Big Brand 'Leans In' on Technology, People

Big Brand Tire & Service is leveraging its technology and people-first philosophy to power its continued growth.

The Moorpark, Calif.-based dealership, which is owned by private equity firm Percheron Capital, added 100 locations within the last 12 months, giving it 350 stores and pushing closer to having 1,000 locations within the next three-and-a-half years. (Big Brand Tire & Service is one of the 10 largest tire dealerships in the United States, according to the 2025 MTD 100.)

"It’s been an absolutely incredible year,” Joe Buscaglia, Big Brand Tire & Service’s CEO, told MTD during the dealership’s recent President’s Club event in Las Vegas, Nev. The event, which took place April 8-11, honored Big Brand Tire employees who are leading the company in outperforming financial benchmarks and creating an exceptional customer experience.

Nearly all of Big Brand Tire & Service’s growth during the past year “came through acquisitions and candidly, we’re off to a great start this year” when it comes to both acquisitions and revenue, said Buscaglia. "During the first quarter, our store comp sales were up mid-single-digits,” versus the same period last year, “where the industry has been down, year-to-date.

"We’ve built what we believe is the highest-velocity M&A engine in this space. The vast majority of the locations that we’ve acquired have been” one- and two-store operations. "Then we also did the Burt Brothers acquisition.” (Editor’s note: Big Brand Tire & Service acquired North Salt Lake, Utah-based Burt Brothers Tire & Service, which has 35 locations, from private equity firm Bestige Holdings last year.)

"Growth really comes down to two main things for us: our employee-first approach and our technology lean-in,” said Buscaglia. “They’re the two big levers that drive our acquisition engine. With that employee-first approach, it’s just not a slogan. It’s real. We offer real career development opportunities and a culture where employees can really win and want to stay with Big Brand forever."

"There are so many (former dealership) owners who have stayed on with us or sons and daughters who have stayed with us and have grown their careers,” he noted. Retaining - and investing in - employees “has allowed us to scale. Our employee turnover, in an industry that has extremely high employee turnover, is extremely low, especially for new acquisitions.”

"We have a lot of owners who’ve been willing to stay on, whether it’s 90 days or six months after we’ve closed the transaction, just to ensure it’s smooth for customers and vendors,” said Matt Eckman, Big Brand Tire & Service’s chief operating officer.  “Many have moved ... to actually being an employee and a handful have moved into a district manager role with us.” 

Gaining an EDGE 

Buscaglia told MTD that Big Brand Tire & Service is continuing to “lean in on technology" through its proprietary EDGE Intelligence software. "We feel that we have the best system in the industry and as it evolves, it gets better each and every day.”

He characterizes EDGE Intelligence as “the central nervous system of our company. It's a massive  point-of-sale system. It's our tire screen, which in this space is extremely important. It drives our website. It drives HR. It drives finance. It gives all our KPIs (key performance indicators). It drives our warehousing – all the inventory tracking.”

After Big Brand Tire & Service takes control of a store following the closing of an acquisition, “we have the ability to integrate EDGE Intelligence on Day Zero, which gives us a competitive advantage. Everybody gets EDGE,” regardless of the size of the acquired property.

And now, thanks in part to a $1.6 billion recapitalization by Percheron Capital, Big Brand Tire & Service is incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into the program.

"We’ve hired super-talented, best-in-class AI engineers to partner with our frontline team to build out some massive capabilities,” said Busaglia. "What’s important when it comes to AI is being able to answer every single phone call that comes in. Today, with our call center, we don’t answer every call or email that comes in. With AI, we can answer 100% of those calls and emails. We have confidence that we will convert at a higher rate.”

AI also can help “with smart labor scheduling in our stores,” said Buscaglia. “A lot of people think labor scheduling means cutting hours. We think it means potentially leaning in on hours ... leaning in on extra payroll, so you can capitalize on demand when it’s there.

"The vast majority of our stores are good-sized stores with plenty of bay capacity. So think about the intelligence we can have when we’re flexing labor in and out as demand flexes up and down, like around the holiday season or other peak travel seasons. I feel there's opportunity to make our payroll more efficient. I think AI is going to be a game-changer and as you know, it's moving quickly.”

The evolution of AI “isn’t going to be a three- or five-year type of thing. This is going to be a three- or five-month type of thing. Functions that you can change at the top of the funnel and use AI to power are going to give you massive value when creating levers at the bottom of the funnel. 

"We’re literally just cracking the surface. Some things we’re in different phases of and some things have already been launched. We’re extremely excited about where that's going."

Ahead of pace

Last year, Buscaglia told MTD that Big Brand Tire & Service was generating more than 30 NDAs and closing an average of five deals each month. The company has since surpassed those numbers, he said.

"We’re ahead of our 2025 pace and have some really nice things we’re working on for April and May. We have a good, robust pipeline” of sellers who have one or two stores, as well as bigger dealerships, he noted. 

"We don’t discriminate” when it comes to targets. “We’ll take the 'onesies' and 'twosies' and we’ll take the 35s, like we did with Burt Brothers. We’ll take things that are bigger than that. If you don’t, you’re going to lose out.

"We view the market as being highly fragmented. We think there’s a long runway, but we have to prove to (dealers) that we’re the acquirer of choice when they’re ready to sell” and quick, post-acquisition action is equally critical.

Buscaglia cited Burt Brothers Tire & Service as an example. “We were able to put EDGE into all of Burt Brothers locations in one day, which is unheard of.”

"The (Burt Brothers) team has adapted really well to the Big Brand operating model," said Eckman. “They’re enjoying the structure .. and what we call our 'store manager playbook,' which outlines specific responsibilities by day, by week and by month,” enabling managers “to take ownership of their stores. Their margins in so many categories have taken off. Revenue is bouncing back after a soft winter. Retention is awesome and engagement’s been great.”

New markets

Big Brand Tire & Service continues to eye stores in other states and regions. "We're going to continue to fortify the markets we’re in, but we’re also going to continue to grow,” said Buscaglia. “We’re in roughly 20 states today and we'll continue to expand. We have an MSA (metropolitan statistical area) list of the most attractive areas to go into, so we're looking for targets all the time.” 

Big Brand Tire & Service recently opened its first store in the southeastern United States, a location near Atlanta, Ga., “and we have a couple coming on over the next two or three months. We also entered North and South Carolina recently.

"We won’t go buy a store” in a new region “just to buy one,” Buscaglia told MTD. “We need to know that we have a pipeline of a couple of other stores where we can build a market. So more than likely what we’ll do is buy (a dealership) that has multiple stores” when entering a new MSA.  

Introducing Cascade

Within its stores, Big Brand Tire & Service is seeing consumers trade down to less-expensive tires, which is one reason why the dealership introduced its first private label product, Cascade, in August 2025.

"Sailun is the vendor partner,” said Buscaglia. Cascade "has a strong warranty and is highly engineered. We have 29 different SKUs today and we have 20 more sizes coming in over the next six months, so we’ll have up to nearly 50 sizes,” with plans to eventually offer a Cascade light truck tire. (Right now, Cascade is offered as passenger tire.)

The dealership is positioning Cascade as a tier-two brand in terms of quality and warranty, while its price sits “between a tier-two and a tier-three,” said Buscaglia. “And to us, that's the advantage. The customer is getting a tier two-quality tire for somewhere in between a tier- two and tier-three price.”

"Cascade is over 12% of our mix in our core stores, including those (outlets) that have been open for more than a year,” said Eckman. “We’re not immune to consumer trade-down, so we want to continue to give consumers as many options as we can. Part of the Big Brand story is having a variety of brands to offer and making sure we have an option for everyone’s budget.”

Big Brand Tire & Service also sees continued opportunity in auto service. “We’ve been averaging 20 consecutive quarters of positive comp growth,” said Buscaglia. “We’re up mid-single digits and our sales mix hasn't changed. Were roughly at a mix of 50% tires/50% service.”

In terms of revenue, both categories “are growing at a similar clip."

‘Very attractive’

The market for M&A at the tire dealership level “is very attractive right now,” said Buscaglia, who added that Percheron Capital’s continued investment “allows us to accelerate our expansion plan with a significant amount of resources. They also let us lean in on the AI capabilities and the unlocking of technology. Those types of investments are really going to pay dividends for us in the long-term.

"Not all private equity firms are created equal. I’ve been around a few and we’re extremely excited to continue our partnership” with Percheron Capital.

Buscaglia believes technology also will play a bigger role in hastening tire dealership owners’ decision to sell their businesses, causing “more to say, ‘I’m ready to tap out.’ It’s harder at times for a smaller operator to keep up with new technology. I think that's a tailwind for us.

"There are plenty of sellers out there for us to partner with,” he said. “It’s our job to continue to stress to sellers that we mean what we say – that we take care of people of and we give team members the tools to take care of customers. If (a dealership) is a good asset, we’re going to go after it. A good asset, to us, looks similar to what we’re already doing today. And it's not just the numbers. A good asset shares the same values that we do, with an employee-first culture... and cares about technology and they lean in on things like that.

"We have a lot of work to do and we’re definitely not going to rest,” said Buscaglia, adding that “there’s a ton of energy coming out of the Leadership and President's Club meetings we just held. The owners who truly care about their business and the legacy of where it goes and their people – they're the ones we want to partner with.” 

Click here to see a gallery of photos from the recent Big Brand Tire & Service President's Club event!