Nashville, Tenn.-based Universal Tire recently opened four new locations, one each in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi. The dealership's new Atlanta store is the company's first commercial tire service center in Georgia. The 15,000-sq.-ft. outlet will provide new and retreaded truck tires for commercial accounts.
In April, the dealership moved its Birmingham, Ala., commercial service center to a 53,000-sq.-ft. facility, which includes a sales office, distribution center and a Bandag retread plant capable of producing more than 200 truck tires daily.
Universal Tire's new outlet in Johnson City, Tenn., provides commercial service along with a line of industrial tires and foam filling.
Capping off the company's recent growth spurt is a new 20,000-sq.-ft. retread plant in South Haven, Miss. The retread plant will allow Universal to grow its business in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas, the company said.
Trail Tire Service Ltd. recently opened its second location in St. Albert, Alberta.
Although Trail Tire is a retail/wholesale operation, owner Roger Ambrosie said the new store will primarily handle retail tire sales and auto service-including tire related and front-end repair.
Mr. Ambrosie is a director for the Western Canadian Tire Dealers & Retreaders Association and helped organize the Tire Technician's Training Program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
Honors
The American Automobile Association has named Gulf Freeway Tire & Automo-tive, owned by Patrick Shields, as one of the top three automotive repair facilities in the Houston area.
The top three automotive service facilities received a consumer satisfaction rating of 99 percent.