Jiffy Lube franchisee of the year moves to former Tower home on Home Services

Jan

Jiffy Lube franchisee of the year moves to former Tower home

posted by admin in Home Depot

A Jiffy Lube franchisee with 13 stores and more on the way is moving its headquarters from Lodi to West Sacramento as it prepares for a growth spurt.

Don Fowler’s Broadbase Inc., which operates Jiffy Lube stores from Fresno to El Dorado Hills and employs about 150, is scheduled to occupy 10,000 square feet of the former Tower Records headquarters starting June 1. He’s been in Lodi for seven years, but Fowler wanted the HQ, with a dozen workers, closer to where he’ll open new stores. The new site also is closer to the airport, major freeways and a hub of business activity, he says. Fowler will continue to work from Contra Costa County.

He expects to hit 30 stores within two years and as many as 50 within four. A Jiffy Lube in the Raley’s center in Galt is to open in about three months. Stores would follow at Interstate 5 and Laguna Boulevard in Elk Grove in October and near West Capitol Avenue and Harbor Boulevard in West Sacramento in December.

Broadbase, founded in 1985, already has stores in Rocklin and El Dorado Hills.

Stores are typically 2,400 to 2,800 square feet. Fowler buys some sites and leases others. He looks for visible sites with 30,000 vehicles a day passing by, and area household income of at least $75,000 per year. Stores typically draw 50 customers daily, and employ 10 full time and three or four part-timers. Building and equipping a new store costs Fowler about $1.7 million.

Fowler doesn’t have an exclusive real estate broker. Peter Winterling of Cornish %26 Carey Commercial represented Broadbase on the lease for the headquarters.

In addition to building new stores, Fowler is pursuing two separate acquisitions of independent operators, one with four stores and another with three.

In April, Houston-based Jiffy Lube International singled out Fowler, one of about 400 Jiffy Lube franchisees nationwide, as Western Division Franchisee of the Year. Jiffy Lube has more than 2,200 stores in North America, including 19 company-owned stores in Greater Sacramento.

Placer attracts cookie bakery

Kelli’s Gourmet Cookies is relocating to Roseville from Sacramento, rolling out new products and anticipating new distribution channels.

Owner Kelli Ridenour, who started the business in 1998, has been acting as her own contractor to build out and equip 2,000 square feet in a strip center on Douglas Boulevard next to Royer Park.

“I’ve been living at Home Depot,” she says. “My phone rings nonstop” from subcontractors. She’s also done some of her own tiling and painting.

She’s scheduled to move in June from 1146 Fulton Ave., where she shares space with another bakery and has limited baking time. Two Small Business Administration loans are funding the project.