Express Oil Change recently opened at 1840 Stavemill Crossing Lane in Powhatan. It is the company’s fifth Richmond-area location. (Jack Jacobs photos)
A chain of oil-change and auto service shops has shifted into expansion mode with a new outpost in Powhatan.
Express Oil Change & Tire Engineers opened earlier this month at 1840 Stavemill Crossing Lane, off Anderson Highway in the eastern part of the county.
The new shop is the fifth Express location for local franchisee Robley Bates, who also owns and operates shops in Chesterfield and Mechanicsville.
Bates said he set his sights on Powhatan for this latest location in part because it is home to a number of customers who come to his Midlothian locations. After steadily building his franchise for more than a decade, he believed the county had experienced enough growth to pull the trigger.
“When I opened my first location in 2013 – I started looking in 2011 – Powhatan wasn’t even on the radar. It was farther out than I wanted to go,” Bates said. “(Now) there’s a lot of cars on Route 60, and that’s my business.”
Bates estimated that the all-in cost to open the Powhatan shop was $4.5 million. Leipertz Construction was the general contractor.
Robley Bates
The Express Oil Change was built on a vacant 1.6-acre site that an LLC tied to Bates acquired last year for $650,000, according to online land records.
The shop is between a Bojangles and Dollar Tree near the Powhatan-Chesterfield line. Also nearby is a Whistle Express Car Wash, which opened in 2023.
Earlier this year, Powhatan supervisors rezoned a nearby 55-acre site on Anderson Highway for industrial development.
The Powhatan store follows the 2023 opening of the Express Oil Change at 1260 Koger Center Blvd. in Midlothian. That fourth location was a bit of a full-circle moment because Bates opened it across the street from the first Midlothian location, at 1401 Packer Crossing, which has operated for 12 years.
“You could throw a baseball at the other shop,” Bates said. “People thought it was crazy, but it worked out well.”
Before doubling down in Midlothian, Bates opened locations at 7247 Bell Creek Road in Mechanicsville in 2016 and at 11231 Iron Bridge Road in Chester in 2019.
Bates discovered Express Oil Change during a brief stint working as an investment banker in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the late 2000s, following an eight-year hitch in the Marine Corps. His firm worked with the Express corporate office, and Bates said he was impressed that the company seemed to do well while in the midst of the Great Recession.
“No one is doing deals, but this business is doing deals and humming along,” Bates recalled.
Before he opened locations in his hometown, Bates worked for a couple years as a technician at an Express in Alabama. He said the concept pitches itself as a one-stop shop, offering 10-minute oil changes as well as car repairs and inspections.
“People need to get oil changes and they need to get their repairs, and they can do it all in one site,” Bates said.
Express, which is based in Birmingham, Alabama, opened its first location in 1979. The company says on its website that it has nearly 400 locations in about 20 states. It also has Virginia locations in Fredericksburg and Hampton Roads.
Express Oil Change recently opened at 1840 Stavemill Crossing Lane in Powhatan. It is the company’s fifth Richmond-area location. (Jack Jacobs photos)
A chain of oil-change and auto service shops has shifted into expansion mode with a new outpost in Powhatan.
Express Oil Change & Tire Engineers opened earlier this month at 1840 Stavemill Crossing Lane, off Anderson Highway in the eastern part of the county.
The new shop is the fifth Express location for local franchisee Robley Bates, who also owns and operates shops in Chesterfield and Mechanicsville.
Bates said he set his sights on Powhatan for this latest location in part because it is home to a number of customers who come to his Midlothian locations. After steadily building his franchise for more than a decade, he believed the county had experienced enough growth to pull the trigger.
“When I opened my first location in 2013 – I started looking in 2011 – Powhatan wasn’t even on the radar. It was farther out than I wanted to go,” Bates said. “(Now) there’s a lot of cars on Route 60, and that’s my business.”
Bates estimated that the all-in cost to open the Powhatan shop was $4.5 million. Leipertz Construction was the general contractor.
Robley Bates
The Express Oil Change was built on a vacant 1.6-acre site that an LLC tied to Bates acquired last year for $650,000, according to online land records.
The shop is between a Bojangles and Dollar Tree near the Powhatan-Chesterfield line. Also nearby is a Whistle Express Car Wash, which opened in 2023.
Earlier this year, Powhatan supervisors rezoned a nearby 55-acre site on Anderson Highway for industrial development.
The Powhatan store follows the 2023 opening of the Express Oil Change at 1260 Koger Center Blvd. in Midlothian. That fourth location was a bit of a full-circle moment because Bates opened it across the street from the first Midlothian location, at 1401 Packer Crossing, which has operated for 12 years.
“You could throw a baseball at the other shop,” Bates said. “People thought it was crazy, but it worked out well.”
Before doubling down in Midlothian, Bates opened locations at 7247 Bell Creek Road in Mechanicsville in 2016 and at 11231 Iron Bridge Road in Chester in 2019.
Bates discovered Express Oil Change during a brief stint working as an investment banker in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the late 2000s, following an eight-year hitch in the Marine Corps. His firm worked with the Express corporate office, and Bates said he was impressed that the company seemed to do well while in the midst of the Great Recession.
“No one is doing deals, but this business is doing deals and humming along,” Bates recalled.
Before he opened locations in his hometown, Bates worked for a couple years as a technician at an Express in Alabama. He said the concept pitches itself as a one-stop shop, offering 10-minute oil changes as well as car repairs and inspections.
“People need to get oil changes and they need to get their repairs, and they can do it all in one site,” Bates said.
Express, which is based in Birmingham, Alabama, opened its first location in 1979. The company says on its website that it has nearly 400 locations in about 20 states. It also has Virginia locations in Fredericksburg and Hampton Roads.
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Congratulations to Mr. Bates for opening this new location in Powhatan. Mr. Bates and all the technicians and staff at Express Oil Change are consummate professionals who treat every customer with the utmost respect. They are very knowledgeable and have always taken great care of us when servicing my family’s vehicles.