American Tire Depot opens 100th store — and 4 more

LA MIRADA, Calif. — ATV Inc. is opening five American Tire Depot stores throughout its southern California marketing area, pushing the La Mirada-based dealership past the 100-store mark in its 26th year of business.

The new stores are in Hesperia, Mission Viejo, Santee, Tustin and Walnut. Two of the stores are greenfield constructions; the other three are conversions of existing tire/auto care establishments.

As part of the celebration and during the Dec. 1-3 weekend, ATV is offering customers a "buy three, get one free" offer and a $100 mail-in-rebate on purchases of $600 or more on American Tire Depot's credit card.

ATV did not comment on the costs associated with the openings. These latest five openings are on top of nine other stores opened in 2017 and expand the dealership's network to 104 stores.

The greenfield stores are in Hesperia, a community of about 95,000 in San Bernadino County, and Tustin, a city of 80,000 in Orange County.

The stores in Mission Viejo, Santee and Walnut formerly operated as Mission Viejo Tire Emporium, Meineke Car Care Center and Lemon Creek Tires, respectively, ATV said, without elaborating on its acquisition of the properties.

At 104 stores, American Tire Depot ranks as the 12th largest independent tire dealership in the U.S., according to Tire Business' calculations.

Co-founder Ara Tchaghlassian and his partners Tony Akhian and Vartan Mouradian opened their first store in 1991 in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. Messrs Akhian and Mouradian left the business in 2005, making Mr. Tchaghlassian the sole owner.