Midas ramping up tire sales initiatives

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (April 22, 2016) — TBC Corp. is ramping up its efforts to shift the sales mix at its franchised Midas auto repair network more toward tires, launching a “tire sales initiative” in Philadelphia that will roll out across the rest of the U.S. throughout 2016 and into 2017.

“The future of our brand is in tires and auto service,” said Mike Gould, the TBC executive vice president and COO who oversees the Midas franchise program.

“It's a major change, and we are confident about it because change is in our DNA: Midas started out as a muffler specialist and then graduated into brakes, followed by maintenance. Two years from now, we will be a full-service tire and auto-service company — and a significant player in the tire business.”

TBC did not elaborate on what measures it will undertake to effect the desired change, nor disclose the  network's current sales mix.

TBC made a similar announcement last fall, declaring at that time it wanted to accelerate the franchise chain's tire-service expansion significantly in 2016 and 2017, with upgrades in distribution, computer support, shop signage and more.

“Over the next two years,” Mr. Gould said in October 2015, “we will dramatically reposition Midas as a source of tires.

“Our stores will look like tire locations, associates will be tire-service experts, and the Midas brand will become known as a destination for tires in the same way that we are known for brakes, repairs and exhaust.”

TBC did not say then — nor now — what, if any, financial support or relief it would provide franchisees to carry out equipment/system upgrades and/or adding signage to their stores.

In its April 22 announcement — coinciding with the brand's 60th anniversary — TBC said it has “set its sights on securing a permanent place at the apex of the industry with the launch of a tire sales initiative geared to making Midas a full-service tire and auto service destination.”

The pilot program is rolling out this month in the Philadelphia market, where there are 25-plus Midas locations.

When TBC acquired Midas in 2012, tires made up less than 10 percent of the stores' sales volume, according to publicly available data at that time. The average U.S. franchised shop had sales of $672,000 that year, the company said then.

Last October, TBC said tire sales throughout the Midas network had grown 15 percent in the previous 36 months.

Regarding Midas' history, TBC noted that Nate H. Sherman, an Omaha farm boy who dreamed of becoming a journalist but instead went into business for himself, founded the “Muffler Installation Dealers Associated Service” — ever since known as Midas — on April 20, 1956.

The first store opened in Macon, Ga., but within a year, there were 100 nationwide. In subsequent years, Midas expanded into a range of services such as brakes, tires, oil changes and ride control.

Under TBC's stewardship, Midas' North American sales increased for 29 straight months through November 2015. The Midas network grew by 21 locations in the U.S. and Canada last year, including several formerly independent stores that converted to Midas franchises, TBC said.

Today there are 1,300-plus Midas locations in the U.S. and Canada.