The MTD 100 tells one clear story. The largest independent tire dealerships in the United States are not winning by running one great store. They are winning by running a lot of stores, and adding more. 

The biggest tire dealers keep getting bigger. Mavis Tire Express Services leads the 2025 list with more than 3,500 locations. Discount Tire, Monro, Les Schwab, Sun Auto Tire, and Big Brand Tire each operate hundreds more. Much of that growth comes from acquisitions, as large dealers keep adding stores across North America. 

But adding stores is only half the challenge. The real question is harder. How do you make 10, 20, or even 100 locations run like one well-run business? 

This is where growing dealers either succeed or struggle. Without the right systems, each location starts to do things its own way. That makes it harder to keep service, operations, and profit consistent across the business. 

Growth exposes the seams 

Running one store is very different from running five or ten. In a single shop, the owner keeps everything on track. They know their customers, their team, and how the work should be done. 

As you grow, that approach stops working. You can't be everywhere at once. Every new location brings its own team, its own habits, and its own way of doing things. Without clear, shared systems, stores drift apart. 

This is true for dealers that grow through acquisitions. Each new store arrives with its own workflows, pricing, customer records, and service standards. 

The challenge isn't just managing more locations. It's delivering the same experience to everyone. A customer should get the same service whether they visit your first store or your fifteenth. 

Three problems that scale faster than revenue 

Dealers that scale well tend to solve the same three problems. As you add locations, these problems grow faster than revenue if you don't have the right systems in place. 

Standardize your workflows. When every store follows a different process, the experience gets uneven. Technicians need retraining when they move between stores. Managers can't compare performance fairly. Every store ends up running a little differently. 

That's why growing dealers standardize the work. They set one way to handle check-in, inspections, estimates, approvals, and invoicing. It turns a group of stores into one business that runs the same way everywhere. 

Keep customer information connected. If you own several locations, customers shouldn't have to start over each time they visit a different one. Their service history, past estimates, and vehicle details should be ready at any store you own. 

When your stores share the same records, any advisor can pick up the conversation. They can recommend the right next service and honor an earlier quote. The customer gets one experience across your locations, not a fresh start each time. 

One caveat here. This works for the stores a single operator owns. Franchisees under the same banner often run as separate businesses, and many have no reason to share customer data with a rival down the road. The benefit is real, but it lives inside one ownership group. 

Hold quality without piling on managers. The common answer to growth is to hire more regional managers, supervisors, and office staff. That helps, but it grows your costs as fast as your business. 

Dealers that scale best lean on standard processes and technology instead. Systems handle the routine work. They give leaders a clear view of every store. And they hold service standards steady without the extra overhead. 

The operational layer behind the growth story 

This is where AutoLeap’s tire shop software earns its place. It isn't just another tool. It's what lets many locations run like one business. 

A good platform creates one consistent way of working. Booking, inspections, estimates, approvals, and invoicing stay the same at every store. For the locations you own, customer records are shared, so service history, quotes, and vehicle details are always on hand. And with reporting in one place, you can compare stores without chasing spreadsheets or driving across town. 

That's what multi-location shop management software is built to do. They give every store the same workflow, keep your customer information connected, and give you a clear view of the whole business. 

Large chains solved these problems years ago with enterprise software and dedicated operations teams. But the need isn't limited to the biggest players. Dealers going from three stores to eight, or growing through acquisitions, face the same problems on a smaller scale. 

The difference today is that growing dealers don't need a big team to stay organized. With the right systems, they can standardize the work, deliver a consistent experience, and keep growing without the chaos. 

The part of the story the ranking can't show 

The MTD 100 is the clearest picture of who is growing in the tire industry, and the trend is plain. The future of the independent dealer is multi-location. But a store count only tells part of the story. It doesn't show whether the twentieth store feels like the first. It doesn't show whether a customer keeps their history across your locations. And it doesn't show whether the business can carry that growth without burning out the team behind it. 

That's what separates dealers who simply add stores from those who build a stronger business. The best operators don't just grow their footprint. They put the systems in place to keep every store running well as they grow.