An insurance company has accused Advance Auto Parts of reneging on what it called a potentially lucrative deal for the insurer to place insurance agents in about a third of Advance stores.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. said it is out an expected profit of $150 million from the five-year project hatched in 2007, according to a lawsuit the company filed April 16 in U.S. District Court in southern Ohio.

Advance, based in Roanoke County, had no comment, spokeswoman Shelly Whitaker said.

The two companies struck a deal to place Nationwide insurance agencies just inside the door of at least 1,000 Advance Auto Parts stores. Nationwide saw a chance to sell additional auto policies and other coverage, while Advance gained more foot traffic and an added measure of protection against shoplifting, the suit said.

Nationwide said it invested money and employee time. But Advance didn't keep up its end of the bargain, the lawsuit said.

According to Nationwide, the deal appeared to begin to fall apart after the departure of two former senior Advance executives in spring 2007 -- Michael Coppola, who left as chief executive officer, and David Mueller, former executive vice president of merchandising and marketing.

New leadership asked to unwind the deal, but did not pay Nationwide the $6 million that Nationwide said it would have needed to be made whole, the suit said.

After that, the new leadership used "demands, pressure and a lack of support" to try to prevent Nationwide from realizing its objectives under the in-store agency plan, the suit said. Those actions included instituting a new charge of more than $100 per month per store for the insurance agent to access the Web, the suit said.

Not only did that reduce each location's profit potential, it raised security risks unacceptable to Nationwide, the suit said. Joe Case, spokesman for Nationwide Mutual, said about 40 insurance miniagencies were established before the program's demise.

Nationwide, a unit of Columbus, Ohio, based Nationwide Financial Services, did open insurance agencies in a handful of Advance stores in the Roanoke Valley during a pilot run in 2004. Whitaker declined to say if any are still open.