Ask his colleagues to outline what a franchisee should do to taste success, and they will tell you Brian Morrison has the perfect recipe.
Once an executive in the food service industry, Morrison now oversees a burgeoning network of franchise locations for FullSpeed Automotive’s SpeeDee Oil Change & Automotive Service and Grease Monkey brands.
A skilled business leader, a charitable boss, and a proud family man, Morrison is the NOLN Operator of the Year for 2025.
Morrison’s entry into the quick lube industry came 25 years ago. After serving in the U.S. Army as a food service specialist, he transitioned back to civilian life by putting his culinary skills to use in the food service industry. He took on management-level roles with multiple fast food chains, but within a couple years, he began to feel burned out by long hours, late nights, and high employee turnover rates.
In 2000, Morrison traded french fry grease for motor oil. While he was out shopping, Morrison noticed a rack with job finder magazines at the front of the store. Jiffy Lube had an ad touting a manager-in-training program for $500 per week. Despite not having any automotive industry experience, his skills in managing costs and P&Ls, as well as staffing and customer service for a fast-paced industry earned him an opportunity.
“I think people in the automotive industry are nervous to hire people from outside of automotive or people with just fast food experience, but it really translated,” Morrison said. “I called my years at Jiffy Lube kind of like fast food for your car. You know, it's like a drive-through. When customers pull in, they want to get in and out as easy as possible. … The oil and the filters don't typically expire as fast as the lettuce and tomatoes, but the customer's expectations to get in and get out and get it right are similar.”
Over the next 19 years, Morrison climbed the ranks at Jiffy Lube, becoming a regional manager and eventually the organization’s director of operations. Toward the end of his tenure, he began to explore the possibility of owning his own store, and it was then that he discovered a potential fit with FullSpeed Automotive and its SpeeDee and Grease Monkey brands.
Morrison gained approval to become a franchisee, and in 2019, he purchased a SpeeDee location in Spartanburg, South Carolina, that had gone up for sale. Since then, Morrison has steadily built a network of shops across the Carolinas. Morrison now oversees 19 stores—six SpeeDee locations and 13 Grease Monkey shops. Morrison owns the property on which seven of his shops reside. His latest location—a Grease Monkey in Denver, North Carolina, that opened in July—was his first new build-to-suit facility.
Actively Listening
In May 2021, John McCloskey was hired by FullSpeed Automotive for the position of franchise support director. McCloskey describes his job as “a Swiss army knife” type of role, as he helps franchisees at 58 locations across the Mid-Atlantic region with everything from training new hires on Grease Monkey and SpeeDee processes to navigating the red tape of a new shop launch to offering a helping hand with Christmas parties.
A month into the job, McCloskey was dispatched to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to help Morrison on the opening of a SpeeDee location. It didn’t take long for Morrison’s leadership qualities to shine through.
“He’s an interesting person. He listens,” McCloskey says of Morrison. “He really thinks about what he’s going to say before he says it. … One of the other things that really stuck out to me is that he goes out of his way to find out what’s going on with the people who work for him. That first project I was on, the way he talked was just, ‘How’s everything going? Do you have any problems coming to work? How’s your family doing?’ That kind of thing. And he’s genuinely interested in the answer.
“I’ve seen a lot of people go through the motions on that. But it’s just one of those things that proves he really does care.”
Building Infrastructure
Upon starting out at his first SpeeDee location in Spartanburg, Morrison served as a de facto store manager. As his network has grown, though, a leadership team has been put in place. Today, Morrison’s operations include three district managers and a regional manager.
“Now that we have 19 locations, I'm not as heavily involved in the day-to-day operations as I used to be,” Morrison said. “I'm not the guy placing the oil order or handling every customer situation with the skid plate falling off or a dipstick breaking, as I used to be.”
The organizational structure developed by Morrison is similar to what he had grown accustomed to with Jiffy Lube.
“We’ve tried to keep the market small and tight, where a district manager is only overseeing three to five locations, and they’re all relatively close to one another,” he says.
This arrangement has freed him up to stay better connected with franchise locations across his network and dive into bigger projects, such as the launch of the build-to-suit location in Denver.
“In (the Denver shop’s) first week, it did $7,000, so we're excited about that location,” he says. “That might be a way that we grow in the future—through build-to-suits. You’re not buying the land or buying the building or buying the business. You're just signing a lease, so your capital outlay initially is just for the (furniture, fixtures, and equipment), the signage and the equipment. We were able to do that for about $150,000, so it's an inexpensive way to grow.”
As an operator of both SpeeDee and Grease Monkey franchises, Morrison explains the thought process behind choosing the appropriate brand for each location.
“When we find locations that have pits and drive-through bay doors in the front and back, they typically become Grease Monkeys,” Morrison says. “When they only have a solid concrete slab with no basement and no back bay door, where you have to pull in and back out, we’ve chosen to go the SpeeDee route. There, we use four-post lifts for the oil changes and two-post lifts for repairs, brakes, and tires.”
While Morrison’s portfolio of franchise locations has grown by about three to four locations per year, he says he anticipates future growth will be executed at a more deliberate pace.
“We'll look at any opportunities to continue to grow, maybe not as aggressively as I have up until now, probably a little more selective,” he says. “There were a couple of years where I would jump on just about any opportunity to grow. We’re still looking to grow, just maybe not as fast.”
Geographically, Morrison says he has had opportunities to expand into nearby states, such as Georgia and Florida, but he has preferred to keep a tighter network, which allows for easier borrowing of inventory, equipment, and staff members between locations as needed.
People Person
Morrison attributes much of his success to his team.
“I would say people are the most important ingredient,” Morrison says. “There’s not really a bad location. If you put your best people in a location, it’s going to significantly improve. If you take your best people out of your best location, it’s going to significantly decline.
“That’s something I learned a long time ago: The location’s only as good as the people you put in it.”
To that end, Morrison has made a point of taking care of those who take care of his franchises.
“I’m extremely grateful for the opportunities I’ve had and the situation I’m in. I’ve just tried to help others in any way we can,” he says.
That includes a holiday tradition of giving away four to five reconditioned cars to employees who have transportation challenges.
“(The vehicles) might need brakes, tires, or a tune-up, so we recondition them and make sure they’re safe,” Morrison says. “Anything we can do…I mean, it’s hard to see a need and not try to help if you can. We have 150 employees, and the need is pretty great. To be able to help is awesome, and so we do when we can.”
Throughout the year, Morrison finds ways to keep employees engaged and eager to excel in their jobs, offering performance incentives through programs that create a level playing field for all team members.
“He has a very creative mind with his employee promotions,” McCloskey says. “He just does things for employees that, with a lot of employers, it just doesn’t occur to them.”
Working with FullSpeed Automotive, Morrison and his team also help organize a backpack drive to provide the children of his employees with supplies for the school year, as well.
Away from work, Morrison enjoys riding a motorcycle. He recently ventured to South Dakota for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, a trip that included a visit to the nearby Mount Rushmore.
When he is off the clock and off his motorcycle, you’re likely to find Morrison surrounded by family. He and his wife, Denise, have four children and are the proud grandparents of nine grandchildren.
“Those nine grandkids are probably my best friends, so I like to hang out with them as much as possible,” he says.
For Morrison, it’s a winning recipe.
About the Author
Tom Valentino
Editor
Tom Valentino is the editor of National Oil and Lube News. A graduate of Ohio University, he has more than two decades of experience in newspapers, public relations and trade magazines, covering everything from high school sports to behavioral health care. Tom’s first vehicle was a 1990 Mazda 626, which he used to deliver pizzas in the summer after graduating high school. Today, he drives a 2019 Jeep Compass, which usually has a trunk full of his daughter’s sports gear. In his spare time, Tom is an avid Cleveland sports fan and a volunteer youth sports coach.