Announcing the 2021 Shop of the Year

Josie Candito, owner of Grasp Mechanic Superior Park (center), is flanked by business associates and shop experts Mike Tavares (left) and Rui Silvestre (proper).

Right after going via a lot more than two dozen nominations and exploring all the great things Canadian store entrepreneurs are carrying out, Vehicles Journal is proud to current the 2021 Shop of the Calendar year award to Master Mechanic Superior Park in Toronto.

The shop is owned by Josie Candito who runs it with business associates Mike Tavares and Rui Silvestre. Even though the latter two are also specialists in the store, Candito is an accountant by trade. When working in the head offices of Learn Mechanic, she seized an option to open up her own store inside of the franchise.

We’ll be planning a complete-size feature to operate on-line, in addition to a characteristic in our print journal. Continue to be tuned to our web site in the coming months and keep an eye out for our December challenge to discover extra about Candito and the MMHP workforce.

The shop was picked primarily based on its determination to tech instruction, expense in the enterprise and commitment to the local community. The award is sponsored by Milwaukee Software, which provided a prize pack valued at $2,500.

(from remaining) Matt Gibbons, Milwaukee senior countrywide account supervisor – automotive/rental, Mike Tavares, Josie Candito, Rui Silvestre and Adam Hicks, Milwaukee transportation income specialist, GTA. They’re joined by Charlie, main canine officer (front)

About the winner

Candito, an accountant by qualifications who labored at the head office of Learn Mechanic, opened the doors to the west-close Toronto shop in 1999.

“I guess I experienced the entrepreneurial spirit in me to be on my very own,” Candito stated. “When you are chatting to buyers and you are building anything, I guess there was something in me that I just loved it. And when this area came up, I just cherished the spot.”

Candito ensures that her team are constantly addressed perfectly, as equals and taken care of. “At our shop, everybody’s significant. We’re all equal. Nobody’s better than anyone else. We all operate tough, and there’s no emotion of ‘I’m superior to any one,’” she claimed. “Obviously, there are leaders. But nobody’s just sitting down in the back room. We have to direct by illustration. And not only in our neighborhood, but for our personnel. We all have to be part versions. So those are all factors and I’m really distinct about.”

Grasp Mechanic High Park, at the corner of Howard Park and Dundas Avenue West in Toronto.

Helping the community

Shut to Candito’s coronary heart is her surrounding local community. It was her devotion to all those in want and making certain the accomplishment of all those all over her that divided her from the other nominees for this award.

“I appear from a really humble family members. My dad and mom are immigrants and observing how they struggled, I constantly wished to make confident that I could aid them and the community,” she explained.

To emphasize just a couple, Candito is effective with The Redwood, a women’s shelter to help empower ladies to start off around yet again. She also will work with regional non-gains like the Parkdale Food stuff Financial institution and Stone Soup Network, which shares solutions and companies with those people in need.

When COVID-19 strike, she did what she could to really encourage individuals to shop regionally and aid nearby firms that were struggling because of to pandemic-linked restrictions and lockdowns.

“It’s so critical to try to remember to assistance community. We assistance each and every other as small business leaders,” she mentioned.

Rui Silvestre, Mike Tavares and Josie Candito of Learn Mechanic Superior Park are offered with the Store of the 12 months plaque by proprietors of Cars journal Peter Bulmer and Delon Rashid

‘I’m different’

Candito acknowledges that she may possibly be quirky and not your common shop proprietor. But which is what will make her stand out in the aftermarket local community. Her approach to the enterprise, as she told her business partners Tavares and Silvestre, is what she feels is most effective.

“This is who I am and they know I’m distinct, and this is me,” Candito mentioned. “They supported me 100 per cent. It was important to me. And if you want the group to make investments in you, then you need to give back again. You require to be there for them.”