Over its 21-year history, American Car Care Centers has recognized a great deal of success with its business model. 

In fact, the Memphis, Tenn.-based marketing group’s 1,000-plus member dealers are some of the best in the business, according to ACCC president Len Lewin. But ACCC’s growth has been limited because of its policy of protecting dealer and distributor territories, which led the company to launch a market penetration study roughly 17 months ago.

The result of that review was the adoption of a multi-brand strategy – a new window of opportunity that Lewin described as “a business mulligan, where you get a clean sheet of paper to create a parallel program.” ACCC’s “business mulligan” is its new Eco-Express Tire Center concept, which the company unveiled in early October.

ACCC now can enhance its growth opportunities by offering tire dealers that are not a part of the existing ACCC program a way to enter its organization with a line-up of benefits that take an environmental approach.

“We had two choices,” Lewin explained. “The first choice was, ‘Let’s just abandon all the territories and structure we’ve had for 21 years and let people go to market any which way they wanted.’ We didn’t think that was very wise. The second one was, ‘Let’s come up with a brand new, fresh idea that gives us a clear slate of opportunity once again.’”

At a press reception at the Roger Williams Botanical Gardens in Providence, R.I., Jeremy Lewin, ACCC marketing manager, introduced the Eco-Express Tire Center concept.

He said the concept will represent eco-friendly business practices that deliver value to members and fair-priced, quality work to consumers. This new business model provides application of “green” practices within a dealer’s business operations, and quality workmanship and peace-of-mind to customers with nationwide coverage.

Program Details
According to the company, the “eco” in Eco-Express stands for both “economical” and “ecological,” a two-pronged approach that will appeal to a broad range of tire and service buyers.

“This new eco approach enables us to capture both sides of the street,” said Len Lewin, who added that an ACCC-badged dealer cannot utilize both programs.

Eco-Express will provide its customers with turnkey programs similar to those offered as part of the company’s ACCC brand counterpart, including nationwide warranties, environmental action initiatives and instant credit.

Eco-Assistance is the program’s tire warranty, which provides customers with a limited treadwear and road hazard warranty on all tire purchases, along with roadside assistance for 12 months after the purchase, flat repair service and access to a nationwide 24-hour warranty hotline.

Eco-Assurance is the program’s nationwide service warranty covering brakes, steering and suspension, alignment and wheel balance.

Both Eco Assurance and Eco Assistance are backed by the company’s Eco Anywhere guarantee, which awards $250 to any warranty holder who can’t be referred to a location within 25 miles that will recognize the warranty.

The program also includes an Eco-Advantage Credit Card that offers 0% interest if paid in full within six months.
Last, but certainly not least, is Eco-Express’ environmentally-friendly approach by offering “green” features like:

• “GreenLink Shop +” certification through the Coordinating Committee for Automotive Repair (CCAR), a not-for-profit company in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, that designates dealerships as being in compliance with EPA standards. “This is where we get our credibility,” Jeremy Lewin said. “We don’t just call ourselves ‘eco.’ We actually have a third party that helps us keep our commitment to the consumer.”

• Eco-Focus consumer education brochures, with “eco-tips” consumers can follow themselves, as well as information about what Eco-Express dealers are doing to help the environment.

• “Tires for Trees,” in which the company guarantees it will plant one tree for every set of tires sold by an Eco-Express dealer. This is a partnered approach with the Plant-a-Billion and American Forests organizations, in addition to the Arbor Foundation.

• Eco-recycling programs at the dealerships also demonstrate that paper, plastic, glass, oil, tires and more can be recycled.

• The use of solar-powered POS displays that track a dealer’s oil and tire recycling quantities.

Summit Tire Dealers Warehouse is the ACCC member distributor that has launched this new initiative in New England, with three tire dealers that already have started the process of converting their dealerships into Eco-Express Tire Centers: Tire Pros of Rhode Island Inc., based in Smith-field, R.I.; Hogan Tires of Woburn, Mass.; and Wilson Tire of Lebanon, N.H.

“A lot of our people have had green initiatives of their own over the years, and those will continue,” Len Lewin said. “But Eco-Express gives us a breadth that, individually, no one could attain.”

Jeremy Lewin emphasized that while the ACCC and Eco-Express programs are separate, neither will become more important than the other. The similarities of the programs include leveraging group volume in order to enable individual dealers to be more competitive, he noted.

The main difference between the programs is the target demographic: Eco Express is designed to appeal to consumers who are willing to pay a little extra to reduce their environmental footprint, Jeremy Lewin said.