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October 05, 2017 02:00 AM

Dealers, suppliers step up to help hurricane victims

Kathy McCarron
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    Tom's Tire Pros photo
    Tom's Tire Pros sent a truck full of supplies and a team to help in the flood cleanup in Beaumont, Texas. The team included, from left, Lacey Siegfried, and employees Brett Siegfried, Jonathan Rivera, AJ Ceniglis and Shaye VanHorne.

    AKRON — Tire dealerships and suppliers were continuing to offer help to the victims of both Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida in September.

    American Tire Distributors Inc. (ATD), which operates the Tire Pros dealer network, shared with Tire Business several stories of its Tire Pros dealers who offered assistance to the hundreds of flooding victims by encouraging customers to drop off donations of water and supplies at their stores and delivering truckloads of donations to various cities in need. (See related photos on page 22.)

    Tom's Tire Pros, for example, with a pair of locations in San Angelo and Abilene, Texas, held a raffle and raised money to buy supplies and send a team of employees to Beaumont, Texas, to help in the cleanup of the flooding that swamped the Gulf Coast of Texas.

    "I knew Houston had been hit, as well as the Beaumont area and Lake Charles, but it looked like from our end that no help or money was going to the Beaumont area, so we wanted to get there to help," Tom Ceniglis Jr. of Tom's Tire Pros told ATD.

    • This story appeared in the Sept. 25 print edition of Tire Business.

    Over the Labor Day weekend the dealership team of six drove a truck filled with four pallets of water, paper products, cleaning supplies, tools and equipment to Beaumont. While there, fellow tire dealer Mike Smith, owner of Mike Smith's Tire Pros, provided the team with dinners at his home.

    A.J. Ceniglis, assistant manager and one of the members of the relief team, told Tire Business that they spent the weekend unloading supplies, helping residents carry their valuables out of their flooded houses and cleaning up a flooded church.

    Donations

    Several tire industry companies pledged donations to help hurricane victims, including:

    Bridgestone Corp. and Bridgestone Americas Inc., which donated $1 million to the American Red Cross. The funding is intended to support relief and recovery efforts across impacted areas, including Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, key states in regions where Bridgestone has thousands of employees, customers and business partners, the company said.

    In addition to the American Red Cross donation, Bridgestone Americas is redirecting a portion of its annual Nashville, Tenn.-area United Way campaign allocation to United Way relief efforts in Texas.

    Bridgestone Americas' internal Employee Assistance Funds, built through annual employee giving, has allocated more than $400,000 to help teammates procure temporary housing and necessities, such as food, bottled water and building supplies. Bridgestone said more than 200 employees have received support from the fund.

    To date, hundreds of Bridgestone employees have experienced losses or damages to their homes, the company said. Bridgestone has approximately 6,000 employees at more than 500 retail stores, manufacturing facilities and several distribution centers in the affected areas of Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.

    RNR Tire Express & Custom Wheels (RNR) announced that throughout September, RNR locations across the nation will contribute $1 of each tire and wheel sale to support the brand's relief initiative for Texas and Florida. The proceeds collected at the end of the month will be donated by each franchise location to the organization of choice, including the American Red Cross, Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, Hurricane Irma Relief Fund, among others, the firm said.

    RNR, with 20 franchised stores in Florida, said some stores suffered damaged flooring and lost windows and signs during Hurricane Irma, along with some power outages.

    One of the four RNR stores in the Houston area was too damaged from flooding to reopen, so its operations were shifted to another store, the company said.

    ATD created a GoFundMe account through which its employees helped raise about $25,000 for hurricane victims, the company said.

    TBC Corp. said several of its Tire Kingdom stores in Florida were offering free flat repairs and 25-percent discounts on wiper blades for customers while a number of NTB locations in Texas were offering free flat repairs and battery checks for flooding victims.

    Driven Brands Inc. is encouraging its franchisees, employees, vendor partners and customers to donate to the Driven Brands Charitable Foundation (DBCF) site or any of the participating brand websites. Proceeds will benefit the American Red Cross relief efforts in both states.

    Driven Brands' participating entities include CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts, Maaco, Meineke Car Care Centers, Take 5 Oil Change, Havoline Express Lube and 1-800 Radiator & AC. Driven Brands also operates Merlin 200,000 Mile Shops, Econo Lube N' Tune, Pro Oil and Drive N Style.

    Driven Brands has more than 50 franchised locations in the Houston area — including 20-plus Meineke stores — most of which suffered only minimal damage during Hurricane Harvey and are open for business, according to the company.

    In Florida, there are some 160 locations, including more than 40 Meineke stores.

    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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