My dad, UT Brown, founded Cardinal Plaza Shell and opened the station in 1969. It was a classic ranch style, three bay Shell service station. The station slowly built through the years as the neighborhood grew around us. UT was a fixture of the Springfield community and ran the station as a family run neighborhood oriented business.
My brothers & I worked at the station throughout our childhood and my mom served as bookkeeper. In 1986, I graduated from University of Virginia and worked alongside my dad for a year before he retired. We rebuilt the shop the same year to its current configuration. As a second generation dealer, my brother Doug & I have worked to keep old traditions alive while creating new ones. If you’ve seen the shop at Christmas time you know what I mean.
The team at the shop has remained dedicated to serving the Springfield, Burke and surrounding communities with many technicians and service advisors having 10, 15 or even 25 years of experience. In no particular order (it would be like trying to rank my kids), I would like to thank Chris, Dan, Jon, Jason, CJ, Wilber, Ozzie, Brian, Zach, Joe, Jacob, Nick, Tayvon, Delane and the rest of the crew for making Cardinal Plaza Shell the premier business establishment in the Commonwealth and the best shop in the nation.
Other shop owners have asked me why my team is so successful. Yes, we have all the certifications, our techs and advisors are ASE Certified and Cardinal Plaza Shell is an ASE Blue Seal of Excellence shop. But these aren’t the reasons for success, they are the result of it. I think the true catalyst is a lesson I learned from my dad after graduating from college. He always told me that no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. This is one of his finest lessons and a principle I will always run my business on.
-Scott Brown
