Montana Tire Finds Success in the Wide-Open West

When Kim Anderson founded Montana Tire Distributors in 1988, Montana’s population was around 800,000.

Billings, Mont., where he decided to set up shop, had a population of roughly 80,000. 

Little did Anderson know that by the year 2026, Montana’s population would grow to 1.1 million people and Billings’ population would expand to around 121,000 people. At one point, Montana was one of the fastest-growing states in the country.  

The influx of new residents to Montana has slowed in recent years, but people still flock to “Big Sky Country.” This continues to create opportunities for Montana Tire Distributors, which is now run by Kim’s son, Ryan Anderson, and includes both a thriving wholesale operation and a busy retail division, Montana Tire & Alignment. (Kim passed away in 2021.) 

In fact, Montana Tire & Alignment has outgrown its current location and recently broke ground on a new retail outlet that will help it serve more customers, including commercial truck drivers. 

'A huge region'

Kim Anderson “was in the tire industry at a very young age” and came to Billings in 1986 after working for a tire distributor that was based in Denver, Colo. Over the years, he had developed a stable of loyal wholesale customers in Montana who were happy to support his new business.  

Soon, Montana Tire Distributors expanded to other areas. Today, in addition to customers across its home state, the wholesaler has clients in northern Wyoming and North Dakota and South Dakota, “a huge region,” says Ryan. 

Working out of one warehouse in Billings, “we run nine delivery trucks and try to hit everybody at least twice a week. Some places we go to just about daily. We have three overnight routes.” 

The competitive landscape was “fairly simple” when Montana Tire Distributors first built its wholesale customer base. In recent years, competition has intensified as large national tire distributors have encroached on the company’s home turf.  

“The wholesale sector of the business is getting tougher and tougher each year,” says Ryan. “All the big guys have come in — not to mention some local distributors, too. I think (outside wholesalers) saw the increase in population and made the jump to get into the market. It’s created a lot more competition. That’s one of the reasons we’re making a bigger push into retail. 

“Our bread-and-butter customers are small mom-and-pop shops in small towns.”

However, due to consolidation, “we’ve lost some customers,” which has caused Montana Tire Wholesalers to pivot to new lines of business within its operation, like secondary supply. 

“It’s not necessarily ideal, but it keeps the tires flowing. It keeps our trucks full.” 

Growth in retail 

“We were virtually wholesale-only from 1988 all the way to 2004,” when Montana Tire Distributors began dabbling in retail sales. "It was a very limited amount and more of a service to our customers. 

“Retail wasn’t a huge part of our business until around 2014, when it started taking off,” says Ryan. “It got busier and busier.” 

Montana Tire & Alignment’s retail store is located a couple of miles away from Montana Tire Distributors’ warehouse in Billings.

At the retail outlet, “we don’t do a lot of mechanical work, but we do some light work like brakes, struts and alignments. We don’t get into motors or transmissions.” 

The store is also capable of servicing commercial truck tire customers, but space for big trucks is limited. Montana Tire & Alignment’s new location, which is under construction, will have two spacious drive-through commercial tire and service bays. 

Most of the dealership’s commercial tire customers are “guys who have one or two trucks.” 

The site of the company’s future outlet is just a few blocks away from its current retail store. “We wanted to stay on this side of town,” says Ryan.  

Even though the new store will span 16,000 square feet versus Montana Tire & Alignment’s current 18,000-square-foot outlet, “it will feel much bigger. We’re tripping over ourselves at our current store” due to lack of space. 

Relationship-focused 

Ryan credits much of Montana Tire Distributors and Montana Tire & Alignment’s success to its employees, including his brother, Kyle, who turns wrenches at the retail store, and Derek Stennerson, a friend of the Anderson family “who’s been with us for more than 20 years.” 

Eleven people work at Montana Tire & Alignment’s retail store. Another 12 people work at Montana Tire Distributors’ warehouse. “We run a tight ship,” says Ryan. “We’re pretty efficient. We have really good employees and we have a really, really low turnover rate.” 

Ryan says another significant contributor to the company’s success is its affiliation with the Independent Tire Dealers Group LLC (ITDG).  

Kim Anderson joined ITDG in 2015 — “probably one of the best moves we ever made,” says Ryan.  “ITDG has given us opportunities we wouldn’t have had otherwise. We try to buy as much as we can through them.” 

As a whole, Montana Tire & Alignment and Montana Tire Distributors “don’t do a lot of marketing,” says Ryan. “Our biggest thing is word-of-mouth and just treating customers how they should be treated.” 

That’s how the dealership will continue to capture new business, he adds. “We definitely plan on adding more retail locations. In the next few years, we’d like to put one on the other side of Billings.” 

Ryan says there are no plans to add retail or wholesale locations in other areas, however. He wants to avoid “cannibalizing our distribution business. It’s hard to put a retail location right next to one of our customers.” 

Success in Montana and other parts of the wide-open west boils down to “relationships. Having good relationships on the retail side and having good relationships on the wholesale side has been huge for us. If you treat someone right, they’re going to keep coming back.”