The labor shortage is a near-universal problem. But tire dealers are grappling with other challenges, too. They've developed work-arounds. However, the process hasn't always been easy.
What’s more scarce at your tire dealership — tires or people? If you can’t pick one, you’re not alone. The nation’s largest commercial tire dealerships have been grappling with shortages on both fronts.
For many retreaders, 2020 wasn’t a year to invest in major expansion. As Michael Berra Jr., president of Community Tire Co. in St. Louis, Mo., put it, “2020 was a survival year.”
"None of us in the business today — and probably the last couple of generations — has had any kind of experience” like COVID-19, says Dominic Umek, group business leader at Cleveland, Ohio,-based Conrad’s Tire Express & Total Car Care.
It’s been a year of rapid change for commercial tire dealers as they continue to invest in acquisitions and expansions in the face of intensified competition.