Few people, if any, have opened their own tire dealership while working at a tire manufacturing plant. Paul "Skip" Levengood Sr., father of Paul Levengood, MTD’s 2026 Tire Dealer of the Year, is one of them.  

In the early-1970s, Skip was working at a tire factory in Pottstown, Pa., a few miles down the road from what would later become his first store. 

“I worked on the Banbury, where they mix rubber,” says Skip. “When I started at the plant, I had no idea I’d start selling tires,” though he had gained experience mounting tires and fixing flats while working at a service station as a teenager. 

Many workers at the plant bought tires at a local tire manufacturer-owned store. It was time to buy a new set of tires for Skip’s car. 

“I worked six days a week, but I finally got a Saturday off and I took Paul down to the store in Pottstown,” he says. “I went in and they gave me a price on a tire — $19.95 — and I said, ‘Wow, that’s a deal!’  

“We were there in the morning and the (salesman) came back and said, ‘Do you want valve stems?’ and I said, ‘Sure, we want valve stems.’ Then he came back again and said, ‘Do you want your tires balanced?’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ Well, all of these were extra charges, but he didn't tell me.” 

Skip and Paul were stuck at the store for six hours. “I was furious,” says Skip. “I had plans to do things with the family that day.”  

When Skip went to pay the bill, the final price was significantly higher than what he expected. The salesman asked Skip if he wanted to put the tires on an employee payment plan at an additional cost of $5. 

“I said, ‘No, I’ll pay for them.’ I was really upset. I went home to my wife and said to her, 'I'm going to open my own tire store and I’m not going to treat people like that.’ And that's how I got started.” 

Start-up money wasn’t abundant and other resources were limited. Skip knew a man who resided in the apartment building where Skip and his wife, Judy, lived. They talked and became partners in the fledgling CJ’s Tire & Auto. (The “J” in the name was the first initial of Judy’s name. The “C” was the first initial in the name of Skip’s partner’s wife.)  

“We started out with a tire machine in the basement of the building,” says Skip. “We’d jack cars up in the parking lot. My partner would work in the morning and I’d work in the evening” after finishing his shift at the tire plant. 

Skip and his partner wanted a better base of operations. Skip’s father, who built and sold wooden boats, had a small shop nearby. “He had a little office on one end of the building that he didn’t use, so we rented that.” 

Skip and his partner also began using the building’s basement and a dirt-floor shed. “If people needed tires, we’d tell them, ‘Meet us there and we’ll change them.’ So that’s what we started to do. We had all of the most popular sizes in stock.” 

Things were going well, until Skip made an unexpected discovery. 

“I found that we never sold tires when (my partner) was there! I said, ‘Well, that’s strange.’ He and his wife did all the paperwork and books. They then went on vacation for two weeks and I ran the store morning and night. I had business in the morning and business in the afternoon.” 

After his partner returned to town, “we sat down, talked and I bought him out.” 

Weeks later, two more unforeseen situations developed. “Somebody broke in and stole every tire I had and some of my equipment,” Skip recalls. “I had no tires and no money, so I went down to the guy we bought tires from and he said, ‘I can’t give them to you. You didn’t pay your $18,000 tire bill.’ I said, ‘What?’  

“I begged him to give me tires and I said, ‘Every penny I make will come back to you and the extra money I make on flats and anything else will all come back.’” 

The man agreed to Skip’s proposal and CJ’s Tire & Auto was back on track. 

After running CJ’s Tire & Auto for two years, Skip left the tire plant in 1973. “I said to my wife, ‘Maybe we can make it.’ She had worked in a department store and came to work with me. She really ran the office tight and took care of everything. She even sold tires. She was a big part of the business.” 

Customers continued to flock to CJ’s Tire & Auto. Business grew quickly, but the days were long and grueling. “I was getting three or four hours of sleep at night. But I said to my wife, ‘I can’t fail. I saw my dad fail in business. I saw my uncle fail in business. I saw my grandfather fail in business. I can’t fail.’ So I kept working. I just worked day and night — 14 hours a day, 16 hours a day, six or seven days a week, along with my wife. My son, Paul, was just a kid then.” 

Within a few short years, Paul, who is Skip and Judy’s only child, started working at the store, performing odd jobs. He continued to work there on a part-time basis as a teenager. 

“When he turned 16, he wanted a car, so I found a ‘67 Mustang for $400. He had to work to support his car!” says Skip with a laugh. 

Time passed and Paul went to college. During summer breaks, he picked up work at his parents’ store. “Back then, we had a tractor-trailer we put tires in because we couldn’t put them in the warehouse,” says Skip. “So he’d move tires around, change tires — he did everything.” 

After college, Paul began taking on bigger roles at the dealership. “He came in and wanted to change some things around. I said to his mom, ‘I'm going to have to let him make a few mistakes, so he’ll learn.’ I let him make a couple of mistakes that cost a lot of money, but we got through it and then he understood.” 

As they worked more closely together, Skip and Paul discovered they complemented each other. “I was 100% salesman,” says Skip. “Paul was more of a paper worker. But he did whatever it took. I taught him what I knew. When he went to college, I remember he came home one weekend and said, ‘They’re teaching me the same things you did.’ I had no training. I had no schooling in business. It just came natural to me.” 

Paul gradually moved into more of a leadership role at the dealership. “I kept dumping more and more on him,” says Skip, who adds that Paul was always ready to help with any job.  

“He’d be working in the office and we’d get so busy we’d call him and he’d come down and change tires. A lot of days, we did 250 tires retail.” 

While Skip remained the face of the company, working at the sales counter and interacting with customers, Paul worked on pricing  “and how to buy better and things like that,” says Skip. “Paul also became a tremendous negotiator. We found that we could beat the big guys on price. There was nobody who could undersell us. 

“Paul wasn’t afraid to work and he wasn't afraid to put the time in to make it work. His mother would never quit until the job was done and that’s the way Paul is. He found new ways to sell tires and deliver tires.  

“Paul is very smart. I was in (vendor) meetings with him and he didn't have much to say, but he always wrote stuff down. He made sure what they said they would do, they did.” 

Skip eventually retired. “My wife was sick with cancer. I was 74 years old. I stayed home and took care of her until she passed away.” 

When Skip stepped away from the dealership, “we were doing $45 million in sales. Paul took over 100% and in four-and-a-half years, we went from $45 million up to $110 million in sales. After I left, he was on fire. He did everything right. 

“I can’t believe the growth we’ve had since Paul took over,” says Skip, who keeps tabs on his old company’s progress from his home in Florida. “That’s really exciting to me.”