Excess Profit Breeds Ruinous Competition

“Excess profit breeds ruinous competition.” — quote from Steve Hurt’s college economics professor in 1970.

We would all like to have excess profit in the oil change industry. Our industry continues to evolve, as does every industry. The print and magazine industry has changed dramatically over the last five years. When e-readers and tablets like the iPad became popular, the word was print magazines would go out of business. The latest word is print drives digital. Would you rather read National Oil & Lube News on your computer or holding the actual magazine? Personally, I like holding the magazine, but everyone is different. We have both print and digital editions available for subscribers, so everyone is happy.

Back to the oil change industry, read the article on page 20. I think some operators were making outstanding profit doing 90-120 cars per day in the early days of the industry. There are still some operators doing these car counts — but not many. The average mileage driven between oil changes has only changed 152 miles in the last 16 years. It’s not the dreaded extended oil change intervals that are affecting the excess profits in the lube industry. What has really increased is the competition to get cars into service bays. What will you do to stay competitive?

Keep on lubin’