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Express Oil and Tire Engineers, the city of Valley’s newest addition, opened at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Even with the late start, the store had over a dozen cars through their garage. The store is located on 20th Ave in the Village Square Shopping Center. 

The corporate store location is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. The shop has multiple bays for cars to pull into, and six employees and mechanics on staff. 

“It’s unlimited as far as capacity…we have similar stores that do hundreds of cars a day,” said Sam Sainker, Vice President of Operations. 

While they are known for oil changes, the location is a full-service garage.

“Anything you need bumper to bumper, we can facilitate it,” Sainker said. It’s a one-stop shop. We obviously do a 10-minute oil change, we have full-service automotive repairs and tires.”

The employees are all locals, ranging from Lanett to LaGrange. The manager, Chris Francis, is a Valley resident, living down the road. Francis was excited to find out the company he had worked at for nearly 15 years was opening a new store so close to him. 

“[It is] literally the first part of our mission statement: to give each customer the assurance that their vehicle is well taken care of,” Francis said.

The store is offering some new store deals for multiple services, ending on Aug 7. There will be a grand opening in the next couple of months, as well as customer appreciation events. 

Francis plans to operate the franchise location as a mom-and-pop experience. The store will be working with local business partners to become more involved in the community.

The Express Oil is the first in a list of businesses set to open in the shopping center. The Chambers County Development Authority announced in May that the Express Oil, along with Marshalls, Petsense and Five Below would be moving into the center. 

The cumulative effect the businesses are projected to bring is $10 million in investment to the area, and roughly 200 jobs.