Midas franchisee on expansion tear

DES MOINES, Iowa (Feb. 7, 2017) — Midas International Franchisee Alan Mahrt has committed to spend $6 million throughout 2017 to upgrade his network of 42 Midas stores across six Midwestern states.

The initiative comes on the heels of an ambitious 2016 when Mr. Mahrt's company, Auto Systems Experts Inc., opened eight Midas locations, including a two-story, eight-bay 5,500-sq.-ft. shop in Ankeny — a Des Moines suburb — that Mr. Mahrt calls "my baby." The facility represents a $1.6 million investment and is equipped with LED lighting and all of the latest equipment.

The Auto Systems Experts network of stores are in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma, according to Midas franchisor TBC Corp.

Mr. Mahrt's commitment to upgrade his stores coincides with TBC's initiatives to drive tire sales through the Midas network.

Mike Gould, the former TBC executive who oversaw the Midas franchise program before retiring last year, said in early 2016, "The future of our brand is in tires and auto service.

"Our stores will look like tire locations, associates will be tire-service experts," he said, "and the Midas brand will become known as a destination for tires in the same way that we are known for brakes, repairs and exhaust."

In that vein, Mr. Mahrt commented that, "on the marketing side, we are seeing a lot of great things that are helping to position us as a total car care provider, including our TV advertising, our incredible website and our digital efforts in general.

"On the operations side, tires are a major opportunity," he said. "TBC is a tire expert, and with their direction and support they've enabled us to offer our customers quality, brand-name tires at highly competitive prices.

Going forward, this will result in more customers and new opportunities to work our magic on their cars and deliver the wow factor."

Mr. Mahrt, who opened his first Midas store 28 years ago, was the Midas franchisee of the year last year.

A big part of Mr. Mahrt's being named franchisee of the year was his company's commitment to community, in particular the support for Midas Drive Out Hunger, a franchisee-driven effort to fight food insecurity across North America.

In 2016, Auto Systems Experts donated more than $80,000 to local food banks, TBC said, resulting in 400,000-plus meals for folks in need. In addition, the group devotes a share of its $300,000 annual local advertising spend to spotlighting Midas' hunger-fighting activities.

When Midas and its franchisees conducted a coast-to-coast food drive in 2015, Mr. Mahrt's organization collected more than four tons of food — the most out of all 25 stops the drive made