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Ed Grech has successfully moved his company through a strategic bankruptcy, attracted a China-based investment partner, opened a new plant in Mexico, expanded van conversions, and prototyped new green vehicle models, all during the last few years. Krystal Enterprises is helping lead three major trends that are reshaping the chauffeured transportation industry: Going green, going global, and going for more of the group transportation market.

At 3:30 p.m. on a Monday in December, the LCT Magazine team rolls up to the white and tinted window façade of Krystal’s headquarters, reminiscent of a high-tech office park. I get out of the car and look straight up at the massive mirrored three-story entrance that reminds me of a giant glacier. I think back to the 1993 Sylvester Stallone movie, “Cliffhanger.” There’s a great line from the character named Eric that goes, “You know what love is, Kristel?” “Sacrifice.”

LCT publisher Sara Eastwood-McLean catches up with Krystal CEO Ed Grech on how Krystal is adapting to industry changes.

There’s another poignant one when the actors’ jet is about to make an emergency landing high on the mountain. At that moment, Eric comments, “Don’t bother to buckle up — you may not want to survive this.” Ed Grech, the founder and CEO of Krystal, decided to buckle up, take a chance, survived, and now is ready to fly high again — not just in business but also in the air after recent flying lessons. Grech tells us he’s nearing the required hours to obtain his private pilot’s license. This way, he can commute to his plant just across the Mexican border and still make it home in time for dinner with his wife. I smile at the irony: An entrepreneur who finds peace taking mystifying risks but knows better than to keep a lady waiting. The normally guarded Grech, with an image as polished as his top quality limousines, is now ready to find a new altitude as his company leaves the turbulence of recent years behind. Whether flying over a mountain or climbing it on the ground, Grech has contended with unforeseen forces in fashioning his next business sequel, which could have the makings of a James Bond movie. And the title obviously would have to be: “You Only Live Twice.”

LCT: Your plant is busy! What’s going on here? Van conversions, really?

Ed Grech: Really. We are exporting 25 of these a month.

LCT: So are you a limousine manufacturer or not?

Ed: I am a conversion specialist. I follow the trends. I actually try to anticipate the market and look ahead because people are fickle. Like the club scene, what’s in today is out tomorrow. Pretty much I don’t like reinventing the wheel. I don’t want to come up with a random idea that maybe sells. When there’s a demand for a particular product, we build it. You have to be adaptable. If you sit around and wait for consumer tastes to come full circle, you’re dead. We sell bling, so when the novelty fades, you have to have the next great bling-thing. I would love to kick out the same vehicle hour after hour, day after day, and year after year. But we are not a commodity. We are a NOVELTY, and to keep up that kind of demand requires change, constant; it’s a never ending process. The day you wake up and say, “I built the perfect limousine or perfect bus and now we can rest on our laurels” — that is the day you die. Every day I wake up — my team wakes up — our mind is set on taking Krystal to the next level.

Krystal has always been keen on diversification. Early on we built only limos, and then we got into funeral cars, following that we tackled the bus market. You never want your eggs in one basket. I’d be scared if I was just a bus builder. I would be concerned if I was only a limo builder. That’s why we decided to build limos, buses, SUVs, funeral vehicles, and now we’re doing quite a bit of business with van conversions.

KRYSTAL FORMATION

LCT: You are very strategic and seem to know a ton about cars. How did you find your passion for this business?

An old Polaroid of Krystal’s first stretch limousine: A 1981 Cadillac Seville that Grech told his foreman to cut in half to make their own limo.

Ed: Both my parents came here from the Island of Malta. My dad had an auto body repair business and he used to take me to work because he didn’t want me roaming the “streets” and getting into trouble. So, I owe it to my father for making me work side by side with him since I was 12. By the time I was 19, I owned my own repair shop. At 24, I owned two more shops. A friend of mine had just bought a brand new limousine and I rented it a few times and said, “Wow, this is pretty cool.” So in time I purchased a used Cadillac and had this crazy foreman from Tennessee back then. I said, “Hey Dan, we ought to just cut this thing in half and make our own limo.” I went to lunch that day and came back a few hours later and that crazy bastard Dan had gone down the street, borrowed a saw from an auto wrecker, and cut my Cadillac Seville in half! In today’s world, that would compare to cutting a Rolls Royce in half. If it was possible for a 22-year-old guy to have a heart attack…. (shakes his head). We did finish that limo and it turned out nice. We built two more and then I bought two brand new Lincolns from Barbara Papp and turned them into limos and that was when I formalized Krystal Koach. I got the name from the Kristine Onassis hotel in Cancun called the Krystal. Naming a company is more important than people consider. I wanted a name that was sophisticated and that would garner international respect. You hear all kinds of names out there, but if you want to be taken seriously, you’ve got to have a great name. I am very proud of our brand.

LCT: What was your breakout moment that led you to become the largest builder in the world?

Krystal employees David Reagan and Louie Alvarez, pictured here with a Krystal GMC van conversion destined for a Chinese client, have worked for the company for 28 years, leading its vehicle building and design efforts for almost three decades. (above)

Ed: There was a point in time when the company made a pinnacle move. It was when Lincoln’s engineering team would not approve a stretch over 72 inches. I wanted to go longer, so I decided to hire my own engineers and I set out to conduct and pay out of my pocket for all the safety tests that normally the primary manufacturers handled. I went independent and it cost me over $250,000. I did it all and we passed the tests and came out with the first ever 110” stretched limousine. We had that entire long-car market to ourselves for more than three years before others caught up.

Ed: You know it. I was pretty confident we would pass, but still I had a bottle of champagne in that limo reserved for GOOD news and a handkerchief for the flip side.

LCT: At any point did you consciously plan to be the biggest company in the world or were you doing what you loved to do and the money just followed you?

Ed: The goal was to build the best vehicle. My obsession with that and without pacing my own track record is what constituted our growth. I never sat around and said, “What’s it going to take to be the biggest?” No Wal-Mart mentality here. In fact, we’ve always maintained a higher price than our competition.

LCT: Were there…are there people that inspire you? Who dreams up your interior designs?

Ed: This guy right here (points to vehicle designer Louie Alvarez). For 28 years, we’ve gotten together at 5 p.m., and over a beer we talk. I draft and then hand him my notes and say, “Go build it,” and, well, he builds it. That’s how it works. Even though we have high-end designers, engineers and so on, Louie and I do our thing. I stole Louie away from Garcia’s Auto Top which was across the street from my body shop.

Krystal maintains an active factory floor at its Brea, Calif. headquarters. Final assembly and finishing touches are done on Krystal vehicles after they arrive from the company’s manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Mexico.

CREDIT CRUNCH

LCT: When I started this job, this industry was in bad shape due to the Savings & Loan crash. The banking industry was in a state of chaos over junk bonds. Operators were not able to get credit at all. Do you feel we’re having a déjà vu?

Ed: Back in the 90s the banks were cold on limousine financing because back in those days you had a lot of bandit builders. The banks were buying paper without doing their homework. They were overpaying for limousines and eventually they got burned. That’s not the case today. It’s not that our industry is taboo. It’s that the banking industry is on its back right now and it’s hard to get financing for any piece of equipment, whether it’s a tractor, computer system, or limousine. It’s hard to get financing, period. The banks are still reeling from their massive write-downs that had nothing to do with us.