Victory Lane Quick Oil Change celebrated the opening of its first shop in the Greater Cincinnati market with a ribbon-cutting at the location on U.S. 42 in Florence Thursday.
Executive Vice President James Harrington said the company is looking to expand into the region and that growth will begin in Northern Kentucky.
"We’re planning more locations and within the next 12 to 18 months; we’re looking to have two more down here,” Harrington said.
There are 33 Victory Lane locations, but just 33 are franchises, and most of the locations are in Michigan, where the company is headquartered.
“We’ve been franchising since 1986, but before it was mostly friends and word of mouth; there wasn’t really a national push,” Harrington said.
That began to change in 2014, when Justin and Lauren Cialella, the majority franchise of Victory Lane, purchased the company.
“Now we are doing a national push in developing markets,” Harrington said. “We would like to be somewhere between 80 and 100 in the next five years.”
In this region, Victory Lane is looking for franchisees for the Southern Ohio and Cincinnati market, and other areas in Kentucky.
For franchises, the operation is pretty much turnkey.
“We are looking for entrepreneur that want to own and operate,” Harrington said. “It’s a simple business, very scalable. It’s really not auto repair; it’s all preventive maintenance.”
Victory Lane pays for a license to obtain the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) data and follows that schedule.
“When you come in with your 2016 Toyota Camry, the recommendations we pull up are all Toyota recommendations, so it’s all on an OEM schedule,” Harrington said. “If Toyota says do this service, or do that service, that’s the schedule we follow.”
“It’s almost like going to the dentist, nobody likes to go, but if you don’t, your teeth will fall out,” Harrington said. “We will tell you everything your vehicle needs, based on the OEM, and then you make an educated decision on whether you want to purchase those items. It’s the same recommendations every time.”
The business model of Victory Lane also includes being a strong community partner. To that end, Victory Lane takes and disposes of all used oil, anti-freeze and oil filters, free of charge, to help ensure it isn’t just dumped somewhere.
“So if there is anybody in the community that’s cleaning out a garage, or even if they do their own oil change on tractors or go-carts or motorcycles, they can bring that to Victory Lane, and we will make sure they get disposed of properly," Harrington said. “As a community partner we want to make sure it’s being disposed of properly.”
This story, by Mark Hansel, first appeared on nkytribune.com
