Six companies recognized as 2021-2022 Best Places to Work

AKRON, Ohio — Each year, Tire Business honors some of the best employers in the industry.

The Best Places to Work survey is conducted by Best Companies Group (BCG), an independent research firm specializing in identifying and recognizing great places to work.

In order to participate in the survey, each business must be a retail, commercial, OTR, retread or wholesale tire dealership in the U.S., and have at least 15 employees. Each owner submits an online survey detailing company policies, practices, benefits and demographics. Employees, meanwhile, are asked to complete, a series of questions, rating the company.

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Here's a look at 2021-2022 honorees.

For the past 30 years, the Gonzalez family has built Miami-based Tire Group International Inc. (TGI) into a successful wholesale tire business by stressing personal contact, both within the business and with customers.

Internally, those working at TGI call it "Selling Happiness."

"When you work for something you believe in, it's called passion," Joaquin Gonzalez said. "TGI has been inspiring belief and committing to it, since its humble beginnings, empowering our team to be the very best at everything we do."

Tony Gonzalez, CEO and chairman, added: "We are a true family that takes pride in everything we do, a family that never stops fighting for our clients, and is only satisfied with being the best."

TGI's win coincides with the company's 30th anniversary.

At Best-One of Indy, the secret of a solid workplace is simple.

"The reality for us — always has been, still is and always will be — everything begins and ends with caring for our people," Best-One of Indy President Rich Elliott said.

Best-One of Indy — based in Indianapolis and part of the multi-statewide Best-One Tire network — offers a combination of retail and commercial sales and auto care, but its real product is customer service, he said.

The company calls employees "internal raving fans" to match up with the dealership's mission statement of creating "raving fans" of its customers, and the company believes that if the employees are having a good experience, they'll carry that into their interactions with customers.

In 2020, when COVID-19 closed businesses and slowed sales, MFA Oil Co. made a commitment to its Big O employees: no layoffs, no furloughs.

The franchisee — which operates 22 Big O stores across Missouri and Northwest Arkansas — kept that promise throughout the pandemic, choosing to take a hit to its bottom line rather than let anyone go.

"We didn't think that was the right thing to do by them, with everything they've given to us. ... We didn't think it was fair to take a job away from them just because we didn't necessarily have the sales coming in," Charlie Alexander, senior director of Big O Tires operations for MFA, said.

It's paid off, both in a subsequent year of great sales and a workforce that felt valued.

Tim Wolfe started working for Monteith's Best One Tire & Auto Care, based in Elkhart, Ind., in high school. Today, he's the president and a managing partner of the ownership group.

Wolfe is happy to share the secret to maintaining a successful and passionate team: Treat employees like they exist, like they are real, living, breathing people.

It's such an obvious answer that saying it out loud makes Wolfe chuckle, but as simple as the concept may be, it can get lost in running a successful business — where the numbers are king.

"It's almost too simple," Wolfe said. "We try our best to treat people the way that they want to be treated."

SimpleTire L.L.C. of Trevose, Pa., prides itself in offering a family environment for its employees within a technologically advanced business.

In its ten years, the company has attributed its commercial success, and as a best place to work, to its open culture with its employees.

"We trust our employees and they (provide) commitment and effort back to us," President Karthik Iyer said.

A hybrid workplace arrangement is part of the flexibility SimpleTire takes pride in, and attributes to its low-turnover rate and continued business success.

Employees are rewarded for offering innovative ideas, whether for improving the website, back office operations or the company in general.

The foundation of Sun Auto Tire & Service's success can be summarized in three words: Putting people first.

In 2021 alone, the Tempe, Ariz.-based Sun Auto Tire acquired 11 automotive service and retail tire dealerships, entering 12 new states and adding 180 locations to its portfolio.

The one constant, however, has been the company's strong belief in treating its employees well.

"If we want to grow the business and continue to be successful, the way to do that is through our employees," Carolyn Barnard, vice president of human resources, said. "We have a people-first mentality."