National Oil & Lube News magazine honors the best of the best each year with its prestigious Operator of the Year award, and three recent winners all credit the innovative use of Marketplace Chaplains for their success.

Marketplace Chaplains’ client leaders, Jim Grant, Owner of East Ridge Fast Lube, was the 2012 winner of Operator of the Year award; Kevin Davis, Owner and COO of Fast Change Lube & Oil, Inc., was the 2011 winner; and Tim Embry, Owner and CEO of American LubeFast, garnered the title in 2007. The common thread for all of these award recipients is they all use the strategic initiative of Marketplace Chaplains in their businesses for their employees and their family members.

“I’m able to offer my employees a type of service that is much more than just a regular paycheck,” Davis said. “The purpose of the award is to commend and honor the operators in our industry who go above and beyond what is expected of them in the marketplace, and that is what I feel I’m doing by utilizing the Marketplace Chaplain service,” Davis continued.

Fast Change Oil & Lube, Inc. has 23 facilities spread across Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia, making it impossible for Davis to personally reach out to his stores on a daily basis, but he learned firsthand the difference a Marketplace Chaplain has made in his business and for his employees.

“I’ll never forget when one of my managers called me personally to express, through many tears, what having a chaplain meant to him when one of his family member’s died,” Davis said. “The chaplain brought food to the hospital, helped with the funeral service and stood with us through the grief. I will never forget that as long as I live.”

Embry has dozens of stores all over the Atlanta area and in 25 different cities throughout Georgia and the Southern portion of the US. He said having chaplains at each of his stores helped pave the way for the national industry honor.

“Chaplains have changed the heart and soul of my company and we’ve become a better company too,” Embry added.

Embry said for a large operator it simply makes good business sense to use the chaplains to take care of his hundreds of employees. He cited the American LubeFast company turnover rate has dropped from 185%, which is near the national average for the fast lube business, to 125% since he implemented the use of Marketplace Chaplains.

“The 60% reduction in turnover has saved me thousands of dollars in training expenses alone,” Embry said. “Basically, the turnover savings has paid for the expense of our chaplains company-wide.”

He also said company shrinkage, better known as theft or missing inventory, has been lessened by

1.5 percentage points, which is a savings of $200,000 – yet another savings he attributes, in part, to the chaplain service.

“The chaplain’s presence denotes an emphasis in morals and integrity that our employees seem to respond well to, which affects the overall corporate culture of our company,” Embry continued.

Marketplace Chaplains provide dedicated support and care on a comprehensive basis to employees and their families in dozens of areas including: hospital visitations, weddings, funerals and confidential discussions on and off the job.

“In the fast pace of life and the even faster pace of these quick lube companies, people always have needs and it’s gratifying to see these award-winning companies honored for going above and beyond the call of duty to help their employees and their respective family members.  Just knowing we are a small part of the equation thrills my heart,” said President and COO Dick De Witt.