CORNELIUS, N.C. (Dec. 14, 2011) — Griffin Brothers Tires, Wheels & Auto Repair marked its 50th year in business recently with a double store opening, expanding its network to nine locations in North Carolina.
Both new stores are in the Charlotte metro area, but one of them is dedicated to employees of Wells Fargo & Co.'s Customer Information Center (CIC), which has more than 10,000 employees on its 150-acre campus on the northern outskirts of Charlotte.
The Wells Fargo store was an existing auto service location that Wachovia Corp. included in the infrastructure of the CIC campus it built in the late 1990s, according to Larry Griffin Jr., vice president.
Wells Fargo took over the campus in late 2008 in its acquisition of Wachovia and earlier this year approached Griffin Tires about leasing and operating the four-bay location after going through a number of other independent contractors, Mr. Griffin said.
“We're excited about the possibilities of that location,” Mr. Griffin said, noting the business includes a full-service car wash. Griffin Brothers can do almost all service work there except alignments, he added, but the dealership has an existing store just a few miles away where it can shuttle cars for that if needed.
The dealership shuttles Wells Fargo employees to their office buildings and back via golf cart.
The location is open Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., for Wells Fargo employees only. The dealership's other stores also have Saturday hours.
The other new store, in northeast Charlotte, differs from the dealership's traditional store design in its two-story layout, with conference/meeting rooms on the second floor for training classes and monthly employee gatherings.
Downstairs the showroom features individual point-of-sale kiosks, an Internet workstation, complimentary refreshments and a kids' corner play area.
The 13,000-sq.-ft. store has 10 service bays and is located in a growing residential part of Charlotte, Mr. Griffin said. In addition, the I-485 Beltway around Charlotte will run right by the new store when it's finished in three years. James Covan is the store manager.
Griffin Tire did not disclose its investment in the new stores or its annual sales.
The openings have expanded the dealership's employment roll to 130, of whom 80 to 90 are considered tire or auto technicians. All of Griffin Brothers' auto technicians are ASE certified.
Griffin Brothers Tires started life as Honest Tire, a partnership involving Larry Griffin Sr. and his uncle, Frank Todd. Together they opened Honest Tire in an Alantic Oil filling station in Charlotte they purchased, in part with a $1,000 loan Larry Sr. had secured at age 20.
Larry Sr.'s elder brother Ronnie joined him a few years later and the pair bought out their uncle in 1965 and changed the dealership's name to Griffin Brothers Tire Sales Inc. Together they ran the business for the next 17 years until Ronnie left the partnership in 1980.
Mike Griffin joined his father in the business in 1987 followed in 1989 by his brother Larry Griffin Jr. In 1991 the family business embarked on its first expansion, opening a location in Cornelius.
Today, Griffin Brothers Tires is known primarily as a Michelin/BFGoodrich/ Uniroyal dealer, though it also carries Pirelli and Delta. The firm's stores are all full-service tire and automotive repair shops that also are licensed North Carolina Emission and Safety Inspection stations. They average 10 to 12 service bays.
The dealership promotes itself with the line: “Famly owned. Customer driven since 1961.”
Two of the dealership's stores, in Lincolnton and Shelby, were acquisitions. The others were new startups. The original store on West Trade Street was closed in 2007.
Among Griffin Brothers' larger competitors in the Charlotte area are: Firestone Complete Auto Care (17 stores), Discount Tire Co. Inc. (15 stores), Tire Kingdom (12 stores), Goodyear Auto Service (10 stores), along with the increasingly competitive car dealers channel and a number of smaller independents.