With nearly 30 years at the helm of Tire Source, an independent tire dealership that has six locations throughout northeastern Ohio, Tom White has dealt with just about every tire retailing scenario that you can imagine.
In the August issue of MTD, we posed three questions to Tom and his son, TJ White, who manages one of Tire Source’s locations, about how they have successfully neutralized the impact of mass merchandisers, how they have maintained margins in an increasingly crowded marketplace and effective strategies they have employed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are some excerpts from the interview, which, directly enough, is subtitled “Three questions from Tom and TJ White from Tire Source.” (The full story also can be accessed here.)
On competing with mass merchandisers: “Our customers are looking for a place where they can bring their cars and where they feel there are very qualified people changing their tires,” says Tom. “And we form that personal relationship with the customer. That’s our theme. We want to be partners with our customers. They want that extra care. Box stores don’t have that touch.”
On maintaining margins: “We’re very adamant about making sure we offer in-house road hazard protection to every customer,” says TJ. “It’s one of those things we try to add onto every package.”
On managing through COVID-19: “We made sure we had inventory on-hand,” says Tom. “We were probably at our highest inventory level at the beginning of COVID-19. It was kind of counter-intuitive that we were going to add inventory and drop cash down. But we kept a clean line of communication with our vendors. We didn’t have to dip into our cash reserves.”
If I’ve learned one thing as editor of MTD, it’s that our readers love to read about what their fellow tire dealers are doing, since many face the same challenges. And I suspect that in times like these, insights from fellow dealers are more valuable than ever.
What challenges are you facing at your dealership? Feel free to contact me at [email protected] and we'll discuss in a future edition of this blog. I look forward to hearing from you.
