With a market area that flows along much of the East Coast, there are several regional economies driving McCarthy Tire Service Co. Inc.’s business.
There are dairy farms in Lancaster, Pa., and berry farms in New Jersey. There are ports to serve in Philadelphia and Savannah, and fleets of all types and sizes in every city on the map.
At home in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and Luzerne County, it’s an area that was built on coal, specifically, anthracite coal. John McCarthy says with the current political climate, these are good days for the local coal industry. “The anthracite coal business has come back and it’s come back in a big way. It’s not only the OTR work. There’s a lot of medium truck work that goes along with transporting the product. That’s been a big boom for us here.”
The hometown economy also has been helped by its highway system. There are three major interstates within 20 miles of Wilkes-Barre, and the area has become a distribution hub. Since 2017 four companies have opened or announced distribution projects in the county: TruValue Co. LLC, Adidas America Inc., Patagonia Inc. and Chewy Inc. (Chewy.com). Combined they’ll occupy more than 3 million square feet.
And there are others already doing business in the area.
“I’m assuming it’s the demise of the mall and everybody’s shopping online,” he says. “It’s become a big part of our business. There’s a lot of trucking from it, a lot of industrial forklift business from it, plus there are trucking companies moving in. If xyz trucking company ships for a specific distribution company, they will put in a trucking terminal to handle the business.”
