What types of product shortages have you experienced this year?
Both Bridgestone and Goodyear are committed to supporting TireHub's growth plans. These strong, collaborative supply relationships allow us to deliver on our promise to provide the right tires to dealers when they need them.
When you were named CEO (earlier this year), you were tasked "to help dealerships grow their businesses." What are your plans to accomplish this?
Our goal is to be the leading wholesale tire distributor in the United States. We are focused on differentiating ourselves through leading customer experiences and are investing in several areas of our business.
From a technology perspective, we continue to deploy integrations that allow customers to seamlessly connect with TireHub through their systems. We continuously use customer feedback to improve our technologies with the goal of providing them with features that make it easy to do business with us.
Additionally, we are expanding our footprint. We are opening TireHub Logistics Centers (TLCs) in new markets and we are expanding our presence and increasing capacity in existing markets. Our goal is to provide better service and more deliveries to current customers and introduce TireHub and our premium offerings to new customers.
In the last 12 months, we have established a presence in the new markets of McAllen, Texas, and Tucson, Ariz., with more to come. We are opening our second metro-Chicago location in July, and we significantly increased the capacity of our facilities in the New Orleans (Metarie), Memphis and Atlanta (Kennesaw) markets.
We have sharpened our focus on the quality of our inventory over the last nine months. We are unmatched in the breadth and depth of Goodyear and Bridgestone products, which is an advantage for us and our customers. Having the right product at the right time for customers allows them to grow their business.
Finally, we are investing in providing leading service to customers. Retail patterns are evolving and customers are adapting to another "new normal." Our promise to dealers is that we will continually address and improve our frequency and timing of deliveries to meet their needs. Whether a customer needs enhanced Saturday deliveries, specific delivery windows or adjusted route timing, we are committed to providing them with the tires they need, when they expect them and in a way that complements the complexities of their daily operations.
How has adding the Cooper tire lines impacted TireHub's business?
We are thrilled that we can provide Cooper tires to our customers. Cooper perfectly complements our existing portfolio and offers TireHub another way to meet the needs of existing customers and attract new customers. We are excited about continued growth with Cooper in the future.
Does TireHub, which already carries Toyo, plan to add other brands?
TireHub is unique in that we're a premium brand-focused distributor. We are proud of our brand portfolio and remain focused on providing our customers the best possible experience with our current offerings. We will continually re-evaluate our strategy to remain competitive in the marketplace so that we give our customers the tires they want, when they want them. We will always make sure our customers' needs are met.
What kind of trends are you seeing in the wholesale market?
SKU proliferation continues to challenge dealers, even more than before the pandemic. As such, the need for forward-deployed inventory, just-in-time inventory and rapid deliveries is growing rapidly. We remain focused on expanding our nationwide footprint and maintaining the industry-leading breadth and depth of Bridgestone and Goodyear products. Our customers need access to our tires quickly and meeting their needs is priority.
