Discount Tire, Michelin earn Harris awards

According to Discount Tire, the Harris study evaluates consumers' engagement and offers a complete diagnostic of a brand's position within and outside of its industry. The study derives its Equity score directly from consumer responses.

The Michelin brand was rated ahead of Goodyear, Pirelli, Bridgestone and BFGoodrich.

Harris Interactive said the results of this study, its 27th annual, were based on a sample of 38,670 U.S. consumers ages 15 and over, who were surveyed online in English between Jan. 8 and Feb. 2, 2015.

Each respondent was asked to rate 40 randomly selected brands out of a sample of 1,410 brands. Each brand received approximately 1,000 ratings.

Separately, Discount Tire disclosed it opened three retail stores in the first quarter, inlcuding its second and third stores in Kansas.

The Kansas stores, in Derby and Olathe, are part of Discount Tire's push into the “Heartland” states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. They opened March 20 and Feb. 17, respectively.

The third new store, in College Station, Texas, is the third Discount Tire outlet in the College Station area and the dealership's 236th in Texas. It opened Feb. 6.

Discount Tire did not identify the new store managers nor say how many employees are at each location. Photos of the new locations show them all to be six-bay store designs.

The dealership did not disclose its investment in the new stores, which expand Discount Tire's network to 903 locations.