URG is proud to announce a new monthly “Get to know you” series of articles highlighting our Members! Each month, our staff will pick a member location at random and interview staff on site for a feature story in our newsletter!
Meet the inaugural Member in our series: Lambert Auto Salvage, in Booneville, Mississippi!
Owner Kerry Lambert opened for business in 1997 and has been providing quality parts and excellent customer service to the Booneville area ever since. Their present location was originally a single building, auto body/service shop when Kerry purchased the 10-acre location. Since then, his original 2 employee staff has expanded to almost 40 and Lambert’s itself has expanded to over 30 acres! Adding more work space buildings as the business needs have changed and grown.
Before going into the salvage business, however, Kerry originally went to school to become an electrician at Northeast Mississippi Community college, but found his passion in fixing and salvaging cars with his father.
Lambert Auto Salvage is a member of RCD, CDC, ARA, URG and the Mississippi Salvage Association. These memberships help them serve their local customers, as well as other customers around the country, by tiering their parts to other shops and sourcing parts they don’t have from other locations. “URG has been great on the core side of everything, providing the core feeds is where I’d say we’ve really utilized URG’s services more than in the past,” Kerry said. “Next week, we start with the warranty program and the URG conventions are always great. You learn so much from the classes and from the other recyclers also!”
Their customers are not the only ones that Kerry takes care of, “All of our wages went up through COVID. So we’re obviously having to pay more to keep people. The main thing is just taking care of them, you know? If they need something, make sure they have the time off they need, make sure they have the tools to do the job the best they can and as easily as they can. The main thing is pay, making sure the pay is competitive because, I mean, if they’re making good money, they’re not gonna stop. It’s gotta be a positive work environment!”
When asked about his experiences in owning and running his own business, Kerry said, “Our business has changed tremendously because we came into this, not knowing anything really about the industry at all. We just started selling parts and fixing cars, and it just evolved into what it is today. Now, there’s just a lot more going on. I never imagined we’d be doing the business we do now and doing the amount of cars that we do!”
