West Coast Customs
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| Private company | |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Founder | Ryan Friedlinghaus |
| Headquarters | Burbank, California, U.S. |
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Key people
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Quinton Dodson, Chris G. Cooley, Dana Florence |
| Products | Custom cars, branded merchandise,franchising,trade school courses |
| Revenue | $10 million (2008) |
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Number of employees
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40 (2015) |
| Website | www |
West Coast Customs (abbreviated by the company as WCC) is an automobile repair shop focusing on the customization of vehicles. It was started by co-founders Ryan Friedlinghaus and Quinton Dodson in 1994. According to Friedlinghaus, he began the business with a $5000 loan from his grandfather, but other sources claim that he raised the seed money for the business while working at his father's liquor store. Owing to the patronage of celebrities such as Shaquille O'Neal, and Sean Combs, along with appearances in the reality television programs Pimp My Ride and Street Customs, the company has gained a high degree of notoriety and has become a multimillion-dollar business.
Besides celebrities, West Coast Customs has also created vehicles for global brands such as Virgin,Nintendo, and Microsoft. It is frequently characterized as one of the best custom car shops in the United States. However, the company has at times been accused of missing deadlines, using aggressive sales tactics, and producing low quality and potentially unsafe customized vehicles.
It has had some success franchising outside of the United States with open franchises in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Shanghai, China (as Chinese: 西海岸汽车定制). Other franchises, however, such as the one in Berlin, Germany, closed shortly after opening due to becoming insolvent. After a long history of different locations within the U.S. state of California, its current flagship and largest facility of 60,000 square feet (5,600 m2) is headquartered in Burbank, California.
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Wikipedia