Shop Look: Castrol Pro Lube Express in Liberty, Missouri

Shop Name: Castrol Pro Lube Express (also known as Walton’s 9-Minute Oil Change)

Location: Liberty, Missouri

Owner: Matthew Warman

Bay Count: 2

Staff Size: 8

Average Daily Car Count: 40

Matthew Warman didn’t officially become the owner of Castrol Pro Lube Express, formerly known as Walton’s 9-Minute Oil Change, in Liberty, Missouri, until June 1. Given his level of involvement in running the shop’s day-to-day operations, though, one can easily be forgiven for thinking he has been its proprietor for years.

With an ambition to grow the shop and improve it from the ground up, Warman has been leading the way at CPLE for most of his tenure. It just wasn’t until this summer that his sense of ownership became a formal business arrangement.

Warman estimates he has worked in the fast oil change industry for about 15 years total, including the past 12 years at what is now his Castrol Pro Lube Express. After working for the former Walton’s for about 18 months, Warman left the business to dabble in other lines of work. Warman’s journey outside the quick lube industry included a stint with General Motors and time spent stocking vending machines. He became handy along the way as well, performing electrical work, some plumbing, and cleaning carpets.

Warman returned to what was then Walton’s to take on a role as a lube technician. Almost immediately, he began to identify opportunities for the shop to refine its operations.

“There were no inventories here,” Warman says. “They weren't selling air filters, wiper blades, or anything like that. So, I cleaned it all up, and I got the air filter count in, I got the wiper blades. We started selling stuff.”

Warman’s initiative led him to be formally promoted to the position of shop manager. Under his leadership, the shop went from servicing an average of 15 vehicles per day to 30. Within the past two years, that total has climbed to 40 vehicles per day.

Growing Pains

Warman acknowledges his push to add services and shake up the status quo didn’t sit well initially with some of the more tenured members of the staff.

“Most people don't like change, like they're set in a routine. They want to do that routine and not venture out of it,” says Warman. “They come in making X amount to do what they've been told to do and nothing more. So, if you try to get them to do more, yeah, there’s definitely push back on that.”

As staff gradually turned over, Warman made sure new policies became the norm as hired new employees. He emphasized that even with new products being offered, a hard sell to customers wasn’t necessary. Many of the products sold themselves, he says, so it was on employees to simply educate on their vehicle’s needs.

Even before officially owning the shop, Warman says he felt a sense of attachment as his role expanded.

“There are some goods and bads with that, right?” he says. “With the pride of everything that I've done here … even though (the shop) wasn't mine, I took pride as (though it were). There's $5 missing? I'm tracking that down. I'm trying to save the owner of the most money. … (If) things went sideways, I definitely took it personally.”

Warman acknowledges his ambition sometimes led to disagreements with the former owner, but ultimately, he credits his predecessor as being a mentor who “definitely showed me a lot of things along the way.”

Five years ago, the previous owner of Walton’s purchased a second location in nearby St. Joseph, Missouri. Warman was tasked with overseeing that facility as well. A notable difference from the Liberty facility is that the St. Joseph shop, which also carries Castrol branding, has a third bay for mechanical repairs.

Taking Ownership

In 2025, the shop’s owner decided it was time to hand over the reins in Liberty and focus on his other properties. Warman made the transition from treating the Liberty shop as his own to formally purchasing it. Warman took ownership officially on June 1. Since then, he has installed a new mid-rise lift for tire rotations to complement other enhancements that were completed six months ago, including a new concrete floor, new pits, and new supports.

Looking ahead, Warman has big aspirations for the family-owned shop. Warman envisions the Castrol Pro Lube Express brand attaining a level of familiarity within the Liberty community as some of the larger quick lube chains in the area.

In the meantime, Warman says life hasn’t changed a whole lot so far. In general, he says he’s happy and “probably a little nicer now” to staff. But even as his day-to-day routines have remained mostly the same, Warman recognizes the added responsibility of being the person to pay the pay the bills and have a financial stake in the business he oversees.

“I’m a little more stressed out because it's my personal money now, but. other than that, it's going great,” he says. “You know, this first month has been awesome—some highs, some lows, trying to figure things out, you know, never owning a business or having an LLC or setting up (our accounting). … But it’s going great. I can't really explain it any better than that. I'm happy.”