UPDATE: Turbo Wholesale Tires, TWI combining operations

IRWINDALE, Calif. — The wave of consolidation among wholesalers continues to build.

Turbo Wholesale Tires and Tire Wholesalers Inc. (TWI), two venerable wholesale businesses with decades of experience and extensive customer bases, have combined their operations under a common management structure designed to support additional growth.

Turbo Wholesale Tires, under the control of private-equity provider Kingswood Capital Management L.P. since last November, acquired Oak Park, Mich.-based TWI in May and brought the owners of the family-owned wholesaler in as partial owners and executives.

Financial terms were not disclosed. Turbo Wholesale and TWI will retain their separate identities in the marketplace.

Founded in 1970 by Ross Kogel Sr., TWI moved in June 2022 to its current headquarters in Oak Park, which comprises 275,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space.

That facility will serve as a template for new location growth, Turbo Wholesale said, as the company enters additional markets.

Kane called the opportunity to combine Turbo and TWI "exciting for both organizations."

"TWI's expansion across the Midwest and beyond has been impressive, but more importantly, the high level of service they deliver to their customers and the way they care for their employees aligns perfectly with our values and priorities at Turbo,” Kane said. 

“This combination will give our existing customers at both TWI and Turbo access to more brands, products, fulfillment options, support resources and dealer program benefits.” 

The Kogels said they are “thrilled” to be partnering with Turbo and Kingswood.

“The corporate cultures, functional strengths, geographies and brand relationships of the two companies are highly complementary,” they said, “and Kingswood has an impressive track record of partnering with and supporting family- and founder-owned businesses. 

“We look forward to working with Phillip Kane and the rest of the combined management team to ensure that our customers are the biggest beneficiaries of this combination.” 

Founded in 1983, Irwindale-based Turbo has evolved over the decades into a national and international supplier of third-party and its proprietary — Lexani, Lionhart and Rolling Big Power (RBP) — brands from a 300,000-sq.-ft. wholesale distribution facility.

Los Angeles-based private-equity firm Kingswood Capital became an investor in Turbo Wholesale Tires in November 2022, stating at that time it intended to help the company expand its business. 

Company founder Sarkis Sepetjian and his family retained “significant” ownership in the business, as well as gaining a seat on the Kingswood board, according to Kingswood.

“We are excited to partner with the Kogel family and the team at TWI as we build upon the success and momentum we have achieved at Turbo in our pursuit of growing a differentiated, global tire distribution platform,” Michael Niegsch, partner of Kingswood, said. 

“The addition of Ross as our chief operating officer along with the other strong operators at TWI adds even more capabilities to our talented management team.”
Kingswood Capital focuses primarily on investing in businesses in transition. In addition to access to capital, Kingswood brings relevant industry relationships and a broad network of internal and external operating resources that can strengthen the businesses it partners with and enhance value, the company said.