Granatelli Agrees to Cardis Bid to Buy Tuneup Masters Chain

Former race car driver Andy Granatelli is selling Tuneup Masters, his Woodland Hills-based chain of automobile tuneup shops, to Cardis Corp. of Beverly Hills for 960,000 shares of Cardis common stock worth about $8 million, plus an undisclosed amount of cash, the companies announced Monday.

Granatelli, who owns 85% of the stock of Tuneup Masters, will receive all 960,000 shares involved in the transaction, or about 17% of the stock of Cardis, Cardis Chairman Jack I. Salzberg said. Jerry Dres, president and founder of Tuneup Masters and owner of the other 15% of its stock, will receive some of the cash, Salzberg said.

Cardis is believed to be California’s largest automobile parts distributor and the third-largest nationwide.

The Cardis stock Granatelli is to receive has a current market value of slightly more than $8 million, based on Cardis’ closing price Monday of $8.37 1/2 a share in trading on the American Stock Exchange, up $1.37 1/2 from Friday.

Granatelli releases little information about his company, refusing to disclose its sales or even the number of garages that it operates. Executives of competing companies, however, have estimated that the company has about 350 shops throughout California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Louisiana and Oklahoma. All of the outlets, each sporting dark blue “Andy Granatelli’s Tuneup Masters” signs, are owned by the parent company.

Granatelli, 63, began his racing career in the 1940s, later becoming well known as an owner and sponsor of race cars, including the one that Mario Andretti drove to win the 1969 Indianapolis 500. He still drives occasionally, setting a speed record for a class of passenger cars last August on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

Familiar to TV Audiences

Granatelli’s portly, 5-foot-10 frame also became familiar to television audiences in the early 1970s, when he was chairman, chief executive and commercial spokesman for STP Corp., a maker of oil and gasoline additives that is now part of Union Carbide.

Salzberg said Tuneup Masters will operate as a Cardis subsidiary. The garages will continue to carry Granatelli’s name, he said, and Granatelli will continue doing Tuneup Masters commercials. Dres will remain as the firm’s president, Salzberg said.

Once the acquisition is completed, Granatelli and Salzberg, who own about 1.1 million Cardis shares, or 19%, will be the company’s largest individual shareholders. Cardis will have about 5.7 million shares outstanding when the acquisition is completed in early August, Salzberg said.

Granatelli, who will remain as chairman and chief executive of Tuneup Masters, entered the business in 1978, when he bought out most of Dres’ interest in the company.

Granatelli said he believes that the sale will benefit Tuneup Masters because the company will get immediate delivery of parts and will be able to reduce the amount of inventory that its shops and warehouses carry.

Salzberg said he was attracted to Tuneup Masters because it is a “highly profitable” operation and will provide Cardis with a large customer for such parts as spark plugs, fuel pumps and fan belts. Cardis does not supply parts to Tuneup Masters now, he said.