Friday, December 23, 2011

Big Acquisition

We're hearing from a couple of sources that Henley Enterprises, the major Valvoline Instant Oil Change franchisee owned by Don Smith (our 2004 Operator of the Year) has purchased the entire 74-store EZ Lube chain from its equity owner, Goldman Sachs. This would give Henley a major presence on the West Coast and if, as expected, the EZ Lube stores are converted to VIOCs, would add quite a large stable of facilities to the nation's second-largest fast lube franchise network.

Plus, we also hear that in addition to the EZ Lube purchase, Henley Enterprises has purchased a fellow VIOC franchisee with more than 30 stores in the San Diego market. Obviously a big shakeup in the lube market, and we'll have more on this story as it develops.

(This post written while listening to "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" by Metallica.)

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure this is completely accurate.