Although he is president-elect of the National Auto Auction Association and is president of Southern Auto Auction, Eastern Powersports Auction, and SAFS Inc., Garrison Hudkins thinks of himself in more simple terms.

“People say, ‘What’s your background?’, and I have a very simple answer: I’m the husband of Carolyn, the father of Campbell and Connor, the brother of Gray, the uncle of Augie and Indie, the brother-in-law of Chris, John and Joey, the son of Lee and Pauline, and the son-in-law of Larry and the late Candy Tribble,” Hudkins said. 

“That’s who I am. It doesn’t get much more complex than that. That’s really how I view myself in the world.”

But the family man has had a long career in remarketing and in business. Before joining Southern Auto Auction in East Windsor, Conn., Hudkins served on the national accounts team for a managed care provider in New York and later worked with a boutique firm as its managing director, advising private equity firms on global health care strategies.

While working for that latter company, he was on a flight to visit a client when the plane was forced to make an emergency landing. His wife is the daughter of Larry Tribble Jr., owner of Southern Auto Auction, and after the plane incident, Hudkins went on to join that company.  

“Larry’s father [Larry Tribble Sr., who started Southern Auto Auction in 1947] was president of the NAAA. Larry was president of the NAAA. And now I’m going to be president of the NAAA, and it’s very humbling to be part of such a group,” Hudkins said.

Setting goals for the association is a focus for incoming NAAA presidents, and while Hudkins attended an NAAA board of directors retreat in January, he and the other board members charted a course for the association for the next few years.

Education becomes central theme

“We all agreed from a board perspective that no matter what, the NAAA’s mission of providing trust, transparency, fidelity to the industry in standards, has not and will never change,” Hudkins said.

Electric vehicles, safety and communication with members are three main areas of focus for the association in the coming years. But Hudkins said leadership development is a new focus. The association will offer a program called LEAD University that will provide training for aspiring auto industry leaders on “vital concepts and skills necessary to maximize performance, productivity, and team morale in the workplace,” according to NAAA.

“It’s going to expose our members [and] their team members to some new things the NAAA has never done, but this goes back to what the board decided, where education becomes a central theme of supporting our membership,” Hudkins said.

Part of the program includes vital concepts of leadership, “exploring common pitfalls and specific actionable tools for each.”

Electric vehicles are another area that will see focus from the association. More specifically, the association will study how to assist in sourcing materials necessary to service the vehicles.

“There’s a lot of infrastructure that has to be developed,” Hudkins said. “It’s not something as simple as saying the cars show up and we can service them. So, as more electric vehicles are sold, which they will be, a lot more end up in the remarketing channels, and we need to prepare.”

He went on to say, “How do we work with the programs that may be available at the state and federal levels? Advocacy as it relates to that because it’s not really a retail-facing thing but … an integral part of the lifecycle of a vehicle is the remarketing and auction space, so it’s important that we understand how we fit in some of these federal and state initiatives and advocating what we have for members.” 

Starting out by learning the basics

When he started with Southern Auto Auction, Hudkins studied all parts of the business, getting his auction business education through hands-on learning.  

“The auction business is not just as simple as cars coming in, cars coming out,” Hudkins said. “There’s a lot of operations, there’s a lot of logistics, there’s a lot of finance.”

He continued, “If you look at what an auto auction does, it’s a remarketing company, but it’s a logistics company, it’s a marketing company, it’s a banking organization, it’s a service industry.”

Hudkins and company leaders came up with a plan for him to learn all aspects of the business. Early on, he learned how to paint bumpers. 

“I never painted a car in my life,” he said. “I went in the body shop for six to eight months, and my work was terrible, quite frankly, but I gave it a try, and I learned a lot from there.”

He also worked with Southern Auto Auction’s floor plan company. And he spent time working for the company’s power sports auction. 

Hudkins also worked in yard operations. “I was here at 3 in the morning plowing snow with everybody else,” he said. “So, there was a period of time where we just learned everything by getting your hands dirty in the entire auction operation.” 

“I really just learned everything about the business, and I’ve never stopped learning,” he said.  “I’ve been here now over 12 years, and I learned some stuff this past week. It’s a fantastic business to be a part of.”

Independent auction challenges

But like every business, the auto auction business has its hurdles. Hudkins said the challenges facing independent auto auctions are the same challenges facing the chain auctions. A main one: Difficulty in hiring and training employees. And attracting techs who can work on electric vehicles is a challenge in that area, he said.

“The challenges at auto auctions are the same challenges everybody has,” he said. “At its core, it’s about people.” 

He cannot predict when the nationwide labor shortage will ease up, but he said the auto remarketing industry offers “a very reasonable, realistic and frankly rewarding career path.”

“And for people who want a rewarding career path where they can grow and do a ton of stuff, this is a fantastic industry,” he said. “And that’s what we’re presenting and that’s why I think we’re in pretty good from the employee perspective as the industry looks forward.”

He describes the current state of the auto auction industry as “robust,” saying that investments NAAA members are making in technology, infrastructure, people and new processes and procedures signal confidence in the continued strength of the industry.

“What people will hear from me as we look forward is, we may be ruthless competitors on a daily basis, and we may fight hard for every piece of business,” he said.

“But to me at its core, the NAAA is still about  — in addition to the transparency, in addition to the trust, and the fidelity and industry standards — it’s about relationships.” 

“Now we have to relentlessly pursue those together. Because these relationships are what has built the NAAA to serve our customers, and I only see that continuing.”