‘People come to Valvoline for a job and find a career’: Behind the company’s aggressive growth strategy

American retail automotive services company, Valvoline, has undergone significant change – and growth – over the past few years.

In 2023, when the business sold its global products business to Aramco, otherwise known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Company.

At the time, Valvoline was a $4 billion revenue company, with the global products business contributing towards more than half of that figure – emerging from the deal as a pure play retail organization.

Now, with about 2,100 stores in the US and Canada – roughly half company-owned and half franchise-owned – Valvoline is continuing with an “aggressive growth strategy,” aiming for 3,500 stores by the end of 2030.

To understand more about the company’s success and future growth plans, UNLEASH spoke exclusively to Jon Caldwell, Chief People Officer at Valvoline at Workday Rising 2025.

Cultivating a company that welcomes all employees

Valvoline, as a 160-year-old company, is focused on continued growth, which is expected to come through both acquisition and organic builds. 

By adding more than 200 stores a year – increasing to 250 by 2028 – Valvoline has carved a reputation for being a market leader for preventative automotive maintenance. 

But Valvoline credits much of its rapid growth to its unique culture. Central to that is the idea of the “Vamily,” a term coined to celebrate and unite its employees, and now seen as one of its greatest competitive advantages.

Caldwell, the company’s CPO, says that this “Vamily” culture has grown organically, due to strong leadership and the commitment of our employees. 

He likens the business to pit crews teams in F1 or NASCAR, explaining that they are “completely dependent on each other,” as the fast-paced team environment “creates deep bonds”. 

As over 95% of Valvoline’s managers started in hourly technician roles, there is a strong ‘promote-from-within mentality’ that creates a strong pay-it-forward culture, where leaders help others grow because someone once helped them.

This is an important attribute to the company from a culture perspective, as it strengthens Valvoline’s employer value proposition. 

“Many people come to Valvoline for a job and find a career,” Caldwell says. “In a tight labor market, career growth is our most significant differentiator. 

“Promoting from within also gives us continuity. Retail often has higher turnover, but our promote-from-within culture helps us stay true to who we are, even while expanding into new markets.

“I think it allows us to grow from within generationally – today’s technicians are tomorrow’s managers. 

Even through this period of tremendous growth, we want to stay true to who we are – which can be challenging in retail, because retail has higher turnover. But if we get that continued growth from within as we enter new markets, we’ll continue to perpetuate the strength of our culture.”

To ensure employees are able to move within the company, formal training programs are offered as well as apprenticeships and mentorship. 

Caldwell adds that at Valvoline, mentorship is particularly important as it provides connection across the organization. 

The strong promote-from-within culture also means that a lot of leaders mentor others – especially beyond store manager level.

These employees then often become an area or market manager somewhere else within the US which helps the business build opportunities in other areas, too. 

The qualities of a top-quality employee

On top of Valvoline’s mission to promote from within, Caldwell is also keen to retain top-performing employees by fostering a culture where workers are committed to one another.

Drawing from his own experience, Caldwell reports that this makes people more likely to stay with the business.

“People who enjoy a fast-paced, team-oriented setting tend to do really well with Valvoline,” Caldwell notes. 

He continues to share that the company has been focused on building an employer brand that delivers on a value proposition, covering the key benefits employees look for:

• Economics: Does the business offer good pay and benefits?
• Development: Is the company a place where employees can grow their careers rather than feel stagnant? 
• Social connection: How is teamwork and belonging cultivated?
• Application: Are employees given the chance to apply what has been learnt? 
• Interest: Are employees genuinely engaged in the work? 

Caldwell believes that Valvoline hits all five of these pillars, stating that together, they create a reason for employees to stay within the business. 

By having such a strong mentorship program, Valvoline is able to open its applications up to every one – no matter their level of education.

“We value education,” Caldwell inputs, “but it’s not required for management at Valvoline. “Even if somebody gets a degree but doesn’t end up going into that field, it’s a great way to see that that individual can learn. 

“We’re proud of this because 62% of US adults don’t have a four-year degree, and we can still provide strong career paths for them.”

Although Valvoline is committed to upskilling and promoting employees from within, it’s important that talent teams are able to identify high-potential employees, and to prepare them for leadership roles. 

To help achieve this, the business has subscribed to the Ideal Team Player attributes, which comes from a well-known author Patrick Lencioni. The framework is built around three qualities: hungry, humble, and smart.

Caldwell explains that ‘hungry’ means employees need to have the drive to succeed, win, and perform. ‘Humble’ is about genuine humility, and ‘smart’ isn’t so much IQ as it is EQ; being people-smart. 

He adds: “It’s about connecting with others and demonstrating emotional intelligence, self-awareness, self-management, relationship management, and social awareness.

Individuals who embody the traits of hungry, humble, and smart, tend to thrive within Valvoline. We use that lens in our interview process and when identifying successors and future managers. It’s proven to be a strong predictor of success. 

“I’d say it also describes Valvoline at its best. Those three qualities really resonate with who we are, and we’ve been embracing them for about five years now.

The future of work at Valvoline

As with any fast-growing business, Valvoline is of course utilizing AI on both a micro and macro level. 

“When I think about engagement and internal mobility and what it can do for our employees, I see it as enriching the roles they play,” he says. 

“It was interesting to hear so much discussion around connecting the human experience to AI at Workday Rising. Even Carl Eschenbach, Workday’s CEO, mentioned a couple of times that employees aren’t competing with AI – they’re completing it.

Employees are really competing with other employees who are leveraging AI.”

This, Caldwell expands, is the approach Valvoline is taking, by exploring how the business can use data and AI to not only to create efficiencies in the roles, but also to free up space for higher-value, more challenging work. 

As a newer Workday customer, Valvoline went live with their first set of modules – HCM, core onboarding, advanced comp, payroll, and time tracking – in March 2025.

The business will continue with its journey by implementing Workday Prism Analytics to help better manage its data. 

“As a retail organization, we sit on a tremendous amount of talent data,” Caldwell adds. 

“We hire around 12,000 people a year, have a strong promote-from-within culture, experience turnover, and support a diverse population across our stores. That means we have rich demographic and workforce data to work with.

“What excites me most about Prism Analytics is the ability to not just analyze that talent data in new ways – sorting, filtering, and identifying trends – but also to connect it with customer, operational, and financial data.”

What’s more, the new tool is expected to help Valvoline gain a deeper understanding of the business, such as: what drives turnover, what defines a successful new hire, and how top talent or reduced turnover in a store impacts customer experience and financial performance.

Looking to the future, Caldwell highlights the idea that many people believe that technology removes the personal touch – but he sees the opposite. 

“With our distributed workforce – both retail stores across North America and hybrid corporate teams – AI and HR tech can increase connectivity and even personalization,” he concludes. 

“I’ve found the opposite to be true – that it actually increases connectivity and, in some cases, even personalization, rather than competing with or detracting from it. This is especially true in a distributed workforce like ours.”