Mike Needham, owner of Autoglass Masters, celebrated 30 years in business. He started in Beaufort, SC, in 1995, expanding to Walterboro in 1997. Needham explains, “My brother had a glass place in Augusta, Georgia for about 12 years, so I would go up there and train with him. I did that for about a year on Fridays and Saturdays and then decided to open my own shop. I had a uniform route starting in Beaufort, so I knew all the garages and dealerships. I was telling them that I was thinking about doing this. They said, “Well, we’ll use you as long as you do good work. Some of them I’ve had since I first went in business in the Beaufort area. I bought my brother out in 1997 for the Walterboro area, and we worked from the house doing strictly mobile. When the economy fell out around 2008, we rented a shop on the other side of town for a couple years until this building became available.”
The glass business has changed over the 30 years with new technology. Needham has kept up with the times, “Now they have the cameras on the windshield. So you have to recalibrate the cameras when you change the windshield and you must invest in that recalibration equipment and the training.” The investment was quite expensive but necessary to keep up with technology and to qualify for insurance company work.
Autoglass Masters services areas from Hilton Head to St. George including Hardeeville and Ridgeland. Needham says, “I’ve been in this area so long, everybody knows me, so the word of mouth is where I’m at because I don’t advertise a whole bunch. you also have to be on the list for the insurance companies. They can’t tell you to who to use, they’re supposed to give you two, two different companies and most time with being a smaller company, they usually use me. I’ve had customers for a long time.”
Most glass can be obtained within 24 hours. On some vehicles newer vehicles, it takes longer because they haven’t released the patent on them to get the aftermarket glass.
The team includes Mike, his wife Sonya, a part-time and full-time tech, as well as two office staff members. They emphasize quality work and quick problem resolution. The team lost a valuable member during the pandemic, David Brobst, he managed the office and was an installer as well. Needham who likes working outside the office relied heavily on David to run the day-to-day operations.
Mike hopes to eventually plans to semi-retire, with his staff managing operations. The business has been here 30 years Needham credits that longevity to one thing, “We’ve kept our integrity, and I think that’s the one reason that we’ve kept our clientele, our customers, because when we say we’re going to be there, we show up and do quality work.”
