Jiffy Lube is an American brand of automotive alteration specialty shops established in Utah, USA, in 1971. Has been a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell since 2002, and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
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Overview
There are about 2,000 Jiffy Lube franchises in North America, all independently owned by 252 operators, with approximately 24 million subscribers annually in 2002. The company is ranked first in the 2011 National Oil and Lube News 2011 Tops in Rank Lubes Fast Industry. Also, Jiffy Lube was ranked number 15 on the Entrepreneur Magazine's 2012 Franchise 500 and number 73 on the Franchise Times 2011 Top 200 Franchise Chains by Worldwide Sales.
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History
The first Jiffy Lube store was established at 36th Street in Ogden, Utah by Edwin H. Washburn in early 1971. During the following years, Washburn franchised a number of Jiffy Lube centers in Utah. In 1979, the current soccer coach at Western Maryland College W. James Hindman bought seven Washburn franchises and founded Jiffy Lube International, moving to Baltimore, Maryland. It was in this year that Jiffy Lube generally declared the date of his founding with Hindman as its founder.
Jiffy Lube became a public company in 1987, and has opened 1,020 franchises and corporate stores in 1989. In 1991, Jiffy Lube became a subsidiary of Pennzoil.
After the merger of Pennzoil and Quaker Country in 1998, the 581 Q Lube stores merged into the Jiffy Lube brand, then had 1,541 stores, with closed overlapping operations. The Pennzoil-Quaker State was eventually purchased by Shell Oil in 2002.
Services
In June 2011, Jiffy Lube introduced a new program called Oil Change Schedule (OCS). The new program allows Jiffy Lube customers to choose how often they change oil based on a number of variables including vehicle manufacturer recommendations, driving habits, and road conditions. The OCS program moves away from the old oil change model every 3,000 miles and provides a unique schedule for each driver.
Controversy
In 2003, Jiffy Lube was the focus of the KNBC investigative report alleging that Jiffy Lube charged customers for services that were not done. During the investigation, five of the nine Jiffy Lube locations assigned journalists disguised for unfinished work. After the investigation aired, Jiffy Lube admitted making major changes to their training program to prevent this; however, according to an interviewee, the change in the training included how to find investigative journalists. At the end of the investigation, Jiffy Lube installed a camera in their store to allow customers to observe the improvements.
In 2009, Jiffy Lube was found to perform repair procedures on vehicles recommended by the manufacturer because of the potential to cause engine damage. These procedures include engine flushes and fuel injection cleaning that can cause engine problems and fuel injectors.
In May 2013, the location of Los Angeles Jiffy Lube was again the subject of KNBC's investigation. The station reported that not only was the fraudulent practice detected in most Southern California Jiffy Lube stores under investigation, but the current fraud was worse than that found in the original investigation.
See also
- Pennzoil
- Shell Oil Company
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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