Elite Collision Center in Battle Ground celebrated its 20-year anniversary on Wednesday, June 7, with a public celebration featuring a hot dog bar and other refreshments.
Company President Kevin Morse said his dad started the company back in 1991 with a mechanical shop.
“We had a piece of property here and we decided to invest back into Battle Ground,” Morse said. “We’ve been around for a long time, and businesses come and go, but there’s a reason why we’ve stayed in business for 20 years and we’ve got a great community here that’s been here for you through thick and thin through the pandemic.”
Elite Collision Center provides a full-service, AAA-approved mechanical shop, a quick lube oil change facility and a AAA collision repair facility.
“It’s taking care of the customer and we’re a consumer advocate shop. We’re a lot different than a lot of body shops,” Morse said. “We’re one of the last ones that are non-DRP. We don’t have any contracts signed with the insurance company. Our philosophy is really simple: We want to do a safe and proper repair and that means doing it the way that the manufacturer wants to do it.”
Elite uses factory original parts and uses environmentally friendly paints. They use water-borne paints rather than solvent-based paints.
“By eliminating up to 96% of the volatile organic compound emissions compared to solvent-borne base coats, we are protecting our employees and the environment,” Elite’s website states. “This commitment has lowered our generation of hazardous waste material, it has eliminated the flammability hazard associated with solvent-borne base coats and we use less material to cover more area.”
Morse has always taken into consideration what his father once told him, “you either got to be the biggest or the best.”
Morse said he knew they weren’t going to be the biggest company, so they needed to do right by their customers, which is evidenced in Elite’s Google rating of 4.8 out 5 stars after 286 reviews over the years.
Morse thanked his employees and especially his wife, Deana.
“You know you got to have a good support staff that makes everything kind of glue together and work. A lot of it comes down to my wife,” Morse said. “I mean, honestly, we’ve been working together for 20 years and she kind of gave up her career path to make my dream a reality of owning this body shop and running this body shop, and you know, I couldn’t have done it without her and without the staff.”
Elite Collision Center in Battle Ground is located at 1701 W. Main St. in Battle Ground. It is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The business can be contacted by email at elite.collision@teammorse.com or by phone at 360-687-8755.
For more information, go online to elitecollisionbg.com. Their website also includes a pre-repair questionnaire.
