Business View - March 2015 79
“It started very much in exhaust, above 90 percent of
the business,” Rivera said. “Back in those days, ex-
haust was made out of steel, it rusted, cars needed to
have it fixed fairly frequently, or let’s just say a lot more
frequently than today. So that was the business, you
could open up a two- to four-bay shop, just hang pipe
all day long and there was plenty of work there.
“It was a very good business, a solid business and it
grew pretty fast.”
Roots spread both from Meineke’s initial Houston op-
eration and from the northeastern base established
by a business partner in the New York/Philadelphia
corridor. Even now, though the entire roster includes
928 locations in the United States and Canada – in
addition to international shops in Mexico, Panama,
China and through the Caribbean – clusters remain
around the home bases.
Mexico is the biggest market outside the U.S. and Can-
ada, with 23 locations.
And in today’s operations, Rivera said, exhaust is no
longer a mainstay. The predominant lines of Meineke’s
2015 business are brakes, followed by fluid and filters
(oil changes, etc.) and then by exhaust work, which
was changed dramatically by the advent of corrosion-
resistant stainless-steel mufflers and now comprises
roughly 12 percent of total Meineke functions.
“Once that technology shift happened,” Rivera said,
“you just don’t have exhaust rusting the way it did be-
fore and you have a pretty steady decline from that
point forward. There’s still some work there, but it’s
really the advent of stainless-steel mufflers that was
the lynchpin for the decline.”
The company shifted its headquarters operation from
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
Meineke Car Care Centers
WHAT:
Franchise-based international automotive
repair chain
WHERE:
Corporate headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.
WEBSITE
:
FRANCHISE
