KEARNEY, Neb. (Oct. 11, 2001)—Their tires may not come with fries and a shake, but the folks at Nebraska Tire used a meat-and-potatoes strategy when acquiring its two newest outlets.
“We used the 'Burger King Theory,'” said Bruce Docter, Nebraska Tire's division manager. “McDonald's does all the research, then Burger King opens up a restaurant on the same road.”
Nebraska Tire bought its seventh and eighth stores, both Big O Tires Inc. franchise locations, in Grand Island and Kearney, each 100 or so miles west of Lincoln, Neb. The Kearney store is stationed in a Wal-Mart parking lot; the Grand Island location is in front of a Menard's retail location.
Both are in areas Mr. Docter described as high-traffic. It's that philosophy that has seen Nebraska Tire's sales vault from $125,000 to nearly $5 million in seven years, according to Mr. Docter. The dealership has added five stores in the last year and a half, attributing that to the dollar growth.
The two new stores are between 6,000 and 7,000 square feet in size and have six service bays. They will sell Big O, BFGoodrich, Michelin and Yokohama tires for cars and light trucks, and primarily Firestone and Titan agricultural tires. Mr. Docter billed Nebraska Tire as one of the biggest farm tire dealers in the state.
Like all Nebraska Tire locations, the newly acquired stores will be home to three employees. Each store will have a manager, who will double as a tire technician.
With only minimal underhood service—Mr. Docter said 80 percent of the company's business is from tires—managers aren't needed to handle office-type duties.
“We are low-overhead, low-cost,” he said. “We don't have anyone standing around.”