Midas International Corp. is celebrating its 60th anniversary this spring and still doing what the first franchisees did decades ago: responding to the market's changing needs.
In 1956 shops offered while-you-wait muffler service. In 2016 TBC Corp. is reinventing Midas as a provider of total car care, including tires.
The company was launched on April 20, 1956, by Nate H. Sherman. He called his company the Muffler Installation Dealers Associated Service – ever since known as Midas – and the muffler his franchisees installed back then was a brass-speckled beauty that came with a warranty “for as long as you own your car.”
The first store opened in Macon, Ga. Within a year, there were 100 nationwide. In subsequent years, Midas expanded into a range of services such as brakes, tires, oil changes and ride control. Today, nearly 1,300 Midas locations in the U.S. and Canada service almost all of the typical car’s needs.
In May 2012, Midas became the newest member of an expanding family of auto-service brands owned by TBC Corp.
Under TBC management, Midas introduced "10 service absolutes" to wow customers, and then executed a brand relaunch featuring a new image, a return to TV advertising (after a five-year absence) and a series of national promotions with the “For brakes, tires, oil, everything, Trust the Midas Touch” tag line.
TBC says under its ownership Midas' North American sales have increased for 29 straight months through November 2015. The brand opened 21 locations in the U.S. and Canada last year, including several formerly independent stores that converted to Midas franchises.
Midas has launched a tire sales initiative geared toward making Midas a full-service tire and auto service destination. The pilot will launch in April in the Philadelphia market and then roll across North America in the remainder of 2016 and through 2017.
“The future of our brand is in tires and auto service,” says Mike Gould, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Midas. “It’s a major change, and we are confident about it because change is in our DNA. Midas started out as a muffler specialist and then graduated into brakes, followed by maintenance. Two years from now, we will be a full-service tire and auto-service company, and a significant player in the tire business.”
For more information about Midas, call 1-877-890-5874 or email [email protected].
The Midas Timeline
1956 First Midas store opens
1957 100th Midas store opens
1961 Midas expands into Canada
1968 Midas opens first overseas store
1979 Midas introduces nationwide brake service
1996 Midas moves into multiple services
2012 Florida-based TBC Corp. merges with Midas
2013 Midas brand relaunched with a new image and new advertising
2015 Midas completes 29 straight months of comp store sales increases
2015 Company opens 21 Midas locations in the U.S. and Canada
2016 Midas launches the ‘Midas Tires’ initiative with the goal of profitably transforming Midas into a major retailer of tire and total care services.
