-inch stretch is the most popular, Bumgarner said.

Employees at the company saw the Town Car in half, remove its interior and add the amount of stretch, reassembling it in one unit. The car is then detailed and painted. Another part of the business that has changed in the 23 years since Bumgarner first entered it is that the components comprising a limousine used to be hand-made by the builder, but are now available through Infinite Innovations, a Springfield company that sells the components to a number of limousine builders, Bumgarner said.

"At one time, we made everything that went into the car except that we re-used what was already there. Now we can buy those components already ready to go into the car," Bumgarner said.

Most limousines are black or white, white being the most popular, but occasionally the company gets a request for another color, such as the bright red one it made recently. New limousines range from $60,000 to $68,000 each, while a used one may be anywhere from $15,000 for an older model, to $55,000 for a late model.

Cadillac is not as involved in the limousine business as it once was, leaving Lincoln as the primary source for cars that will become limousines, Bumgarner said. The demand for the luxury cars will probably continue to grow, he said.