36 Business View - January 2016
FRANCHISE
humble beginnings,” says Baker, “today, we have a
company with over 400 locations and 800 processing
centers in 33 countries.”
For many years, rustproofing was the only product that
the company offered. Since, for most people, their au-
tomobile is typically their second largest investment
next to their home, and cars did rust, Ziebart’s suc-
cess came from offering a process that gave car and
truck owners a way to protect their investment and
keep their vehicles safe from the destructive power of
corrosion. But that all changed in 1987, when Lee Ia-
cocca became President of the Chrysler Corporation
at a time when the legacy car company was struggling
with financial difficulties.
Baker recounts the events: “Chrysler came out with
what he called a ‘manufacturer’s anti-corrosion war-
ranty,’ that basically said that if you bought a new
Chrysler vehicle, it would be warranted against rust
for either three years, or 100,000 miles, depending on
the vehicle. When that happened, even though they
had not changed the way they were building vehicles
– it was strictly a marketing move to try to survive and
keep market share - it had an impact on the automo-
tive after-market, in particular, rust protection. And the
reason it did was, at that point, a sizable portion of the
after-market rust protection was either being done at,
or sold through, car dealerships. So, Chrysler dealers
started telling their customers that they had this man-
ufacturer’s warranty and that they no longer need rust
protection. Soon after that, of course, General Motors
followed suit, and came out with an anti-corrosion war-
ranty, and then Ford Motor Company, and Toyota, and
Nissan. So that had a tremendous negative impact on
the automotive aftermarket for rust protection. And it
