Ziebart of the Midlands opened its first South Carolina location as the world’s leading provider of automotive services to clean, enhance, and protect the value of cars and trucks. Bob Morris, South Carolina's first Ziebart franchisee, offers a full line of appearance and protection services for both the interior and exterior of vehicles, including Professional Detailing, Window Tint, Ceramic Z-Gloss® Paint Coating, Z-Shield® Paint Protection Film, Sprayed-on Bed Liners and much more.
Bob Morris already had a successful career in biotech/pharmaceutical sales and management. He started with the Upjohn Company in 1990 as a sales rep in the Augusta, GA area, and through the end of 2018, he worked for major pharma and biotech companies as a sales rep, training manager, and sales manager.
When searching for business opportunities in Columbia, Bob came across Ziebart. He discovered there are currently no Ziebart stores in the entire coastal Southeast!
Bob opened his own auto and truck detailing and customizing business at the end of 2018. The Ziebart franchise for Columbia was purchased in February of 2019, and despite several delays, it was finally wrapped up in early January of this year.
Bob has already received a verbal commitment from two local businesses for about $50,000 a year in sales and services.
One is from Jon Davis, the owner of Golden Motors in Columbia. They sell about 60 used 4x4 trucks a month. Jon said he would send Ziebart 5-6 spray-on bed liners a month. The other is West Chatham Warning devices in Lexington which up-fits new vehicles for police, rescue, and fire duty. Bob has known the manager, Denise Stewart, since middle school. She says they will send Ziebart a minimum of 24 spray-on liners and 24 truck bed covers a year.
Because of the proximity of the store to Lake Murray, there is also a huge opportunity to do ceramic coating on boats too.
"My son Cooper has a passion for cars too, and I wanted to have a business that could be passed along for many generations. After visiting their world headquarters in February of 2019, we decided to take the plunge and paid the franchise fee for the Columbia, SC area," Bob said. "After overcoming many obstacles, we completed construction of our 5,950 sq ft store and opened on January 14, 2021."
Bob’s son, Cooper, completed four years of auto tech training in high school. In addition to earning his Automotive Service Excellence certification, Cooper was named “Auto Tech of the Year” by his teacher his senior year.