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.
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.
