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Eyes on the Future - 2009 Tire Dealer of the Year, Bill Ziegler

Most of Ziegler Tire’s growth has come through acquisitions, says Bill. It’s taken a lot of work to bring some stores up to speed. “You have to be in it for the long-term. You can’t worry about the short-term results.”

The American automobile industry was still in its infancy when Oliver Ziegler opened Ziegler Tire & Supply Co. in 1919. General Motors Corp. was only 11 years old. Henry Ford’s Model T was in the middle of its 19-year production run. Hundreds of automobile manufacturers — many of them now lost in the mists of time — were flooding the market with products, each trying to gain a foothold in this burgeoning new industry.

Oliver, a tavern owner by trade, knew he was on the cusp of something big when he opened his first garage in Canton, Ohio. He was right.

Ninety years later, Ziegler Tire — now based in Massillon, Ohio — is one of the country’s largest independent tire store chains with 24 locations in four states and nearly $95 million in annual sales.

It has survived two World Wars, the Great Depression and numerous recessions by staying true to Oliver’s simple but timeless philosophy: provide good products at fair prices, and back it up with honest service.

However, in the tire industry, exceptional service doesn’t always result in exceptional growth.
To expand to its present dimensions, Ziegler Tire needed a man who had the vision to see what the company could become and the business acumen to make it happen.

That man is Bill Ziegler, Modern Tire Dealer magazine’s 2009 Tire Dealer of the Year.

Right man at the right time

Like many second generation tire dealers, Bill Ziegler grew up in the family business, changing tires, working on cars and performing odd jobs at a store run by his father, Herb Ziegler, one of Oliver’s younger brothers. (Oliver brought Herb, along with another brother, Norm, into the family business during the 1920s. Another brother, Harold Sr., joined the dealership in 1919.)

A self-described “numbers guy” who took an early interest in accounting, Bill, who turns 61 this month, says running Ziegler Tire was probably the furthest thing from his mind when he was young.

After high school, he attended Ohio State University, and graduated with a degree in accounting in 1970. He immediately went to work for Arthur Young & Co. (now Ernst & Young) as a CPA. “I never thought I would go back to the family business,” he says.

Bill’s accounting career began to flourish. After a few years, he was placed on track to become a partner in the firm.

Then one day in 1975, he received a call from Uncle Oliver, then in his mid-80s. “He asked me to come home and talk to him,” Bill recalls. “I went to his house and he took me out to his car. We sat in his car in his driveway and he asked me to come back. He felt there was a definite place for me with my background.” Bill turned him down.

“Then my dad asked me to think about it,” he says.

Bill did some more soul-searching. Despite a promising career ahead of him, crunching numbers for other people was losing its appeal.  

“I felt loyalty to my family. They told me they needed me.”

At the time, a second generation of Zieglers, Bill’s cousins, Jack and Harold Jr., were high-ranking executives at the company. “I felt some responsibility, so I decided to come back.”
Bill says it was the best move he ever made.

He started as Ziegler Tire’s controller. He managed the dealership’s profit and loss statements, as well as banking, accounting and other functions.

Bill’s arrival could not have been better timed. Almost immediately, Ziegler Tire entered into its first major growth spurt.

The firm — which, up until that time, had four locations, all of them in the Canton area — began acquiring other tire dealerships and pushing into new markets.

It was an exhilarating change of pace for a company that had been very conservative for much of its history.

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