Business View Magazine
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the automotive aftermarket for rust protection. And it
wasn’t because cars weren’t rusting; it was because
customers were being told that they no longer needed
rust protection.”
Now, though, Ziebart realized that it had to diversify
its revenue stream in order to survive. So it added
paint protection, interior protection, sunroof installa-
tion, and other accessories for cars and trucks, such
as trailer hitches, tonneau covers, step bars, sliding
rear windows for pickup trucks,
and 12-volt electronics. “The
rustproofing business was still
large,” says Baker, “but to keep
growing and maintain market
share, we bought our largest
competitor, Tuff-Kote Dinol®.
That gave us 150 additional lo-
cations.”
The next level of diversification
was the detailing business. “We
bought Tidy Car®, a Florida
company, so we could learn the
detailing business,” Baker says.
“Then we partnered with a com-
pany in Canada, called Speedy
Auto Glass®, and got into the
auto glass business.” Next, the
company partnered with Rhino
Linings USA, the leading brand
in spray-on truck-bed liners.
“So we had franchises that in
the beginning were singularly
branded as Ziebart, that were
now doing automotive aftermar-
ket,” Baker explains. “Speedy
Auto Glass replacement, Rhino
Lining spray-on truck bed lin-
ers, and the detailing business
started to grow. In the 1980s, we were doing about
$100 million in annual sales and 80 percent of our
business was rustproofing; today, we do about $170
million, and about 20 percent of our sales come from
rust protection. We did that by changing our product
line and evolving our business model.”
While Ziebart is still largely a franchise operation, the
company still operates a handful of corporate-owned
stores: three in Detroit; three in Minneapolis; one in
