2014 Lifetime Award Recipient
Lucas Oil Products, Inc. - Corona
In an industry that has long been dominated by giant multinational corporations, Forrest Lucas has overcome the odds and used his sales ability, marketing savvy and core values of honesty and fairness to build an impressive industry leader: Lucas Oil Products, Inc.
Founded by Lucas and his wife Charlotte in 1989, the firm is the global leader of high performance lubricants and problem solving additives. The company produces and markets more than 272 unique formulations in more than 34 countries around the world.
While Lucas has always been an entrepreneur, starting as an owner-operator of a long haul truck and growing to establish a company with a fleet of trucks, Lucas Oil didn’t become a reality until the late 1980’s. Maintenance costs for his trucking firm were threatening to ruin him. But adversity is a great teacher, and he refused to let the poor quality of available commercial truck lubricants that he was using force him out of business. Through experimentation and a lot of hard work, he came up with a formulation that worked and soon they were selling it to their peers who were all suffering the same problem.
Lucas hasn’t looked back since. By the time he turned 50, Lucas was completely out of the trucking business and fully into manufacturing and marketing his products in Corona. The company grew steadily and in 2003, expanded to a second manufacturing plant in Corydon, Indiana.
Not content to be a leader in lubricants and additives, Lucas has expanded the company into a wide variety of businesses. Lucas Oil is now a leader in the motorsports industry through its Team Lucas sponsorships, nationwide racing series (such as the Lucas Oil Off Road series) and Lucas Oil Speedway racing venues in Missouri and California. The company is also heavily involved in television production, with its Lucas Oil Studios expanding its national and international coverage with content provided to CBS, NBC, Speed and FUEL. Adding to its television reach, Lucas Oil purchased MAVTV in 2011 and has grown the network to reach more than 60 million households in the US.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2014, Lucas Oil is an impressive success story. With its products in more than 30,000 auto parts stores and at every truck stop in America plus distribution in 34 countries, Lucas Oil has radically altered the oil products landscape. Forrest Lucas has gone toe-to-toe with the multi-nationals and has made Lucas Oil Products, Inc. a clear winner and world leader in heavy duty and high performance lubricants.