Charlie Creighton, the founder and CEO of Colony Tire Corp., has died.
Creighton died on Thursday, according to a column in the Albemarle (N.C.) Observer. A full obituary hasn’t yet been published.
Colony Tire acknowledged its leader’s death with a brief, yet poignant remark on its Facebook account: “The loss we feel cannot be put into words. We love you Charlie”
In 2007, Creighton was Modern Tire Dealer’s Tire Dealer of the Year. At the time, he quipped, “you must not have received very many entries.”
But Creighton was a hard working tire dealer who taught himself the trade, sought out opportunities and built a company in Edenton, N.C. that includes 31 locations that serve both the commercial and retail sectors. The company retreads and in the 1990s, Creighton also started a wholesale operation, Atlantic Tire Distributors.
Creighton was selling forestry equipment for Caterpillar when at the age of 32, he and a friend, George Wood, decided to go into business together.
“The American dream is to be in business for yourself,” he said in 2007.
“It was a big challenge to leave a good job where you were making good money and start driving a tanker truck. It took my wife 15 years to get over me quitting. I had a nice job and all of a sudden I was selling kerosene.”
Creighton and Wood bought a small petroleum distributor in Edenton and called it Creywood Oil Co. They bought a second petroleum company in 1979 and in 1980, BP Oil convinced the duo to add Goodyear tires to the mix. They knew nothing about tires.
The men sold their first tire on Christmas Eve 1980. That year, Creighton bought out Wood’s stock in the company and became his own entrepreneur. He set his sights on tires, though Creywood Oil remained in the oil business until 1987.
Even though he had already begun to build his staff, Creighton remained a hands-on leader. He recalled that his duties included “everything and anything — selling, putting on tires, loading trucks, you name it. One of my biggest responsibilities was figuring out how to get enough money to cover the checks I mailed out the previous day.”
He slowly added more store, and eventually added the Mastercraft brand, then owned by Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., to provide a lower-tiered option for customers.
In 1990, Creighton’s son Scott joined the company and a year later, the company changed its name to Colony Tire. In 2006, Scott was named Colony Tire’s president, a title he’s retained.
Over the years, Colony Tire continued to grow into new markets and over time, Creighton’s duties changed and were heavily administrative. But he always loved life as a salesman.
“I’m glad we’ve done what we’ve done, but at the same time there’s nothing more fun than being behind the sales counter and meeting the customer’s needs.”
Creighton said, “I don’t want to be in the jewelry business. I don’t want to be a lawyer. I’m not smart enough to be a doctor. The tire business has served me well and I’m delighted to be in it. I don’t want to be anything else.”
