Jiffy Lube Franchise Costs: Estimated Initial Investment (Item 7, 2022 FDD)

Amounts are based on Jiffy Lube’s prior experience in opening stores or assisting franchisees in opening stores. Variations in location and number of bays may have a significant impact on your actual initial investment.

1. Initial Franchise Fee: $0 to $35,000

2. Conversion Fee: $17,500

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3. First Month’s Rent and Security Deposit: $16,000 to $40,000

Variations in property prices across the country make lease rates difficult to estimate. The range shown in this chart is what Jiffy Lube believes to be a normal range for a Build to Suit service center where the landlord pays for the land and building and the up-front “soft costs” of surveys, site engineering, permitting, soils tests, etc., and for “site costs” (i.e., landscaping, paving, bringing utilities to the site, and so forth). In some areas, you may find market rents to be higher or lower than these figures.

This chart also assumes that you must pay the first month’s rent and an amount equal to one month’s rent as a security deposit at the time you sign a lease.

If you choose to buy, rather than rent, a service center, Jiffy Lube estimates that the cost to acquire a suitable site might range from $300,000 to over $800,000, and building costs (including soft costs and site costs) for a four-bay service center might range from $700,000 to $900,000; however, costs vary and could easily and substantially exceed this range. Some of Jiffy Lube’s franchisees have spent more than $1 million to buy what they believed to be a good site, and Jiffy Lube has approved these sites for development.

The current standard for the construction of a new Jiffy Lube service center building is a four-bay facility. A suitable site should have a frontage of at least 140 feet and a depth of 180 feet.

The Jiffy Lube Multi-care style building is 94 feet long and 44 feet deep and has approximately 4,400 square feet, including a basement space.

Smaller sites can be used if there is adjoining common space, such as in a shopping center, but the minimum frontage Jiffy Lube is likely to approve for the Jiffy Lube Multi-care building is 125 feet.

In addition, on an exception basis only, Jiffy Lube may approve facilities that have fewer than four bays or greater than four bays, depending on various factors.

Jiffy Lube looks for property in retail areas with adequate population density, growth, and household income. Jiffy Lube recommends minimum populations of 50,000 people, minimum median household income of $50,000, 42,000 registered vehicles in a three-mile radius, traffic count by the location of at least 20,000 a day, relatively low speed limits of the adjacent highway or street, and traffic composed of both local and long distance travel vehicles; however, sites that are deficient in any one or more of these characteristics may be approved if the deficiency is counterbalanced by strengths in other areas.

4. Equipment, Signs, and Fixtures: $125,000 to $325,000

Equipment for a Jiffy Lube service center is normally purchased or leased by the franchisee directly from the manufacturer or some other vendor.

If you participate in the BTS Program, you have the option to purchase and install the equipment yourself, or to elect for the landlord to purchase and install the base equipment (such as product tanks, compressor, pumps, dispensers and supply lines, designated lifts for tire rotations and brakes, and service podiums) and charge you for such products and services.

Other than the point-of-sale computer system, you may buy this equipment from any vendor you choose so long as it meets Jiffy Lube’s standards.

Jiffy Lube estimates that to buy the necessary equipment and have it installed will cost about $125,000 to $325,000 for a four-bay Jiffy Lube Multi-care store. This includes exterior signs meeting Jiffy Lube’s minimum specifications, oil storage tanks, lubrication equipment, compressors, equipment required to provide additional Jiffy Multi-care services, and furniture for the office and customer waiting area.

For stores not offering Jiffy Lube Multi-care services, the equipment costs may be less.

The cost of point-of-sale computer hardware (that is, hardware in addition to that which Jiffy Lube provides) is included in this estimate.

5. Initial Inventory: $20,000 to $30,000

Jiffy Lube estimates that start-up inventory for a Jiffy Lube service center costs between $20,000 and $30,000.

If under the Pacesetter or New Way Forward Franchise Agreement, SOPUS Products will supply all of the petroleum products you might need (i.e., motor oil, transmission fluids, greases, etc.), and, in some instances, Pennzoil or Performance brand oil and air filters.

6. Opening Marketing Expense: $15,000 to $20,000

Jiffy Lube thinks that it is important for your initial marketing plan to include expenses related to the “grand opening” of your service center. Typical grand opening expenses include direct mail and media advertising and promotional signage and other materials.

Jiffy Lube estimates that these expenses range from about $15,000 to about $20,000 or more (depending on media costs in your market and the population of the market you are trying to reach) in addition to the advertising expenses that are required by the Franchise Agreement.

It is also recommended that you set up your Google My Business listings, a free tool that helps small businesses create and manage their location listings, which appear when customers find businesses on Google Search and Maps. It helps businesses attract new customers and share information about what makes them valued.

7. Insurance: $10,000 to $20,000

This range is for an annual premium. It is Jiffy Lube’s experience that insurance carriers require new franchisees to pay for one year’s premium in advance, but existing franchisees can often arrange for monthly payments for their new service centers.

Insurance costs may vary widely by state and with the experience of the franchisee.

8. Training Expenses Incurred by You or Your Employees: $1,000 to $5,000 (does not include wages or salaries of attendees)

9. Additional Funds (Working Capital) – 6 Months: $45,000

Jiffy Lube cannot estimate when, if ever, income from a service center will be enough to meet expenses. Almost invariably, you will need working capital in addition to revenue from the center to cover operating expenses of the service center during its initial phase of operations.

Based on its experience, Jiffy Lube thinks that in markets that are familiar with the quick lube concept (which includes most markets today), the initial phase of operations will be at least six months. For that reason, Jiffy Lubes recommends that your plans include additional funds of at least $45,000.

10. Total Expenditures: $207,000 to $500,000

11. Growth Funding: $0 to $77,350

For franchisees acquiring a new site, Jiffy Lube does not offer any financing assistance that is specifically tailored for any of the expenses described in this Item 7.

SOPUS Products offers several financial assistance programs as described in Item 10. Thus, a franchisee that elects to receive funding can use these funds to help offset initial investment costs when signing the Pacesetter Supply Agreement and the Jiffy Lube Multi-care Franchise Agreement Addendum.