Change, too, is coming to Tire Business.
First off, our outstanding special projects editor, Bruce Davis — I like to say he has forgotten more about the tire industry than most people will ever know — plans to retire after a four-plus decade career.
Bruce helped to create the very publication you are reading, as well as much of the data you will see inside. We will announce more details of his retirement as they come into focus.
In order to help buffer our loss from Bruce's impending retirement, we have hired Shane Hoover, a veteran reporter who previously worked at the Canton Repository as a staff writer.
We will share more details about Shane's award-winning career in our next issue, but having worked with Shane previously, I can tell you Managing Editor David Manley and I are excited to bring him on board. He is a talented, hard-working journalist, and we believe he will enjoy the tire industry as much as we do.
While we are adding staff, we are also doing something extremely remarkable in this digital age: We are adding three more print editions to our schedule.
That means Tire Business will be published in print form 21 times a year — and of course daily on our website, tirebusiness.com.
Thank you, loyal readers and advertisers, for making that possible.
We have other things in store for you as we turn the calendar to 2025.
Last year, we rolled out two new newsletters: Smart Shop and Pit Stop. Look for at least one more newsletter in the coming year.
We added two unique elements to our coverage over the past year.
Each month, our friends at Circana Inc. provide us a data snapshot of the tire industry, based on the company's extensive research.
In addition, we are the exclusive media partner of the weekly Gain Traction Podcast. Look for us to expand this collaboration with Gain Traction and podcast host Mike Edge.
As they say on those late-night infomercials: Wait, there's more.
Our staff will be out and about as usual, traveling to industry events. We even added a new stop this year — more on that in the new year.
In addition, we're finalizing plans to participate in what is now called the Global Polymer Summit.
Never heard of it? You're not alone. Our sister publication, Rubber News, announced in September that it was partnering with the Rubber Division to launch the Global Polymer Summit. That annual event will replace the International Tire Exhibition & Conference (ITEC) and the Rubber Division's International Elastomer Conference (IEC).
The reborn entity will be held Sept. 8-11 in Cleveland.
Tire Business is planning to have some presence at the event. Once we iron out details, we will let you know. It will be worth your while to attend this re-imagined show.
Before we jump into 2025, let's take one last look at the previous 12 months. We do that in our fifth annual year-end issue we call The Book.
This is our annual anthology of some of our best work that we have presented over the year.
Managing Editor David Manley organized the publication, with design support from Michael McCrady, our designer extraordinaire.
Inside you will find our most popular and relevant data that we have produced. That includes our rankings of North America's largest independent retail and commercial dealers and retreaders; a list of marketing groups; and a list of mergers and acquisitions.
We highlight some of the notable executive promotions, and take one last look at those who died after leaving an indelible mark on our industry.
In addition, we bring you our signature Global Tire Report, which includes our exclusive list of the Top 75 tire makers ranked by global sales. And we include a list of every tire factory in the world, listing location, capacity, types of tires produced and number of employees. This was the brainchild of Bruce Davis, and it remains as popular as ever, 39 years after the first edition published.
Finally, we include a look at the recipient of the 2024 Tire Business Tire Dealer Humanitarian Award, given to a charitable tire dealer. Read our profile of this year's recipient — Gus Herlong of Palmetto Garage Works Ltd. in Columbia, S.C. — and you'll understand why this is such a special award.
We have plans once again to honor another worthy tire dealer next year.
This edition is 100 pages, and I encourage you to keep it handy for your reference throughout the new year. Thanks to our staff — David, Michael and Bruce, as well as Senior Reporter Kathy McCarron and Digital Editor Jessica Holbrook, for all of their contributions in making our publication the industry standard.
I also must thank Chris Taylor, our general manager of the Global Polymer Group, and Don Loepp, our editorial leader, for all of their help and support throughout the year. And we couldn't do this without our talented, supportive and hard-working sales team, led by John Hickey and Christine Zernick.
We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we did in assembling it.
While you can expect change in the months ahead, our wish remains the same this year as it is every year: We hope you have a healthy, happy, safe and prosperous holiday season.
Thank you for reading our publication. We look forward to serving you again in 2025.
