Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 20, 1994 TAG: 9404200085
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Sandra Brown Kelly
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Did Monro executives just have a hunch there was exhaust, suspension and brake business to be had in that section of the city and Roanoke County, or did they possess facts on which to hang their decision?
Facts. For sure.
For one thing, Roanoke Valley residents burn up mufflers faster than the national average.
Fans of Roanoke Times & World-News former columnist Ed Shamy might recall that he claimed to have destroyed three mufflers in his first three years here and was driven to research the situation. He learned that because we drive mostly short distances, our mufflers rarely have time to dry out, so they rust.
Shamy, who poetically likened a muffler to "a steel replica of your large intestine," had it right, said Nancy Moorehead, owner of Meineke Discount Mufflers in Northwest Roanoke.
A muffler needs a good 45-minute drive to blow out the vapor that causes rusting. And in the Roanoke Valley, most drives are 10 minutes to 15 minutes long, Moorehead said.
It also appears that valley dwellers have more than muffler malaise; our exhausts and suspensions don't hold up well, either.
Virginians in general - and Roanoke Valley residents who live within three miles of Monro's new site in particular - spend more than the national average on brake and front-end suspension jobs.
The 55,457 residents who live in the Franklin Road-Virginia 419 corridor have a per capita expenditure for exhaust work that is 113 percent of the national average. Brake expenditures for this group are 115 percent of the national average, and suspension work outlay is 114 percent, said Carrell Abbott, real estate manager for Monro Muffler Brake Inc.
Those are some of the reasons Monro is next to Merchant's Tire & Auto Center.
Monro's growth plan is likewise rooted in market data, said Jack Gallagher, president and chief executive officer of the Rochester, N.Y., company. Chain shops are growing because the smaller Mom and Pop shops are disappearing. Gallagher said industry data show that 1,200 small shops failed in 1990, 1,600 in '91 and 2,000 in '92.
Gallagher said the age of cars in a particular area also influences his company's decision to locate there. He said the Interstate 81 corridor is "an inviting place," because it has a lot of cars three to seven years old, which is considered the "repair range" in which owners hire out the work.
He said Monro, which had 1993 annual sales of $90 million, plans to grow by 15 percent each year. The Franklin Road shop is its 200th site.
And what does Merchant's have to say about its new neighbor? Merchant's manager Joe Whiting said he might drop over to say hello as soon as he's settled himself. Whiting, recently of Virginia Beach, became manager of Merchant's on Monday, the day Monro opened.
It took five years, but Rent-A-Wreck has come out of the Holiday Mitsubishi showroom and into its own quarters on Peters Creek Road. Plus, it's added a Ryder Truck franchise and is selling moving materials. Wreck owner Fred Burtner of Blacksburg, who began his Wreck rental business in Blacksburg with eight vehicles in 1985, now boasts a fleet of 60.
The cars are two to four years old, he said, but none of them are wrecks. Of course Rent-A-Wreck was not a reality, anyway, but a marketing gimmick dreamed up by a Los Angeles fellow named Dave Swartz. Burtner said Swartz does rent out older cars, but they're classics like a pink Caddy with the high fins of '59 or '60.
by CNB