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For Immediate Release
Contact: Sanda Pecina
202-367-1622
specina@akerpartners.com
American Heart Association and Byrider Take Steps
to Educate Americans on the Health Benefits of WalkingCARMEL, IN (August 15, 2007) – Walking can do a body good. And even a company that puts people behind
the wheel can get behind better health. J.D. Byrider, the nation’s largest and oldest used-car franchise and
finance company, is partnering with the American Heart Association on a new program and is co-sponsoring
the 2007 Start! Heart Walk on Sept. 15 in Indianapolis.
Every day, our company focuses on helping to put customers back on the road to better financial health, said
Jim DeVoe Jr., J.D. Byrider CEO. Now we are trying to help them and our own 280 Indianapolis-area
employeesget on the road to better physical health, too.
Start! focuses on walking because it’s accessible, free and has the lowest dropout rate of any kind of exercise,
said Dr. Worthe Holt, chairman of the Start! Heart Walk. In addition, the campaign is a simple and effective
way to cut back on a company’s health care costs. Research shows that employers can save up to $16 in health
care costs for every dollar spent on wellness and health promotion in the workplace. Obesity alone costs U.S.
businesses $12.7 billion annually in medical expenses and $225.8 billion in lost productivity.
Joining the Start! campaign is the just one step of Byrider’s two-pronged program to help customers and
employees get on the road to better health. The next step will be to spread heart-healthy tips to both customers
and employees at Byrider’s company-owned dealerships across the U.S.
The relationship with the American Heart Association fits well with Byrider’s purpose of helping customers
advance. Through this program customers will learn that adopting a healthier lifestyle will help them in the
long run because unexpected medical bills can wipe out personal finances and lead to poor credit. While
Byrider specializes in providing good cars and credit when its customers need it, the ultimate goal is to help a
large group of consumers who need help getting back on their feet.
This partnership is just one of several efforts our founder, Jim DeVoe, initiated so we could give back to the
community, said Steve Wedding, Byrider’s president of franchising. In fact, we are currently investigating
ways to help people become savvier about keeping their finances in healthy shape, too. We hope to make an
announcement about that in the near future.
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For more information, contact Sanda Pecina (202-367-1622, specina@akerpartners.com.)
J.D. Byrider Headquartered in Carmel, IN, outside Indianapolis, J.D. Byrider was founded in 1989. Its original mission was to
serve customers with special financing needs who were routinely ignored by other dealers, and to ensure that they receive the same
quality service in every Byrider dealership. Today, some 700,000 vehicles later, daily monitoring by each dealership shows an average
customer satisfaction rating of 95 percent. There are franchisee- and company-owned J.D. Byrider dealerships in 30 states. More than
5,000 people—many of them repeat customers or referrals—trust Byrider with their business every month. Visit www.jdbfacts.com
or www.jdbyrider.com.
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