After spending years helping other shops see success, Will Helton decided he was ready to do it for himself. After traveling all over Texas throughout his career, he left his corporate position with the Midas brand to return to his home of Arkansas and take over a well-known quick lube brand, as well as a repair shop.
He and his wife, Bernadette Helton, now operate Grease Pig Lube & Tune in Fayetteville, Arkansas. They’ve elevated the brand to new levels and share with NOLN how they took something great and have made it even better.
A People-Centric Approach
Will and Bernadette first met when they were 17 years old. Bernadette was the first to enter the field, gaining a job as a sales associate at an independent shop in Conway, Arkansas, when she entered college. It wasn’t until after Will graduated from the University of Arkansas in 2002 that he would enter a summer internship with Firestone.
“When he began his internship at Firestone, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I'm already working in this industry, and now you're gonna be at Firestone,’ ” remembers Bernadette. “It was just a college job, but ended up very useful for what we're doing now.”
Will’s internship led to a 17-year career, starting as a retail sales associate and eventually overseeing all of Firestone’s stores in Texas and Louisiana. During this time, Will and Bernadette moved several times throughout Texas, all while starting a family.
After Will concluded his time at Firestone, he gained a position with TBC Corp. to manage the Midas brand. At this point, Will had seen many people leave their roles to launch their own shops and brands. Achieving promotion after promotion, Will says it didn’t feel like the right time for him—but, eventually, he knew he wanted to do something of his own one day.
Will would meet with groups of dealers saying they were struggling to get by, listening to them debate over trivial things instead of implementing real, substantive changes to how they operate.
“We would spend half of the meeting debating on what was the price of oil changes for our marketing campaign. Was it $19.99, or $21.99, or $24.99,” remembers Will. “And I thought that was so dumb.”
Instead, Will taught them to place more emphasis on the people: providing great customer service, training employees, and having a shop culture in place. Within three years, Will would see one of those same dealers arrive at a meeting in a brand-new Lamborghini, prompting a stark realization.
“I think to myself: ‘If I can do it for them, I should do it for myself.’”
Taking a Chance on Yourself
Leaving his job was a leap of faith, but Will had been waiting to do just this; and he knew the time was right. After spending 20 years away from Arkansas, Will and Bernadette made the decision to come back.
“We have two kids in high school, and we were just wanting to get somewhere where we can settle in and finish out high school,” shares Will. “And we love Arkansas—we’d come back here every summer for a Razorback game, or just to see family and stuff. So we were like, ‘Man, let's move back to Arkansas.’”
Will and Bernadette began looking into business opportunities in the state and found University Auto: a repair shop that’s been in Fayetteville for over 50 years. Though the shop had a solid reputation, there was a lot of work that needed to be done in the technology department.
After the Heltons took over, Will did what he does best: Take a business and make it thrive. Only this time, it would be for a business entirely his own. He introduced various operational improvements and even expanded the shop’s services.
“We got into the tire business over there—which they really weren't doing a lot of—and that was very fruitful for us,” tells Will. “So we grew that business four times what it was doing when we had first purchased it.”
As University Auto continued to see success, Will saw another opportunity for something that he couldn’t offer at the current shop: fast, convenient routine maintenance. His attention naturally drifted to The Grease Pig Lube & Tune, an oil change business that’s been in Fayetteville for more than 20 years. The Grease Pig opened its second location in just the past few years.
The Heltons had a good relationship with the former Grease Pig owners. University Auto was just down the road from one of the Grease Pig stores, and the two were well-known names in the region.
“Grease Pig was known in Fayetteville as the oil change place. Everybody knows that. Everybody refers to it,” explains Helton. “And University Auto, we were the repair shop that everybody went to.”
The owners of Grease Pig were looking to retire, and the idea of acquiring the business began to appeal to Will. Customers could have the convenience of a quick oil change, while having a shop for extensive mechanical repairs just down the road.
A Level Up for Everyone
One of the things Will is most proud of is that acquiring the shops didn’t mean having to let people go, and a huge part of that is the culture of his shops. His employees see themselves as partners with him in the business—when he and the business succeed, they see that for themselves as well.
The Heltons taking over Grease Pig meant the techs were compensated more and had access to a myriad of new and improved tools and processes that made their jobs easier. Before the Heltons came in, the technicians had to handwrite each ticket.
“We didn't have to change people out to get success. We just gave them more tools, resources, and motivation,” Will says. “That's what I'm the most proud of, is that we could take and turn around a business without changing out people—we just added people.”
Will hopes to expand both the University Auto and Grease Pig brands alongside one another, seeing the potential for a service chain to dominate the rapidly expanding northwest region of the state. He doesn’t intend to branch outside of Arkansas, though, wanting every store he opens to have an impact on the surrounding community.
“We're just looking for the right opportunity that’s going to be a win-win,” says Will. “We're not in any hurry to grow, but for our next phase of growth, we want it to hit.”
