The challenges of 2020 have been immense, and commercial tire dealers are doing their best to weather the storm. As Bob Berlin, president of Orange, Mass.-based Pete’s Tire Barns Inc., put it, “We’re pretty much flat for the year — and we’re happy.”
"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.
The dealerships on the 2019 Modern Tire Dealer 100 did a lot of buying and building in the last 12 months to strengthen their market positions in a consolidating industry. More transactions and projects are in the pipeline.
Retreaders are eager for the boost the new countervailing and antidumping tariffs on truck and bus tires from China are expected to generate for their industry.
