Car care franchisee looking to expand Honest-1 brand

Car care franchisee looking to expand Honest-1 brand

SOUTH DAYTONA — Nearly 30 years ago, Dan Morris was a Pizza Hut dishwasher in Bismarck, N.D.

He worked his way up through the company, eventually becoming part of a group that owned and operated 64 Pizza Hut restaurants in the Seattle area. Now, Morris has his eyes on another industry: auto care.

Morris owns Honest-1 Auto Care at 2325 S. Ridgewood Ave. in South Daytona — a franchised shop he opened in 2007 — and is looking to find franchisees for more stores in the area.

"I think we can have a store in each city (in Volusia County)," Morris said. "I think, by the time it's grown out, we'll have 40 stores (in Northeast and Central Florida)."

In addition to being a franchisee, Morris is the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company's regional developer, responsible for finding new franchisees to open shops in a 20-county area in parts of Northeast and Central Florida.

Currently, the South Daytona shop is the state's only Honest-1 location, but Morris said a franchisee is interested in opening a new location in the Jacksonville area sometime in the next year.

Honest-1 employs six people at its South Daytona shop.

"I've always been an operator," Morris said of why he decided to open his own Honest-1. "I wanted to learn the business from the ground."

Morris joined Honest-1, which has 30 locations nationwide, in 2005, after spending more than 20 years in the pizza industry.

He started out as a Pizza Hut dishwasher in 1984 and moved up the management ladder, eventually finding himself in charge of 18 stores in the Kansas City, Mo., area and at one point being in charge of brand development for the restaurant chain.

"I knew I could make it in any part of the country if I could just make it to management," Morris said.

In 1997, Morris joined Emerald City Pizza, the group that operated Pizza Huts in the Seattle market. He left the pizza industry in 2004.

The Honest-1 auto care company bills itself as an eco-friendly business.

Chip Baranowski, vice president of franchise development with Honest-1, said the company offers products and services that improve gas mileage and lowers engine emissions. The chain's shops also take steps, such as recycling oil and using energy-efficient lighting, to reduce their impact on the environment, he added.

Additionally, Honest-1 locations use video and other visual aids to make the auto repair process more understandable for customers, Baranowski said.

Morris said those aspects of Honest-1's business model prime the franchise for growth, even in the mature auto care industry.

"It's like pizza," he said. "I remember back in Kansas City when Papa John's was coming into the market (in the early 1990s). We were the king there. (Papa John's) came in virtually unknown and had 50 stores before we knew it.

"I don't want to be part of the largest store," Morris added. "I just want to be part of one that's run well."

Additionally, the United States' auto fleet is aging, Baranowski said.

The average automobile in the U.S. is nearly 11 years old, which means more cars are out of their manufacturers' warranties and are in need of maintenance and repairs, Baranowski said.

"When people's warranties are up, they come to us for oil changes and whatever else they need," he said.

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