Repair Authority resets

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio – When the current owners of Repair Authority bought the company six years ago, they “tore it down to the studs and rebuilt it” and that’s paying off, says Jesse Keirn. 

The company was recently named to this year’s Weatherhead 100 list of the fastest companies in Northeast Ohio, coming in 14th with a 165% increase in revenue growth and a 300% increase in full-time employees over a five-year period, from 2015-20. 

“It needed a foundational reset,” said Keirn, CEO. “We made wholesale changes in terms of company culture, pay and the type of business we went after. While the company had been around for 25 years, we looked at it as a 25-year startup.” 

The award, which was established in 1988 and is sponsored by the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, recognizes elite companies that are the best examples of leadership, growth and success in the region. 

When Keirn and his partners bought Repair Authority, it was heavily dependent on warranty work for manufacturers for oxygen concentrators on a state level. They expanded their services to portable oxygen concentrators, sleep therapy devices and ventilators, and their reach outside of Ohio. 

“We expanded to every state that touches Ohio, and even beyond that on special occasions,” he said. “Demand is through the roof.” 

That demand has helped to buffer any loss of business from repairing Philips DreamStation 1 devices due to the recall, Keirn says. 

“We used to see a steady stream of DreamStations in this building and that has stopped,” he said. “In normal circumstances, we’d be discouraged, but the demand is so excessive, and we know eventually that (Philips repairs) will pick back up.” 

Repair Authority, like so many other companies, does face challenges due to supply chain issues – it gets parts from manufacturers for warranty work, as well as from OEMs and other suppliers – and labor shortages. 

“We’re well short of the number of employees we need for peak performance,” he said.