Steve Ayers, a founding partner of Ayers Tire & Service L.L.C. in Ormond Beach, Fla., has parted company with his former partner and set up Value Tire & Service L.L.C., a full-service dealership in Daytona Beach.
Mr. Ayers said he left Ayers Tire-since renamed A Real Tire Co.-in October 2005 and immediately started working on getting back into business.
He located a closed Pan American Tire store on International Speedway Boulevard in Daytona Beach and was back in business by March after remodeling.
A second store, in Ormond Beach, is being readied for a planned December opening, Mr. Ayers said.
Value Tire calls itself ``more than just a tire store'' in its ads and is going after local business aggressively, Mr. Ayers said. It offers free shuttle service for workers at local businesses, free flat repairs, free light bulbs and other value-added services.
The dealership features Goodyear, Michelin and Falken tires and offers complete car care services, including engine diagnostics and repair. It is open Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday 7:30 a.m. to noon.
Mr. Ayers is leasing the Daytona Beach location for now but plans to buy it possibly as soon as next year.
``We think we have a solid business plan for this area,'' he said. ``Business has been ahead of projections during these first few months.''
Value Tire is in the process of remodeling its Daytona Beach store. When completed, it will have such amenities as a movie theater popcorn machine, upscale customer area with a 35-inch TV, a massaging chair with headphones and a flat screen TV playing dealership commercials and product information, he said.
Mr. Ayers started Ayers Tire in August 2000 with partner Sandy Miller-a former chairman of Budget Rent-a-Car-beginning with one store in Ormond Beach and expanding the dealership to seven stores by early 2005.
By that time, however, Mr. Ayers said he began to disagree with Mr. Miller over the business' direction and eventually parted ways with the dealership that bore his name.
Mr. Ayers said he is attempting to negotiate a dissolution of the partnership with Mr. Miller, but declined to go into detail.
Mr. Miller did not return calls from Tire Business by this issue's deadline requesting comment.
Mr. Ayers first got into the tire business in 1992 as a regional sales manager for Goodyear after graduating from college in Florida.
His father, Eddie Ayers, was a cost accountant for Goodyear for 32 years.
After leaving Goodyear in 1997, Mr. Ayers became the general manager of Granada Goodyear in Ormond Beach. Three years later he bought out the retail dealership that became the first Ayers Tire outlet.