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August 07, 2017 02:00 AM

Wheels can drive up dealership profits

Don Detore
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    Burt Brothers Tire & Service photo
    Burt Brothers Tire & Service sells custom wheels at its nine locations in Utah.

    AKRON — To paraphrase a popular children's song, the wheels in a retail store can make business go round-and-round. And very profitable.

    Several dealers surveyed by Tire Business said wheels and tires — as well as peripheral items such as wheel and tire cleaners — are easy sellers that make happy customers and dealers alike, if displayed properly.

    "There's nothing like wheels and tires and lift kits," said Jake Burt, general manager of Burt Brothers Tire & Service auto repair shop, which has nine locations in Utah. Mr. Burt manages the Cottonwood facility in Salt Lake City.

    Mr. Burt said he sells two or three sets of wheels per week throughout the year, and "probably" four sets per week in the summer, when the wheel market is the hottest. He said he might sell 50 wheels a month, on average.

    "We always want to be competitive," he said, "but we make 25, 30 percent on a set of wheels."

    • This story appeared in the July 31 print issue of Tire Business.

    Mr. Burt said one customer came into his shop recently with a damaged wheel on his Cadillac. The customer told Mr. Burt that he was quoted $1,500 by a car dealership to replace the wheel.

    "We got him four new (aftermarket) wheels for $1,200," Mr. Burt said. "We made money, and he was ecstatic."

    Jeremy Lindley, manager of the Northwest Tire - Dickinson North Auto Center retail store in Dickinson, N.D., said wheels are his dealership's top-selling accessory. "Black is the No. 1 choice — black aftermarket wheels," he said.

    Mr. Lindley said his store sells about three or four sets of wheels per month, but when the oil boom was big in North Dakota a few years ago, he was selling four sets of wheels per week.

    Robert Kaufman, owner of Dan's Goodyear in Costa Mesa, Calif., said he can sell anywhere between eight and 10 sets of wheels on a good week.

    "On a normal week, we sell about two sets," Mr. Kaufman said. "Spring and summer are when customers want to make their vehicles look the best, especially in the beach area."

    Naturally, wheels are a top seller for a company that uses the word in its name — RNR Tire Express & Custom Wheels.

    Ryan Schrader, RNR's director of operations at the firm's corporate office in Tampa, Fla., said wheels and tires account for 90 percent of the firm's business.

    "It's a great money-maker, with a lot of revenue for our stores," Mr. Schrader said. There are close to 100 RNR franchise stores in the U.S.

    'All about aesthetics'

    Dealers say that customers today want to make their vehicles their own, and one of the most distinctive ways to accomplish this is to dress up their rides with a set of wheels.

    "They just want to look like they're cool," Mr. Kaufman said. "We are in a good area, with well-to-do neighborhoods around us, and they have the money to spend on accessorizing their vehicles."

    "It's all about aesthetics," Mr. Burt said. "They don't want a car that looks like every other vehicle on the lot. Maybe there's a different finish that they're fond of, black or chrome, or maybe they like swirls or spokes. It's a preference type of thing."

    Mr. Schrader said changing tires and/or wheels isn't the cheapest way to make the look of a vehicle distinctive, but it is certainly among the easiest and most popular.

    "It's a want, not a need, but it's a want for a lot of people in all gamuts of life," Mr. Schrader noted.

    He said wanting to change the look of a vehicle can serve as a catalyst to "move forward and put a set of aftermarket tires and wheels on a car."

    "Obviously when you add a chrome trim piece," he said, "you're not drastically changing the look of the car, truck, van or SUV.

    "But when you add a custom set of wheels, it adds a uniqueness to the vehicle that makes it look different than the hundreds or thousands of vehicles that come from the factory," he said.

    And if a driver damages one wheel, he or she usually can replace all four with aftermarket wheels cheaper than purchasing two OEM wheels.

    "It can be a catalyst to replace your wheels," Mr. Schrader said. "Even though you don't need it, you want your car to look nice, so you may move forward to put a new set of aftermarket tires and wheels on your vehicle."

    Dealers said one of the biggest trends today is for customers to upgrade their wheels and tires with an off-road or all-terrain mud package.

    "They're taking their (Ford) F-150 and going to a larger, more aggressive wheel and tire package," Mr. Schrader said.

    Mr. Burt said a customer's customized truck influences his buddy to want to do the same.

    "We have a lot of people think methodically about it. They buy a new truck, but then they've got to get it fixed up like they want it."

    Mr. Kaufman said the bolder three-piece wheels, as well as neon colors are a hot commodity in his market.

    And the California dealer offers his customers another lucrative way to distinguish their vehicles. He owns a printing machine that can customize add-ons, such as tires, bedliners and rubber floor mats.

    "You can print anything you want on the tire and on a floor mat," Mr. Kaufman said, noting that it's more lucrative to sell a customized set of new mats, rather than print on dirty mats.

    Burt Brothers Tire & Service photo

    Jake Burt, general manager of a Burt Brothers Tire & Service auto repair shop in Salt Lake City, says displaying items such as custom wheels will help to increase sales.

    Other add-ons

    Wheels, however, aren't the only accessories with which dealers find success.

    Mr. Schrader said tire pressure monitoring system sensor replacement complements the business.

    "It's not necessarily an accessory, but a safety device," he said.

    "We test them for customers and can show them if they're getting to their end of life.

    "In areas where there's salt or mountainous terrain, consumers need to watch for them to go bad. There's a great opportunity to sell sensors and switch them (out)."

    Mr. Burt said his dealership has success selling add-ons such as sidesteps, vent visors, hitches, window tint and bikini tops for Jeep Wranglers.

    "We've even done a little promotion thing with mugs and pocket knives and starter kits for batteries," Mr. Burt said.

    In fact, he said battery chargers, which retail for about $100, are especially popular during winter.

    "They come in a nice pouch," he said. "They are powerful enough to jump start a car and charge a cell phone. They make a nice Christmas gift."

    He said one customer came back to buy one for each of his three vehicles. "We sell out about all of them," Mr. Burt said.

    Car bras are a hot seller in California, according to Mr. Kaufman.

    "With the weather and the saltwater, people want to keep the front of their cars clean," he said.

    His shop has a bra displayed on the front bumpers of a Mazda RX7 and Nissan 300 ZX.

    "They are more of an impulse buy," Mr. Kaufman said. "(The display) puts the idea in their head."

    Mr. Schrader said wheel and tire cleaners, spiked lugnuts and road- hazard programs also are successful sellers.

    Visibility is key

    But wheels and tires remain king of the accessories and add-ons. And making those products highly visible to the customer is the key to success.

    "If my customer comes in for tires or repairs or alignment or something like that, they will see other items," Mr. Kaufman said. "So we try to upsell them with some of the other things we offer. They see them as they are waiting on service."

    Mr. Burt said one of his fellow managers was having difficulty selling wheels in his shop. Finally, he ordered two sets of wheels and displayed them prominently for customers to see as soon as they walked in the store.

    "He sold both of them by the end of the month," Mr. Burt said.

    The key for dealers, Mr. Schrader said, is to find the appropriate accessory or add-on for the market served.

    "Provide them options that make sense," he said. "And believe in them. That's the biggest thing."

    Treating the customer right also is important.

    "The most important thing is good customer service," Mr. Kaufman said. "Sell a good product at a fair price. Don't try to get rich over one sale. In some cases, money is an issue (for accessories).

    "If they don't have the money now, they will come back in."

    Letter
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    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Tire Business would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor Don Detore at [email protected].

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