By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
A major transformation has taken place at a small quick lube business in downtown Mesquite.
Last November, Mesquite resident Bill Brown took over ownership and management of the dilapidated old A-1 Automotive building at 411 W. Mesquite Blvd. He immediately opened a new Grease Monkey franchise in the space. Since then, almost everything at the shop has changed.
In an interview last week, Brown painted a grim picture of the poor state of the business when he first acquired it last year. The business had only one employee and the building and equipment were in utter disrepair.
“There was a mountain of dead tires out back, the parking lot was a disaster, all the landscaping was dead and there was garbage everywhere,” Brown recalled.
“When we bought the building we didn’t have any oil,” Brown added. “But that didn’t really matter because the pumps on the oil tanks didn’t work; which didn’t really matter because the guns to distribute the oil were broken. It was all in pretty rough shape.”
Brown went to work pretty fast to get things cleaned up and presentable. He fixed or replaced the equipment and cleaned up the site. He redesigned the parking lot and driveway area and put down new paving. He has had the building repainted and installed all new signs. And last week, crews were replacing all of the landscaping along the street front.
Brown has also hired additional team members. The small shop now has 10 certified and well-trained technicians performing a variety of preventative maintenance and light mechanical work on automobiles.
In addition to the training programs offered by Grease Monkey – which Brown says are excellent- Brown also takes a hands-on approach to instilling the values and work ethic he wants his business to exhibit to customers.
In illustrating this approach, Brown recalled his own history working as a teen-ager doing automotive work in a small service station in his hometown of Pocatello, Idaho. The owner of that shop was named Ed Roberts, Brown said.
“Everything I did had to pass Ed’s spec,” Brown said. “So if I washed a window and it wasn’t up to Ed’s spec, he would come out and have me redo it until I got it right. It taught me to do it right the first time. That is the approach I take here as well. I keep a high standard and I expect it to be met. My crew has really embraced that and they are doing a good job. I am proud of my team.”
All of the improvements, and the staff attention to detail, have already begun to pay off for the business. Brown said that when he started back in November, the shop was averaging about four service visits per day. Nowadays, they are averaging about 20 cars per day.
“The community has really embraced us and we are grateful for that,” Brown said. “I hear feedback from people who say how glad they are that we are in town and that they don’t have to go somewhere else for this service.”
Bill Brown and his wife, DeAnne moved to Mesquite in 2020 after Bill had retired from a long career in the financial planning industry.
After a few months of early morning walks followed by hours of watching television at home, Bill decided he needed to find a direction that would keep him busy in retirement.
“I realized that I needed something to fill my days or I would soon atrophy and die in my cozy chair!” he said.
Then one day, while preparing for a road trip to Idaho, Bill went out to get his car serviced and found that there was not a reliable quick lube stop in Mesquite to get this done.
“I suddenly realized that Mesquite needed a quick lube and I thought: That is a business that I could do,” he said. “I saw it as a way to serve the residents of our new home town.”
So he spent the following year securing a Grease Monkey franchise and then searching for a good piece of real estate to build a new shop. He had some trouble landing just the right parcel. Then he became acquainted with the previous owner of the A-1 building, who actually lived in Nebraska.
“Long story short, we made an offer to the guy and bought the building and all the equipment here,” Bill said. “We have been moving fast ever since.”
The business has definitely got Bill off the couch. He no longer has time for much TV.
“I don’t know what my wife thinks about it,” he said. “But I can tell you this: I originally wanted maybe four hours a day to fill the time. Right now I am at 14 to 16 hours a day.”
“But I wake up happy because I have a goal,” Bill continued. “I’ve got something that makes things better in my community. I hire people and train them. I provide a needed service that I hope is always exceptional. So I wake up in the morning with new life and new excitement.”
Grease Monkey in Mesquite is open 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Saturday and closed Sunday. For more information call the shop at 702-346-1660.
