Elite Worldwide announced that Jim Berberich has joined the company as its newest business development coach.

In his new role, Berberich will utilize his years of experience as a successful shop owner to provide one-on-one business-building guidance to current shop owners throughout the U.S.

Berberich was exposed to the auto service industry growing up, as his father was a master tech for Ford and his uncle owned an auto electric rebuilding business. In college, Barberich decided to blaze his own trail and became a manufacturing engineer, but soon found his way back to the auto service industry by joining his wife, Diane, as the owner of Al’s Automotive and Tire.

Jim and Diane built Al’s Automotive and Tire, a nine-bay facility, into one of the top shops in the country by mastering the numbers of the business, setting and achieving business goals, putting efficient systems and procedures in place and focusing their brand and reputation on relationship-building, trust and service that “wowed” their customers. Al’s Automotive and Tire was very well-respected in the community as an AAA approved shop, a BBB member with an A+ rating, a NAPA AutoCare member, a NAPA BDG member and a Bosch Service Certified facility. In addition to being a full-time shop owner, Barberich also published a book titled “Make It Last! Legacies Aren’t Just for People,” which paralleled the longevity of business and customer vehicles.

“I’ve known Jim for many years now, so I can say without hesitation that he’s exactly the kind of bright-minded, principle-centered professional that Elite looks for in a coach. I know that he’ll do an exceptional job of helping our clients reach their goals, and am honored to be able to call him part of the Elite family,” said Bob Cooper, president of Elite.