Julie grew up with her family’s business in a literal sense. During the company’s earliest years, a guest bedroom inside her family’s home served as the office. Later, the office expanded to the basement before eventually moving into a separate building.

“The business was an extension of my family,” says Julie.

Her father was the public face of the company — a high-energy operator who moved constantly between customers, employees and stores, focused on building the right teams, motivating technicians, creating customer relationships and making sure each location reflected the standards he expected.

At a time when appearance was not always emphasized, Julie says her father cared deeply about clean stores, curb appeal, merchandising and making sure locations were decorated for holidays — and he was recognized as the top gas station year after year for his efforts.

Her mother worked behind the scenes, handling the books and payroll, giving up a secure job at the World Bank to help build the business, according to Julie.

“My mom’s strength and commitment to the business and doing all this behind-the-scenes work enabled my dad to be front and center and have all these great conversations and focus so much on building these customer (and) employee relationships."

When Julie was born, her mother even did payroll from the hospital because her father kept calling with questions.

“She got so fed up, she said, ‘Just bring it to me,’” says Julie.

Her parents’ commitment to Virginia Tire & Auto’s success became part of its foundation, according to Julie. “It’s not just a business story. It’s a family story.”

While the dealership has changed significantly since her childhood, Julie says its values — professionalism, attentiveness, genuineness and having a forward-thinking mentality — have been part of the business since the beginning.

“They really were values that my parents instilled in the business. That’s to me the most significant part of the business that has been there since the beginning."

Those values helped guide the transition from the first generation to the second. Julie officially joined the business in early-2011 after practicing law. Mike joined a couple of years earlier after a career in private equity and finance. They became co-CEOs in 2014.

Mike worked closely with Julie’s father, focusing on store oversight, finance, accounting and strategy, while she found her footing in operational consistency, strengthening the Virginia Tire & Auto brand and creating a better customer and employee experience.

However, transitioning the founder-led business was not simple.

“My dad was a father figure to so many individuals,” says Julie. "No one wants their father figure to be replaced.”

So Julie and Mike made sure the company’s identity remained intact throughout its transformation, ensuring employees understood they were not trying to replace what her father had built.

“We haven’t changed who we are,” says Julie. “We haven’t changed how we do our business, how we care for our customers (and) how we care for our employees.”

While Julie has focused on consistency, brand and people, Mike has led the company’s push toward more standardized systems and data-driven decision making.

Virginia Tire & Auto has a unified point-of-sale system and Mike says one of the company’s most important technological advancements is its internally developed business intelligence system that gives leadership visibility into what is happening across stores. 

The system allows the company to review sales information, customer trends, tire sales by brand or size, first-time customer behavior and retention patterns.

“It gives us an enormous amount of visibility into what’s happening in each store,” he says.

That insight allows Virgina Tire & Auto to move resources or make adjustments to improve the customer experience, according to Mike. He says the system started with executive dashboards, then expanded to providing insights for operations leaders and store-level managers.

Mike’s goal is to eventually put scorecards into the hands of technicians, salespeople, service advisors and general service technicians.

“There are so many moving pieces,” says Mike. “If you’re not in touch with the numbers - if you’re not on top of the numbers - things can get away from you pretty quick.”

As Virginia Tire & Auto celebrates its anniversary, Julie says the company remains focused on operational excellence and being an employer of choice.

The dealership's 50-year story is about her family, but it's also about employees who have built careers inside Virginia Tire & Auto and customers who have trusted the business for generations.

Looking ahead, she says Virginia Tire & Auto's goal is to “adapt and thrive to the next generation” of cars, technology, employees and customers.

“We’re not going anywhere" she notes.

To Mike, the next generation also means preparing for what automotive service will look like in 20 years.

"Even though we are doing fantastic, there are still opportunities ahead of us," says Julie. "We’re not afraid to take on things that are challenging.”