Small Business Stories - Royal Purple Synthetic Oil

Ivy Hartman: Welcome to SBTV.com's coverage of the 2008 SEMA show here in Las Vegas. I’m Ivy Hartman and with me is Patrick Burris, he is part of the motor sports marketing and you head up the motor sports marketing for Royal Purple, tell us more what Royal Purple is and what you guys do. Ivy Hartman: Yes, what you guys do? Patrick Burris: We manufacture high performance synthetic lubricants for the automobile industry, motorcycles, ATVs, race cars and it’s extended life oil, typically you see improvements in fuel economy, horsepower and it offers extended drain intervals. Ivy Hartman: But you are really with motor sports marketing so what application obviously motor oil and lubricant, we know we can’t application it has but how does that really apply to the racing industry to make it better than other ones? Patrick Burris: Well we offer products--our motor oils, our transmission fluids and stuff like that that offer improved horsepower. So you know if you are in a racing industry and somebody can bring you a product that offers 3% improvement in horsepower, pretty much you know you have to give it at least a look to see if for full of it or not so it’s--actually racing is one of the places we got our start, we never, we’re actually, the larger portion of Royal Purple is in industrial application. Ivy Hartman: Really? Patrick Burris: Yeah, so we make 200 industrial lubricants and then they guys at the plants wanted something to put in their race cars, we started doing those and then we’ve started do in regular retail motor oil which is actually the largest portion of our segment right now, it’s just a retail standard motor oil for the car you drive everyday. Ivy Hartman: You know I have interviewed some people at this show about bio-diesel and the way things are changing and that’s a fuel, so do we see trends changing in the automotive lubricant and oil market as years go on? Patrick Burris: Yeah, I mean it used to be you grew up with change your oil every 3 months or 3000 miles-- Ivy Hartman: Right. Patrick Burris: If I told you today, I offer a product that offers you 12000 miles oil change in real for your car, do you want to talk to me or do you want to keep changing it in every 3000 miles, exactly. So I mean the less waste oil you can produce, the better off it is for the environment. The oil is more expensive upfront to do an oil change but if you’re doing it once every four times you’re doing it with conventional oil, it’s significantly cheaper, not to mention if I say I can get you 3%-5% better fuel economy for your daily driver, do you want to talk to me? Ivy Hartman: Absolutely, and I think that’s probably where the trend is going, is that what you’re finding? Patrick Burris: Oh yeah that’s and that’s the segment that we didn’t think we would ever do very well when it was the installer market where the consumer pulls up to an oil change facility and says I want Royal Purple, you know, we didn’t think we would do well in that segment and then we actually did very well there and it’s another one of the places that we’re growing very rapidly and retail customers and just the retail consumer is, you know, our growth rate has been 40-50% you know over the last 7 years for our retail growth, which is you know unheard of in the industry. Ivy Hartman: Which is finally because from anyway a mom like me not necessarily somebody was looking for horsepower, you know but for me to pull in and say hey I want good efficiency and I want a long term oil, just to call for Royal Purple. We’ll talk about what you want to achieve at this year’s SEMA show. Patrick Burris: We have some new products that we brought with us, you know it’s very hard to come up with the new products when it’s motor oil, it’s not a widget, I can’t go to the machine shop and say that design me something new for this year’s show it. It takes a lot of research and a lot of development time. So couple of years ago we started out with the developing. We saw a trend with people needing a good quality break in oil because with their API has done with the additive levels in the new motor oils, for the performance side of it, they had some issues with camshafts not lasting and wearing out, not been able to break them in properly. So couple of years ago we started developing break in oil and after a lot R&D work and a lot of testing at different facilities around the country with this different engine builders, we’ve developed a break in oil for high performance engines. So you can start off life with the engine with the synthetic motor oil which was--always been a big question in the industry is can you really start a fresh engine on synthetic. Well we’ve developed one that you can, it offers more than adequate protection for high performance camshafts. So the zinc and phosphorus levels are higher than what the API says they should be for new API license motor oils but we’re not going after that, we want the performance segment for this. So it’s done very well for us in the six months that it has been out and we out so we saw the need for a good quality synthetic 0-40 because a lot of high performance cars, a lot of the dodge cars and a lot of European spare cars are calling for a synthetic 0-40 and basically about the only place you can go and get it, was the dealership. So we went and developed a high performance extended life 0-40 for the average consumer. You can go into your local auto part store and pick it up, you don’t have to go to dealership anymore. Ivy Hartman: So in addition to revealing new products at the SEMA show, how long that you’ve been exhibiting and what other benefits have you seen by being in here? Patrick Burris: Over 10 years, I could tell you the first year that we were here-- Ivy Hartman: Does that predate to you? Patrick Burris: I have been with the company 11 years and I believe they started come in here about the first year I was with the company. Ivy Hartman: Wow! Patrick Burris: So I know it’s been at least ten years. We reached the shop owners, you know, which is a big thing and then we also over the last seven years that I’ve been coming here, I tried to reach out and get relationship started with other manufacturers, get them using our product, so they can go and tell the people that they’re selling parts too, this is what's then all of project vehicles because you know everybody to got a project vehicle, right, so if we-- Ivy Hartman: Whether they are working on it or not reverently. Patrick Burris: Correct, yeah, correct so you know, everybody Magnuson supercharger, talk to them they run our product now, the guys ARI technologies, YearOne, these are contacts that we’ve made here over the last, you know 7-8 years and we get them using our product and they spread the word if you go to YearOne for you muscle car parts and you ask them what’s in their muscle cars they will tell you, this is all we use. Magnuson superchargers, they will tell you this all we use, pro chargers, you know MSD ignition and the list goes on and on, these are all contacts we made here at SEMA, this helps us get the word out to their customers that this is what we use. Ivy Hartman: Having an industry endorsements that speaks highly but you guys, what are your opinions or I guess proven track records you feel about celebrity endorsements for products and things like that ? Patrick Burris: They, you know, I was always iffy about it but after working with Chip Foose and Jay Leno and you know, some of these big name people and then seeing our products on their shows, you get a phone call, you get emails, you know I really respect that person and the products that they use so and then you know the opportunity to go actually work on set with some of these guys, it’s been 10 years ago and they never thought you know, all you know up they don’t like eight or nine TV shows now and it’s like it's no big deal that’s like you know years I would have been like totally freaked out that you want to go to TV show that, no way. Ivy Hartman: So sitting here on television, hey no big deal for you. Patrick Burris: Yeah, you know I never in my life imagine that I would--this is the industry I was wanted to be in, you know never knew really how to get into it and just got lucky one day I got a job and here it is, it’s incredible. Ivy Hartman: Is there anything else you’d like people to know or small business viewers to know about Royal Purple. Patrick Burris: I think we’ve covered it all. I mean you know available at almost 20,000 retail locations, go to your local auto parts store and pick up our product or visit royalpurple.com. Ivy Hartman: I was just going to ask for that web address. royalpurple.com, thanks again for be in here with us in small business television. Patrick Burris: It's same. Ivy Hartman: And keep it here as we continue bring you all things about automotive from the SEMA show 2008.