Point S USA Leaders Look Ahead

Teamwork, trust and support for members will continue to be the focal points for Point S USA in 2026, according to its leadership team.

As the independent tire dealership network gets closer to reaching its 500-store goal within five years, Point S USA’s leadership team recently announced a robust national partner promotional calendar, enhanced training initiatives and an amplified marketing campaign during its annual Owners Meeting in Phoenix, Ariz.

The group also touted its achievements during this past year, including receiving a top-three rating in a Consumer Reports’ nationwide survey of more than 24,000 people and elevating its brand through a store makeover program.

In this exclusive interview, whick took place at Point S USA’s recent meeting in Phoenix, Ariz., MTD spoke with Point S USA leaders Walter Lybeck, CEO; Clint Young, president and chief operating officer; and Jeff Tucker, board president, about the group’s year in 2025 and plans moving forward.

MTD: How has this previous year been overall for Point S and its members? You’ve reached 464 locations across 39 states. You’ve also added 80 stores this past year and are on track to reaching your goal of 500 stores across 50 states in five years, which you announced in 2023. Could you talk more about the biggest accomplishments of Point S USA this past year?

Young: The store growth has been fantastic. We’re also super-proud of the national Consumer Reports rating that we received. That’s been something that’s been in the making for a long time. What’s best about that is that’s something the stores achieved. We set the stage with the store standards and expectations around what stores should try to achieve to be a great retail operating independent store.

Lybeck: They did all the work, but they would not have been recognized but for the group, because those comments came through together with Point S, so they were all connected.

Tucker: Also, our growth from a unit perspective in relation to the industry. We’re always wanting more, but we’re doing pretty well compared to where the rest of the industry is at, especially with the price volatility and supply chain issues.

Lybeck: We’re pretty heavy in the Pacific (region). Our same-store growth was a little over 2% year-over-year in a market that was flat-to-down in passenger and light truck products, so we did pretty well in that section. Plus we’ve had overall growth on top of that from the new members we’ve added.

MTD: The past year saw a range of tariffs that affected the tire and auto industry and other major industries. How did tariffs affect your business or your members' businesses? What have you heard from your dealers?

Young: We try to absorb some of those issues for our dealers by acquiring tires for them. Joe Moore, vice president of purchasing, and his team are the ones out there kind of fighting in the trenches to deal with those issues on behalf of our dealers, but they still acquire some units through other places sometimes.

Tucker: The biggest thing is that we have vetted vendors that are pretty strong out of the gate, so that helps us a lot in not having that volatility, but we’ve also got multiples and backups, so that helps us fill the gap. Having strong vendors is the key.

Lybeck: To that point, we don’t just bring in any vendor into our organization. We want long-term relationships with our vendors. We want consistency for our members and consistent, strong pricing for our members. We make sure we meet senior management, leadership and ownership, if we can, of each vendor we deal with, so we can do a little bit of vetting because we don’t want to take a risk with our members’ reputations.

MTD: During the welcome presentation at your recent event, you mentioned that Point S boosted its business growth by allowing members to reach their customers digitally through your improved marketing strategy and website updates. Could you talk more about how you enhanced your website and marketing strategy this past year for your members?

Young: We released a new website three years ago and it did very well, but anytime you release a new website, its SEO isn’t very good because you’re starting from scratch. We’ve been working with various partners to increase that SEO and we’ve brought some people in-house to grow that over time. Now we’re performing at a very high level. Walter was really key in helping lead the design on this, but we built a website that has to be microsites for 400-plus stores, which is hard to do. But if you do it right, they all start connecting together and it kind of multiplies. We’ve got a big footprint now.

Lybeck: With this in mind, I’m concerned for long-term AI (artificial intelligence) searches becoming significant. In a short period of time, I wouldn’t be surprised if half the searches are AI searches, where you just type, ‘I’ve got a Honda Accord. Can you help me find tires for this?’ and it shops for you, sets an appointment and the person just shows up and gets the best deal. You need to have a website that’s ready and we’re working on making sure we’re ready for giving AI information they’re looking for to get that responsiveness for (members’) stores.

MTD: What were some of the greatest challenges that Point S USA or your members experienced this past year? How have you worked or how are you working to tackle those challenges?

Lybeck: We had some market challenges that were pretty significant with the ag season that was really bad this year. PLT was really soft toward the end of the year. We’re very West Coast-heavy and with no snow season in the fall, it (drove) down sales, so there were some industry challenges. There were also some emotional challenges. Tariffs were a significant distraction. We didn’t know if we were going to have tires from India. We didn’t know where we were going to get ag tires. At the same time, many vendors are making significant changes in programs and we’re trying to reevaluate how that benefits our members and fits our programs.

MTD: As more independent tire dealers continue to join program groups like Point S USA, why do you think dealers are choosing your organization?

Young: I hope they feel like they can reach out to us. Tony Obillovich, who runs our Master Shop program, got professionally emotional during the shareholder meeting when he had all the people who participate in his program stand up. Collectively, he’s helped them grow their businesses financially by $1.6 million, the average of about $170,000 per store per year of additional profit with his program. How many buying groups have somebody who will coach you how to run a more profitable store? Being an entrepreneur in the retail tire industry is pretty difficult. When people come to us, we have programs they can take advantage of.

Lybeck: We have an incredibly strong group with energy and passion. We’re all friends and coworkers and that’s part of our culture. We want to make sure we’re helping independent tire organizations be successful. We believe in what we do.