Lots to Celebrate
Angela and Ted Chagnon (front, second and third from left) and the leadership team at Valet Park of America
When Ted Chagnon started his own business in 1990, he had big goals, but there were times, early on, when operating in seven states — from New England to Florida — and employing more than 1,250 people may have seemed like a dream too far.
But that’s precisely the growth trajectory Valet Park of America celebrated when it marked 35 years in business last month.
“It was kind of slow growth at first,” Chagnon said, recalling that his first two valet clients were Yankee Pedlar restaurant in Holyoke and Hotel Northampton, and other small businesses followed. It took two years before the company landed its first major client, Baystate Medical Center, and over the next several years, other large clients followed, particularly in the medical realm, from UMass Medical Center to MetroWest Medical Center in Natick and Framingham.
“Around 2005, we started adding ski resorts, locations in Albany, some locations in Connecticut, and we started to build some momentum. It was tough because we didn’t have any resources in the beginning.”
Initially focused on valet parking only, the business later expanded into parking management, operating lots and garages, and then other transportation services.
“That was simply because a lot of our clients, whether it’s a medical facility, a college, a casino, or a ski resort, sometimes need more than just valet; they need parking management services or transportation for guests, patients, or even transporting employees off site,” Chagnon explained. “Sometimes you’re moving the employees to off-site parking garages and parking lots when you run out of space.”
The company operates in a wide geographic footprint, from Buffalo, N.Y. to Boston, as well as in Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Florida. “We’re in Virginia as of last year, and we’ve been in Florida for five years now, and we’ve really grown tremendously there.”
Many employees have been with Valet Park of America for decades, some more than 30 years. Some of those are family, and Chagnon called this a family business; his wife, Angela, is senior vice president, with responsibilities in client relations, human resources, payroll, auditing, and marketing, and other relatives work in leadership positions as well.
“It’s so important to remember what those frontline people are doing out there, with the weather, and the circumstances, and the vehicles, and the hectic days. It can be stressful at times, and to have somebody in here who understands that and appreciates that is huge.”
“My sister was one of the founders. My niece runs our payroll department. My brother runs our fleet management and quality control department. So we are very much a family-run and owned and operated business,” he said.
But he also attributes this employee loyalty to a culture of opportunity, where someone can start by parking cars and eventually move up as other opportunities arise.
“As we grow, we have to hire more people, more regional managers, and it’s nice that we can promote from within. Many worked for us during college and came on board full-time right after college. I don’t think many of them thought they were going to have a career in parking, but then they stayed with the company. In fact, some of their kids are in college now and working for us.”
Getting Behind the Wheel
The Chagnons initially operated the company from home, then moved into an office at 191 Chestnut St. in Springfield, where Valet Park of America is still headquartered today.
“Then we kind of grew,” he said, but it was very gradual growth until about 20 years in, when both the roster of clients and the company’s geographic reach started to create more noticeable momentum. “Then you start becoming a bigger company, with different challenges. But one of the biggest, I think, has been keeping the mentality of a family-run and owned business and maintaining that culture.”
Angela agreed. “I think that just came naturally to Ted and me. I love seeing somebody that starts off as an entry-level valet attendant, and now they’re in the payroll department, or they’re helping me in the accounting department. It’s very rewarding to know that we can do that for them. Anytime we have an opening in the office, we post internally. I love to bring somebody up who knows us, who knows the business, who knows our culture, who appreciates what those frontline employees do.
“That’s the biggest factor for me,” she added. “I’m more internal; we’re more support staff on the back end, and it’s so important to remember what those frontline people are doing out there, with the weather, and the circumstances, and the vehicles, and the hectic days. It can be stressful at times, and to have somebody in here who understands that and appreciates that is huge. It makes a difference, I think, to the frontline employees when they see that. I’ve parked cars. I know what’s happening.”
With the company’s growth, Ted said he’s competing with a number of national firms, and dealing with the sorts of economic shifts that any industry faces — and, like many of them, he relies on a diverse client mix to weather those trends.
Angela and Ted Chagnon launched their enterprise 35 years ago last month
“During COVID, which was unusual, colleges got shut down; they’re doing well now, but they’re finding some fiscal restraints. Hospitals right now are finding some fiscal restraints as well; there have been some cuts there. And restaurants, in some cases, with inflation, have had to cut back, and valet services might be something that’s cut,” he explained.
“But we’ve expanded to ski resorts and casinos and still have medical facilities, colleges, and independent parking lots. So we have a wide range of industries that we service,” he added. “So we do well; one industry might be seeing some cuts or finding some fiscal restraints, and something else might be flourishing. And some states might be doing better than others. It’s never completely smooth sailing.”
The pandemic, as Chagnon noted, was indeed unusual, and particularly challenging, as colleges, casinos, and ski resorts shut down and hospitals cut way back on visitor traffic.
“We had to evolve and adapt, and we had to lay a lot of people off, but here’s what we did: we went back to our hospital clients especially and said, ‘is there anything you need us to do? You don’t need us to transport anyone. You don’t need any parking services, but what can we do for you?’
“And as things progressed, we ended up staffing a lot of COVID testing sites. We were greeting people, lining up the parking, queuing them up, checking them in. That rolled into screener services at a lot of facilities where you would come in and we’d check your temperature, and we’d ask you an array of questions pertaining to travel and things like that before you could enter the hospital. We’d register you. Because the hospitals were short-staffed, and we had a lot of people that had been working with us for a long time, and we wanted to retain them.”
Two scenes from last month’s 35th anniversary celebration, a family-friendly event that drew about 500 people.
It was a time of pivoting and resilience for most businesses, he noted.
“Everyone just said, ‘what do we need to do to keep the lights on?’ Because we still had bills to pay, mortgages and insurance and leases on vehicles. You still had to charge through that and make it happen. So we were fortunate that we had a decent number of people that were willing to do that,” he continued. “I was here at work every day just fighting through those challenges. It was a difficult time.”
Shifting into the Next Gear
With the pandemic well in the rear view — literally and figuratively — Valet Park of America continues to grow its services and footprint while maintaining that culture the Chagnons value. Last month, the company marked 35 years with a family-oriented celebration in its expansive parking lot, featuring inflatables, rock climbing, cornhole, face painting, and other activities.
“That brought about 500 people here — about 200 employees and all their kids and their spouses — and it was a very much a family environment for everyone to celebrate,” Ted said.
The event also individually recognized employees who had been with the company for 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35 years. “We wanted to start with the fifth year, but we had over 150 employees that were here more than five years and a large number of employees over 10 years, and would have been here for two days celebrating each one of them individually,” he said.
“We take pride in our employees’ tenure and the environment that we provide for them,” he added. “It’s a company that can’t run on its own. You can’t have just one person or two people running it. You need a large, supportive team behind you.”
The company also invests in plenty of training for its employees, he told BusinessWest. “We do a lot of training year-round for all our staff because we feel it’s important to make sure that they’re educated, that they know the business, and it gives them opportunity to advance.
“And it helps maintain our culture, too, because we’re in the people business, any way you look at it. We might be in the parking business, we might be in transportation, but it takes people to provide those services, and our employees are really our greatest asset.”
That culture extends to community involvement in many ways as well, supporting organizations like the USO, Jenna’s Blessing Bags, and the various foundations of the company’s medical clients — not to mention encouraging employee volunteerism with nonprofits and charitable events, like the annual UMass Cancer Walk. And those efforts are multiplied across the company’s seven states.
Looking ahead, Chagnon said Valet Park of America will continue to grow smartly and innovate in a number of ways — like its adoption some years ago of automation in the parking process at many sites.
“It’s a company that can’t run on its own. You can’t have just one person or two people running it. You need a large, supportive team behind you.”
“We distribute magnetic parking gates and started building our own entrance and exit payment kiosks for parking garages and parking lots. We kind of branched off into that a little bit to try to be a multi-faceted service provider for our clients.
“We try to control costs for them, provide a very good service, evolve, and adapt to their needs as a vendor or partner. And I think we do that well,” he continued. “Every year we see growth, and it’s primarily because of the services that we provide and the quality that we provide and a lot of good referrals.”
Angela agreed. “Our culture is so important to us, and it always has been. It’s something we focus on every year when we talk about our goals. We make sure to maintain, as best we can, communication and relationships with all the employees as we continue to grow,” she told BusinessWest. “And we have seen that nice, steady growth … obviously minus the COVID years.”
“We’re just looking forward to the next number of years,” Ted added. “Hopefully we have quite a few ahead of us.”
“A compliance program is a structured set of internal policies, procedures, and controls designed to ensure that a company and its employees follow laws, regulations, and ethical standards. Think of it as the operating manual for not accidentally (or intentionally) landing your company on the evening news.”
