Business View Magazine - August 2016 55
pendent franchisor of automotive service centers,
offering oil changes, preventative maintenance, and
other car care services. The modern Grease Monkey,
founded in 1978, serves more than two million car
owners worldwide, each year, with its “less hassle,
more hustle!” brand of customer experience.
Since Business View Magazine first spoke with Senior
Vice President for Operations and Business Develop-
ment, Ralph Yarusso, the company has had a banner
year, expanding both domestically and international-
ly. There are now 308 Grease Monkey outlets in 33
states, with expansion into Canada anticipated soon.
“We’ve signed master franchises in Colombia, South
America and Saudi Arabia,” Yarusso says, “and we
also added another new store in Mexico. We’ve added
eight more company-owned centers and 13 more fran-
chise centers. We’ve got nine centers under construc-
tion that should be completed by the end of this year.
We also had unprecedented in-store sales growth, cus-
tomer growth, and ticket average growth.” In addition,
Yarusso says that the company has added an in-field
technical support team to do more hands-on, in-field
training, and revamped its online university which of-
fers its franchisees approximately 200 courses in car
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
Grease Monkey International, Inc.
WHAT:
The nation’s largest independent fran-
chiser of automotive care centers
WHERE:
Headquarters in Greenwood Village,
Colorado
WEBSITE
:
Ralph Yarusso, Senior Vice President
