With LaSorda's backing, Green Garage looks to grow

Not everyone is ready to trade in a gas-guzzler for a Nissan Leaf or Toyota Prius in order to save the environment. And that's fine with Ryan Ferrero, CEO and founder of Green Garage. He's more interested in sustainability.

Ferrero's Boulder, Colo., auto repair and maintenance company uses 50 certified eco-friendly products designed to improve the performance of even the most environmentally challenged vehicles.

And now with advice and an investment from former Chrysler CEO and co-president Tom LaSorda, Ferrero is poised to take Green Garage national.

Ferrero, a 41-year-old Boulder native, grew up in the car business and even owned Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge and Kia-Mazda dealerships. By the spring of 2008, though, Ferrero said he saw an opportunity in environmental-friendly vehicle care.

“What I felt was lacking was a real transparent and authentic approach to more sustainable or greener transportation,” he said. “What happened over the next six or eight months was taking this idea of more sustainable transportation and bolting that into this ecosystem that already existed here in Boulder, and it started to catch fire.”

The first Green Garage opened in February 2009 in Boulder. Two months later, a location opened in Fort Collins, Colo. In January, he will open a Denver area shop as well. Green Garage services individuals, company fleets or groups of friends and neighbors. Patrons may choose from three maintenance packages costing from around $70 to $300.

These packages include oil made from biodegradable animal fats that, when combined with a more efficient oil filter, can last 24,000 miles between changes. They also offer a biodegradable, boron-based engine and fuel additive intended to make the vehicle run smoother, a nitrogen tire fill designed to improve mileage and pulse spark plugs that burn hotter and cleaner for more efficiency.

The game plan

Ferrero said service products must be third-party certified as green before he adopts them in his shop. His workers wash windshields with recycled newspaper products, which they collect and recycle again. And they collect old oil, measure it and take it to a refinery in Denver for reuse. Although an oil and filter change costs about twice as much as it would at a chain, Ferrero said it is a matter of pride.

“When oil is going through the gulf, my changing a spark plug or biodegradable fluids or simply eco-driving, it's not saving the world, but I've certainly done something that I wasn't doing before.”

Ferrero's company also makes house calls.

When it's time for vehicle maintenance, a Green Garage technician shows up at an owner's house or workplace, drives the vehicle back to the garage for service and returns the vehicle when the work is completed.

Ferrero said this approach is more economical for customers and the company -- because Green Garage doesn't have to spend money on a customer waiting area.

The financial benefits, convenience and eco-friendliness, he said, are his greatest marketing tools.

“We lead first with the message that we save people money, so regardless of where you are and how green you are, everyone wants to save money,” he said. “The second thing we focus on is saving people time and then, oh by the way, we happen to be really green car geeks who are working to reduce emissions and dependency on foreign oil.”

Investing in the future

Helping Ferrero and his team are investors and advisers with experience in the green movement.

When he began planning for Green Garage, Ferrero was put in touch with David Moll, co-founder of Boulder's Infield Capital. The former Webroot Software CEO is now an investor and a director with Green Garage. He has helped Ferrero turn his dream into a tangible business.

Although Ferrero refuses to disclose investor stakes, he has attracted more than 30 other investors and has enough capital to begin expanding. The problem, Ferrero said, was that he lacked someone who could give him national exposure. He said he believes he has found that in LaSorda.

The former Chrysler executive was in Boulder visiting Moll last May when the two men decided to visit Ferrero's garage.

“I listened to his pitch, what he and his people were working on and was pretty engaged in terms of where they were headed. It wasn't the normal ‘let me change your oil' thing,” LaSorda said.

“It was more about setting up a total vision of where they wanted to be from the standpoint that any product that they touch your car with has to be better quality, have higher standards of performance delivery.”

LaSorda, 56, asked Steven Landry, former executive vice president of Chrysler's sales and marketing division, to take a look at Green Garage's financial plan. They liked what they saw, and LaSorda and Landry became investors.

Another factor in Ferrero's favor, LaSorda said, was that he and his father, Bob, had been Chrysler dealers.

“Landry knew him and he spoke very highly of him and his father who started in the Chrysler business,” LaSorda said. “He knew he was a hardworking young guy, very energetic, who knows what he's talking about because he services cars every day.”

Even before joining Green Garage, LaSorda was sitting on four boards, including that of ALTe, a green car startup in Auburn Hills, Mich.

Plans for growth

LaSorda and Ferrero said Green Garage would look at using Apple product stores as a model for expansion.

“If you go into any Apple store, they seem to be the same, right?” LaSorda said. “You pick the talent and the people are well-trained, knowledgeable. I think you can duplicate that on a large scale.”

Ferrero said he plans to expand along the West Coast, starting with cities in California including San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, then maybe moving into Portland, Ore., and Seattle.

“We are not going to rush, but we also feel there's an opportunity right now in the momentum of the industry so we are going to expand as quickly as possible without sacrificing customer care,” Ferrero said. “If we start to lose that customer joy, then we know we've gone too far too fast.”