Leipold Tire Has the Recipe for Success

In 1975, Dennis Leipold had just graduated from college and was working at a tire dealership when he thought to himself, “I could do this, too.”  

So at 22 years old, Leipold rented a location in Stow, Ohio, and opened Leipold Tire Co. Inc.’s first store.  

Today, 50 years later, Leipold has retired and is letting the next generation of Leipolds, his sons and grandsons, take over. However, he isn't out of the game completely and still comes into the dealership every day. 

"I can't sit still," laughs Leipold.  

Opening the first location 

In May 1975, Dennis rented a location at the entrance of a shopping center in Stow, a suburb of Akron. 

“There were no hearings, no boards or anything. It was all very plain and simple. I made a deal with a guy. I rented the building and that was that.” 

He had saved around $17,000 working through school, which he used to fund the start of Leipold Tire. He says getting a location in today's day and age is not as simple.  

“Nowadays, if you want to open a business, you have to have a tree committee, a water run-off committee and all this red tape, so it’s really hard for an individual guy to start his own place. 

“We were very small and if I did 14 tires a day, I was thrilled" in the dealership's early days, continues Leipold. "All the overhead was extremely cheap and I did everything myself. Then three months later, I hired my brother.” 

Leipold says that back then it cost him $72 a day to completely cover his overhead. That included the building payment, utilities, insurance and wages for one employee. “Now, $72 won’t even cover five minutes." 

The Stow location was in front of a shopping center, across the street from a K-Mart, and was on a road that stretched from Stow to Kent, Ohio.  

“I had free advertising because of this and high, high, high visibility,” says Leipold.  

The business kept growing and he added another employee, but the building's rent kept going up and the owner wouldn’t sell the building to him. So Leipold bought his current Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, location in 1983.  

“The intention was to move (to Cuyahoga Falls) from the original location in Stow, but I thought maybe I could run two locations. So I opened the Cuyahoga Falls location and kept the original location. Then in 1986, another building became available (in Stow) that I bought and we moved our Stow location there.” 

Leipold went from four employees to his current 25. At first, he only sold and serviced tires, but around 1984, he added brakes and alignments to the dealership's list of services.  

As the years go by 

“Back when I first started, I was not even in the minor leagues compared to competitors I had,” says Leipold. "And through those years, there’s been a transition. You could pick up a phone book in the 70s and 80s and there were about 30 pages (of) tire dealers and they were mostly independents like me, but there were also the corporate stores. 

“As the years went by, you saw the department stores close, Sears and Wards disappeared and (many) independents like me have passed away. Through the 90s and early 2000s, I would go to a lot of dealer meetings and there was always a good mix of people there and I’d be sitting with guys who have 10, 20, 30 stores and the common thing I am hearing from these guys is, ‘My employees are stealing from me. I can’t get people to work’ and all this negativity.

“That’s when I decided I just wanted to have two stores. So I intentionally stayed small. I’m not interested in the ego of it all.” 

Leipold says he has two recipes for success. Number one is "K.I.S.S." or "Keep it simple, stupid." The other one is "'You either live to work or you work to live.' My philosophy is making a good living and not being bogged down by it."  

Next generation of Leipolds  

Leipold’s oldest son, Ben, joined Leipold Tire when he was about 10 in 1984. 

“I had to have a knee operation and he (Ben) wanted to come in and work for the summer,” says Leipold. "I told my employees to let him clean, but not to let him touch anything. I came back to work and that 10-year-old was changing tires!” 

Ben worked through high school in the summer and then came back full-time after college in 1995.  

Leipold’s second child, his daughter, Kim, also worked in the office during the summertime growing up.  

Andy, Leipold’s, followed the same path. He worked at the dealership during his school years. After college, he went on to work for an accounting firm before coming back to Leipold Tire in 2002.  

Ben now runs the dealership's Stow location, with Andy running its Cuyahoga Falls location.  

Leipold’s grandsons, Landon and Logan, also work for Leipold Tire.  

Protecting name and reputation  

“We work hard to protect our name and reputation,” says Leipold. "Family-owned and customer driven – that's our DNA.” 

Leipold says he is heavily faith-based and carries his personal faith through his operation and his employees. “We want customers to come back and today we have fourth-generation customers coming back."

When Leipold decided to take a step back and retire in 2016, he didn't pull out of the company completely. He still comes in most days to help and talk with customers and says he wants Leipold Tire to continue carrying on his "recipe" for success. 

“My two sons and my two grandsons ... they got the recipe, so I’m just here checking the cake all the time,” he laughs. "We’re not short-cutting, cutting any corners, not exaggerating. Biblical values are still the DNA and we are a little countercultural."