Big O adds 3 to Hall of Fame, honors top dealers

DALLAS — The Big O Tires franchise organization elected three new members to its Hall of Fame and honored a half-dozen other dealers and corporate personnel with awards during its recent annual franchise meeting in Dallas.

Bill Skidmore, Mitch Beranek and Greg Kimberlin became just the 28th, 29th and 30th members elected to the Big O Tire Hall of Fame in its 60-year history. The three have a 124 years of collective Big O experience.

The late Bill Skidmore, aka "Chief," spent 52 years in the Big O system, starting as a store employee in 1969 in Kentucky and either owned or was a partner in several stores in Indiana and Kentucky from then until his death in 2013 at age 72.

Skidmore was remembered as someone who "bled Big O," and who conducted business with a "quiet, but firm" approach. He often opened his stores up for other Big O franchisees to train their employees and is credited with helping found United Credit Corp., which helped numerous potential franchisees finance their bids for their franchises.

His sons Danny and Gary continue to be active with Big O — Danny as franchise owner in Clarksville, Ky., and Gary with the Big O Tires executive team as a franchise business consultant. They accepted the honor on their fathers' behalf.

Mitch Beranek, who has owned or co-owned dozens of Big O locations throughout a 40-plus year tire industry career, started as a "tire buster" at a shop in Orem, Utah, in the early 1980s. He's credited with being a founder of the independent Big O Tire Dealers of America association.

Beranek also owns an accounting firm and works with dozens of Big O dealers. He's divested ownership in recent years in all but two locations.

Greg Kimberlin started working in with Big O corporate 1990 and became a franchise owner in 1994. He's credited with persuading Big O and Big O franchisees to embrace automotive service as an integral part of the revenue mix. He left Big O corporate in 2001 to devote his full energies to being a franchise owner, starting with a store in LaGrange, Ky.

Since then, he's bought, opened and sold a handful of stores. Today he owns one store managed by his son Kyle.

Kimberlin's personal motto: "I ask myself every day: 'Did I make a difference today in someone's life?'"

During an awards banquet held on the closing day of the three-day conference, Big O announced six other award winners, including the franchise group's dealers of the year. They are:

Single store owners — Dutch and Jacqui Tryon of Topeka, Kan., franchisees since 2005. Store revenue in 2021 of $5.2 million.

Multiple store owners — Kent and Kory Coleman, franchisees since 2006 and owners of six stores in Utah, including four of the franchise group's 10 largest stores by revenue; among them is a Salt Lake City store that is the first store in Big O history to eclipse $10 million in sales in a single year.

Point of Light award — which recognizes extraordinary franchisees who have contributed to the Big O organization with their knowledge, expertise and dedication — went to Laura Foote, wife and business partner of Dana Foote, franchisees in Loveland, Colo.

Laura Foote fought through a year-plus battle with pancreatic cancer in 2019-20 and was lauded for maintaining a positive, uplifting attitude throughout the ordeal.

The Standing O Award — which recognize franchisees and TBC employees for going "above and beyond" to support Big O — was presented to three individuals:

• Clark Brown, a consultant for Navex Global; ,
• Rick Zirges, co-owner of a franchise in Lake Havasu, Ariz.; and
• Mike Ledbetter, regional operations manager for Big O Tires..

The Big O Tires franchise business is part of TBC Corp. During the 2022 convention June 20-23 in Dallas, executives from both Big O and TBC outlined plans for the group moving forward, including expansion to a national brand and efforts to capture a bigger share of the fleet business.

During the three-day convention, Big O franchisees --- aide in part by TBC corporate --- raised $150,000 toward the Big O scholarship fund, which provides funding for the children of franchise owners.

Part of the monies raised came from a raffle for a 1962 Ford Thunderbird, owned originally by Big O co-founder Bill Thomas and owned for the 20 years by fellow franchisee Bryan Edwards, who won it in a raffle in 2002.

The car, an homage to Big O Tires’ founding year, was won by Joe Happel, a franchise owner with five stores in the “Kentuckiana” metro area in and around Louisville, Ky.

Those attending the conference also devoted time to stuffing hundreds of backpacks with school supplies for distribution ahead of the coming 2022-23 school year.