Southern Tire Mart adds 38 outlets, 11 retread plants

COLUMBIA, Miss. — Southern Tire Mart (STM), already the largest commercial tire dealership in North America by far, has expanded its market coverage in the U.S. Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions with the acquisitions of Redburn Tire Co. and 26 GCR Tire outlets in four states.

The deals add 38 sales and service outlets and 11 Bandag-system retread plants six states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah — to Southern Tire's network. The locations in Colorado and Utah are STM's first in those states.

Combined with a couple of greenfield locations opened in the past year in southern California, the Redburn and GCR deals expand STM's market coverage to 200-plus locations in 25 states stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Included in the total are 33 STM outlets at Pilot Flying J truckstops in 20 states.

STM took over operations of the Redburn Tire locations in early August, according to Kevin Haddox, vice president, operations for Columbia-based Southern Tire Mart. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Marvin Redburn Sr. founded Phoenix-based Redburn Tire in 1934. Current owners J.D. Chastain and Don Leffler are retiring. Chastain did not respond to a request for comment.

The largely commercial-oriented dealership has been closely allied in recent years with the Bridgestone and Firestone brands and the Bandag retreading system.

Redburn's locations now operating under STM's umbrella are in Kingman, Mesa, Phoenix, Tucson and Yuma, Ariz.; Greeley, Colo.; Las Vegas; and Albuquerque, Farmington, Gallup, and Sunland Park, N.M.

Separately, STM has acquired land in Kingman and Yuma, Ariz., markets it had been planning to move into before these deals were negotiated. The company now plans to build more modern and accessible locations that eventually will replace both the Redburn and existing STM outlets in those markets, Haddox added.

The locations in Albuquerque, Greeley, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Sunland Park and Tucson have retread plants on site, STM said, but most of them are two- or three-chamber plants, whereas STM prefers larger five-chamber plants.

Combined Redburn's commercial and retreading businesses represent about 300 employees, Haddox said, noting that discussions between STM and Redburn started through mutual business associates.

The GCR locations being acquired are in northern California, Colorado, Nevada and Utah. Included in that purchase are four retread plants, including one standalone facility, in Fountain, Colo.

STM's GCR stores purchase is one of three divestment deals that Bridgestone Americas disclosed recently covering 51 locations and nine retread plants. Pomp's Tire Service Inc. of Green Bay, Wis., is acquiring five GCR locations in Colorado, and a third, as-yet unidentified party, is taking over the remaining 20 or so facilities.

Those moves leave Bridgestone with nine GCR sales/service locations and two retread plants in Alaska, Arizona, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming.

These locations, which are more heavily skewed toward the mining sector, will operate as a newly formed GCR Mining business unit within Bridgestone's Off-the-Road business.

These latest transactions continue a series of divestments by Bridgestone of GCR assets over the past few years. At its height, the GCR network comprised over 200 sales locations throughout the U.S. and Canada.

STM did not comment on the scale of annual revenue the acquisitions represent. STM's annual sales ($2 billion in 2021) already are three times those of No. 2 Best-One Tire.