A Major undertaking for father and son

MASSILLON, Ohio — During his 44-year career in the tire business, Rex Pennington has performed most every job in a retail tire and auto repair shop and has worked for a variety of managers.

Mr. Pennington never dreamed, that at age 62, he would be taking on a new role, under a new but very familiar boss.

For the past year, Mr. Pennington has managed Major League Tire, a Northeastern Ohio dealership that operates three stores — one each in Mentor, Massillon and Hartville. On most days, he will be greeting customers at the counter of the Massillon store, but he also visits the other two locations occasionally, doing everything from mounting tires to performing alignments.

And he works for a young owner who lives nearly 500 miles away, has visited just one of the three locations, and who is better suited for installing software than tires: Justin Pennington, his 32-year-old son.

• This story appeared in the Sept. 11 print edition of Tire Business.

"He's probably one of the best bosses I've had," the elder Mr. Pennington said. "I don't even think of him as my boss. It's more like we're working together than I'm working for him."

The younger Mr. Pennington always has had the entrepreneurial spirit. Justin Pennington bought his first business when he turned 21, a movie theater and office building that he had hoped to convert into a live music venue.

Though the endeavor didn't work — the movie theater has since been sold — it didn't stop the younger Mr. Pennington from pursuing the tire business, despite the fact he has no tire background "other than occasionally hanging around whatever location where my dad was working."

And Justin Pennington said the experience has lived up to his expectations.

"Two of the three locations were existing shops, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect," said the younger Mr. Pennington, a web developer who also owns Ceetus West Inc., a global web development company that focuses on IBM Corp.'s e-commerce platform, WebSphere Commerce. He is working on Sports Endeavors Inc.'s websites such as soccer.com; store.FIFA.com; lacrosse.com; and WorldRugbyShop.com.

His dad's experience in the business helped to convince him that tires and auto service are a sound investment.

"My dad has seen a lot of shops over the years," the younger Mr. Pennington said. "He has the first-hand knowledge to know what to look for, everything from finding a shop that is big enough where the employees don't feel cramped or crowded, but small enough where we aren't wasting money on utilities heating empty space."

Industry experience

Rex Pennington began his journey in the tire and auto service industry right out of high school in 1973, changing tires at a Goodyear-owned store in Medina, Ohio. By 1976, he was certified as an auto service technician, and eight years later, he was a certified master auto service technician.

After six years at Goodyear, the elder Mr. Pennington joined Richard Ellwood's dealership, which had a location in Mentor and another in Strongsville, Ohio. When the Strongsville location was sold to Firestone, Rex Pennington began a run of working for several companies.

He spent time with Bridgestone's Firestone retail store network and BP ProCare in various Northeast Ohio locations, before joining Terry's Tire Town.

"I loved working there," Mr. Pennington said. "I thought, 'This was it.' I thought I'd work there until I retired."

Mr. Pennington had been promoted to manage all retail operations when American Tire Distributors Inc. (ATD) acquired Terry's Tire Town in 2014.

He then joined Great Lakes Best One Tire, where he was helping a friend and shop owner, James Brott, oversee the Massillon store.

In the meantime, Mr. Ellwood, still the owner of the shop in Mentor, where Mr. Pennington once worked, was looking to sell.

This seemed to be the ideal opportunity.

The younger Mr. Pennington said the only other person he consulted about the purchase was his brother, Jason Pennington, an engineer at Northrop Grumman Corp., a global security firm in Dayton, Ohio, that services industries including underseas, aerospace and cyberspace.

"My dad is not a risk-taker, and I tend to be willing to take more of a risk," Justin Pennington said. "My brother is not as conservative as my dad, so he was essentially the tiebreaker.

"If he thought the tire business was too risky to get involved with, I would have been more likely to back out. However, he was all for it."

The deal was consummated over lunch. It took five days for the younger Mr. Pennington to become owner of a tire dealership and Rex Pennington to become Justin Pennington's most valued employee.

"My dad has been in the business for over 40 years, and we talked about opening our own store off and on for awhile," the younger Mr. Pennington said. "We were really close to starting something of our own about a year before we actually opened, but the deal fell through," the younger Mr. Pennington said.

"After that, I got the feeling that maybe it wasn't meant to be, but when the Mentor location became available with a proven track record and a well-seasoned crew, the pieces fell into place."

The Penningtons renamed the shop Major League Tire, opening in September 2016. Mr. Ellwood continues to work there, part of that well-seasoned crew.

Meanwhile, Mr. Brott had come to realize that Great Lakes Best One Tire's Massillon store, primarily a retail location, did not fit his business model. So he approached the Penningtons about acquiring the business.

Justin Pennington bounced the idea off his dad.

"I said, 'Dude, are you kidding me? Do you know how old I am?' " the elder Mr. Pennington said. "I never dreamed that at this stage of my life, I'd be doing this. But I've done it my whole life. I had worked there when it was Terry's Tire Town, so it's not anything new."

Thus, the sequel — Major League Tire II — was born, opening Dec. 1, 2016.

"My dad and I talked originally about focusing on shops that were already up and running with a team and structure in place, and then applying our system to help unify each location," the younger Mr. Pennington said.

"That way, new locations aren't a huge gamble to open since they were already existing shops, but at the same time, there is some consistency between our locations so any employee from one can spend a day at another without having to learn an entirely new process."

Major League III

Major League Tire III, otherwise known as the Hartville location, didn't follow that script.

One of Rex Pennington's former employees, Tina Pritchard, approached the elder Mr. Pennington about opening a shop not long after the Massillon location opened.

"She found an empty building, not exactly what we had considered doing, but the fact that it was Tina, I knew her and I knew we could trust her to run it made it work. She had a great following in Hartville," he said.

Rex Pennington and Ms. Pritchard hired technicians they had worked with previously, brought in equipment and lifts and ordered signs. Not long after the doors opened on May 1 of this year, they had more cars than they could fix.

Today, Major League Tire has 16 bays and 19 employees at its three locations, offering more than 200 years of combined experience. About 80 percent of the business in Mentor is auto service, while business at the other two locations is split equally between auto service and tires.

"It's a great day when, at the end of the day, you've made money and made customers happy — they come in, spend their hard-earned money and thank you," the elder Mr. Pennington said. "When customers refer you to friends, and they're happy we're here, that's a good feeling."

Justin Pennington may be a silent owner, but he and his dad talk often about the business, sometimes twice or more a day.

"The biggest surprise about being the silent owner is how much people still care about me," the younger Mr. Pennington said. "Having an experienced team is the only way to make this work, but when it comes to vendors and payment processors, the team who will be there every day is less relevant than me.

"I constantly get asked for my credentials and a resume to verify I have the experience needed to do business with them."

The most challenging part of being a silent owner, Justin Pennington said, is dealing with insurance, payroll and banking institutions that only want to deal with the owner.

"We had extra hoops to jump through to get my dad access to make decisions for the company," the younger Mr. Pennington said. "As for the bank, we had to pick a bank that was regional to ensure there were branches outside of Ohio in case I had to personally go and sign something."

Expansion possible

The Penningtons are not looking to slow down.

In fact, Justin Pennington said he and his father are seeking the "right opportunity" to open another location in Northeast Ohio. In five years, Justin said he sees the company expanding south in Ohio, to the Columbus and/or Dayton areas.

"I"m happy with three," Rex Pennington said. "People who are looking to retire or move on are calling us (to buy). We've looked at several locations, but it's got to be the right deal. We have the right people in place."

One of those people is Curtis Pennington, Rex's nephew and Justin's cousin, who has joined the business. Rex and Justin are training Curtis, who has been in the tire business for 10 years, to take over once Rex decides to slow down.

"Not only is he very passionate about the business, he's my favorite nephew," the elder Mr. Pennington said.

"Our goal is once it's time for me to hang up the wrenches, he'll just keep the machine moving."

Rex credited his wife Rhonda for raising their son well. "Her son can boss me around and fire me if he wants to," he said, laughing. "I think she enjoys it.

"I'm pretty confident my current owner won't sell me out."

Rex Pennington said he and his son kicked around titles for him after their partnership began. They considered several humorous titles, including Supreme Allied Commander of the North American Forces.

One, however, is best.

"Father of the owner is my favorite title," Rex Pennington said. "That's the one I'm the most proud of."