VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (May 13, 2013) — Dealer Strategic Planning Inc. (DSP) is planning to form a 20 group exclusively for store owners with multiple locations.
DSP said it will hold an inaugural meeting for the new group in late September or October.
The 20 group format begun by Norm Gaither has expanded to six working groups — predominately populated by single store tire and auto shop owners, DSP said.
"Each group has several multi-store owners along with the single store owners," Mr. Gaither said. "Many of the opportunities and challenges discussed in the group meetings are relevant whether a member has one or 20 stores.
"However, the issues faced by multi-location owners are sometimes unique, and there isn't enough time in one meeting to adequately cover all of their concerns. We were approached by a few of the multi-store owners about forming a group specifically for them."
Virginia Beach-based DSP said a typical 20 group meeting consists of 2½ days of best practice sharing, financial benchmarking, host dealer visits, and discussions about solving the complexities of today's tire and auto shop.
Jarid Lundeen, owner of Tires Plus of North Dakota, with three independent locations in the Minot, N.D., area, said in a DSP press release that "as a business owner of three tire retail locations, it is vital that I always stay in tune with what is new and changing in my business environment."
He added that "as a retailer" he does not always have "resources the 'big box' retailers have" and "working with other tire store owners with multiple locations makes sense because we can share ideas on expansion, employee and management issues, and of course profitability, that arise out of owning more than one location."
DSP said multi-store owners are interested in learning more about the new 20 group should contact Pat Brown, vice president of marketing, at 419-420-5915 or [email protected] or Paul Chizeck, 910-409-7293 or p[email protected].