Meguiar’s Car Wax: In Business for Ministry
By Joel Kilpatrick
Courtesy of Vanguard University Fall Magazine 2006

Barry Meguiar, president and CEO of Meguiar’s Inc. and member of the Vanguard University Foundation Board, has been a friend of Vanguard for more than 30 years. Now this head of one of the world’s leading manufacturers of appearance car care products has become a major part of the university’s Vision 2010 capital campaign.

Meguiar was raised in a family with strong roots in church ministry and a family business. His grandfather studied systematic theology while starting the business of Meguiar’s Car Wax in 1901. Barry has worked in the business since his grade school days, worked side-by-side with his dad formulating products, served as the bookkeeper while in college, and a sales manager as soon as he graduated, when annual sales were stalled at $600,000.

The business had always been focused on the car manufacturers, car dealers, body shops and what are now called detailers. But Barry was a car guy and discovered that Meguiar’s products were favored by serious car enthusiasts. He says, “it was like a cult following.” He viewed it as a big growth opportunity for the family to allow him to pursue the consumer market.

His story of taking a small family business into the mass consumer market and eventually becoming the top brand of appearance car care products in America is a story of miracles. In the 1980s, Meguiar’s faced a watershed moment: whether or not to spend the millions of dollars on network television that the mass retailers were demanding for entrance on to their shelves. Barry, then 29, convinced a skeptical board to go forward. “The decision put eighty years of family business on the line,” he says. “If it didn’t work, we were gone. But I continually prayed for guidance and God gave me the confidence.”

The risk paid off and Meguiar’s became a national brand of car care products in the U.S. as well as a leading brand in over 50 other countries. Barry is always quick to point out that the key to success comes from honoring God in all you do. “It’s fascinating to hear about the people and the resources that God has consistently provided to Meguiar’s, right on time, over the last 30 years,” he says.

Because Meguiar’s products are formulated for professional and serious car enthusiasts, their customers are fiercely loyal, giving Meguiar’s the highest brand loyalty ratings in the business.

“We love everything we do and we do it with passion,” Barry says.

As a result, his family-owned business has enjoyed consistent double-digit growth for over 30 years.

Barry also operates Car Crazy Central, a media group focused on “exciting and uniting serious car enthusiasts world wide.” He hosts Car Crazy Television which airs year ‘round on Fox’s SPEED Channel, Car Crazy Radio which airs nationally in 70 markets and carcrazycentral.com. He also hosts the Meguiar’s Award, which honors the Person of the Year for the Car Hobby, filling the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood with 3,500 people.  The Meguiar’s Award is also awarded in other countries from England to Thailand.

More than anything else, Barry sees himself in full-time ministry.

“For me it’s the prayer of Jabez,” explains Barry. “My territory keeps enlarging along with the opportunities for ministry. I have a fire in my belly for reminding lay people that sharing our faith on a daily basis is required of us by God, and the key to keeping us spiritually healthy.”

Now he is speaking out on behalf of a Christian university at a critical time in its history. “The endowment must grow to become its strength because endowments fund programs, pay for scholarships and allow top faculty to be hired, all without touching the principal,” Meguiar says.

Barry’s success in business has enabled him to give of his time and finances—all while recognizing that he would have nothing without His Creator’s grace.