Midas, Inc. has brought the Northern California SpeeDee Oil Change name to San Diego by adding SpeeDee quick-lube services to 11 company-owned Midas shops in the San Diego market.
SpeeDee specializes in convenient high-quality oil changes and fluid service, which Midas reports it will combine with its full range of automotive repair and maintenance offerings.
Midas invested more than $1 million in shop upgrades and renovations and hired nearly 50 new service employees as part of this co-branding project. Total employment at company-owned Midas shops in the San Diego area now is 103.
Renovations at the shops include the installation of platform lifts in the oil change bays that enable one technician to ride up with the vehicle to work under the hood while a second technician works under the car. New interior and exterior signs identify and explain the addition of the SpeeDee oil change service.
“Midas has performed oil changes for many years, but at many shops in the past customers were asked to make appointments or leave their cars and we would perform the oil change when we had an open bay,” says William M. Guzik, Midas’ executive vice president.
Five of the Midas-SpeeDee co-branded shops are in San Diego and others are in Chula Vista, El Cajon, La Mesa, Oceanside, Poway and San Clemente.
In April 2008, Midas, Inc., the automotive service provider based in Itasca, Ill., acquired the franchisor of the New Orleans-based SpeeDee system, which has 116 quick-lube and maintenance outlets in the United States and 57 in Mexico.
At the time of the acquisition, Midas officials announced the company’s plan for the eventual co-branding of Midas and SpeeDee outlets in locations nationwide where there is not overlap of existing shops. Midas has nearly 1,650 shops in the United States and Canada, and 800 in 13 other countries. SpeeDee’s U.S. shops are located in 13 states primarily in the northeast, mid-Atlantic, southern coastal states and the far west.
“This co-branding strategy is extremely exciting because it enables both Midas and SpeeDee to benefit from the strengths of the two brands’ respective service offerings to provide the three most frequent vehicle maintenance services—oil changes, brakes and tires,” Guzik says.
Midas services were added to four SpeeDee franchised shops in central California in the second half of 2008 as part of a co-branding test in SpeeDee shops. Four company-owned Chicago-area Midas shops are currently testing the addition of SpeeDee oil changes.
For the second quarter ended July 4, 2009, Midas reported that comparable shop sales increased by 17 percent at the co-branded SpeeDee-Midas shops in central California and by 9.5 percent in the Midas-SpeeDee co-branded shops in the Chicago area.
“We are encouraged by significant increases in both sales and car counts at these co-branded shops in California and Illinois,” Guzik says. “And, daily traffic has doubled in each of the Midas shops in San Diego as we began adding SpeeDee oil change services during the second quarter.”
Guzik said the company is taking what it has learned in the California and Chicago area co-brands and is developing a co-brand operating and marketing strategy. The company expects to begin a gradual roll-out throughout both the Midas and SpeeDee networks in the U.S. in 2010. The company expects to have approximately 25 co-branded locations in place by the end of 2009.
