Tire Industry Association turns 100 with clear focus

BOWIE, Md. — The way Roy Littlefield sees things, the Tire Industry Association (TIA) is not your typical centenarian.

The trade group, celebrating its 100th anniversary, is stronger than ever, having used the last several years to build up the financial strength that is now allowing the association to weather the coronavirus pandemic.

A sharpened focus on core competencies over time has helped, Mr. Littlefield, TIA's CEO since 2003, said. Instead of being all things to all people, the group has blossomed by focusing on a couple of key areas.

"I think the message has been clearer," he said. "It's a mix of government affairs and training."

Over time, TIA has straightened out budgetary problems that had haunted the group and its predecessors since the beginning of time. Well, the group's time, that is.

Staffing levels are leaner and focused on those two key services. Membership, which has been growing significantly in recent years, continues to balloon.

"We're just leaner and meaner," Mr. Littlefield said. "Right now, we are a well-oiled machine going forward."

"We have really worked hard to have a very strong budget given the situation. Everybody has really stepped up," he said.

There was no way to predict COVID-19's impact on the country, but TIA saw the need several years ago to start building a reserve that would help the organization through any tough times that might ensue.

Well, those tough times are now, and thanks to that preparation, TIA continues its work advocating for the tire industry at a time when other trade groups in other industries essentially have closed shop to wait out the storm, Mr. Littlefield said.

TIA, these days, has more than 13,000 members and is on its way to 14,000. The CEO hopes to add 1,000 new members this year alone, a true accomplishment, he said, during a worldwide health crisis. Just five years ago, the group's membership numbered closer to 8,000.

"We're not going to sit on our hands during the pandemic," he said.

It's the focus on government affairs and training that has allowed membership to swell, Mr. Littlefield said he believes. TIA recruits companies to join the trade group, and they pay membership fees based on annual revenues.

While he sees stability in Bowie-based TIA, that has not always been the case. The TIA name has brought a sense of calm to the trade group, but its predecessors did not enjoy the same.

The TIA name dates back only 18 years, to 2002 when two groups with a decades-long history of contention — the National Tire Dealers & Retreaders Association (NTDRA) and the American Retreaders' Association (ARA) — decided to merge.

Mr. Littlefield preaches harmony these days, both within the trade association and with others.

"We're an association that looks at the industry that we all have to get along. It doesn't mean that we're not going to disagree, and sometimes we're going to dig in. But for the most part, we want to work together on issues," he said.

"We want to have a good relationship with the manufacturers and the USTMA (U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association). We believe very strongly that this industry has to be profit-driven on all centers to be successful. We're all partners. That's the way we view it," Mr. Littlefield said.

Brian Rigney, TIA president since last November, has been involved with the group for the past seven years. During that time, the president of Dill Air Controls Products of Oxford, N.C., has seen cooperation within the association and the industry continue to grow.

"There's a really good cross-functional experience on the board, and we leverage that very well when we make decisions," he said.

"Everyone is very vocal. There's a lot of constructive dialogue. And cohesiveness within the tire industry, not just TIA acting independently. We're very involved with other groups."

"I think we've been kind of the glue for that type of communication," said Mr. Rigney, whose company makes products such as valve stems, tire-pressure-monitoring systems and inflators.

TIA has been growing because members see value in the association that provides a voice to various aspects of the industry, the president said.

"There's a really nice, level playing field that we want to start from," Mr. Rigney said. "People are there for the right reasons. That's important too. They genuinely care about the industry."

"Members see value differently depending on what's important for them. For a lot of our members, the training is critical," Mr. Rigney said. "A lot of them are members to gain that training experience."

More and more members also are understanding the importance of being involved with a network representing their interests, he said.

TIA had planned a 2020 celebration as the group traces its lineage back to the creation of the first National Tire Dealers Association (NTDA). That effort brought together a number of local tire dealer associations that had been forming in several U.S. cities starting in 1917.

Talk of creating a national group began in 1920 and resulted in about 500 dealers attending the first NTDA meeting on Jan. 31, 1921, in Chicago.

Because the association's history dates to both 1920 with efforts to organize and its first gathering in 1921, TIA decided to shift the 100-year celebration to next year with the hope of the pandemic being in the rear-view mirror.

The NTDA found itself in financial problems almost from the beginning as the group quickly overspent its budget by a little more than $2,000 — big bucks back in those days — in less than a year. That required individual members to kick in cash during the group's first convention in Cleveland to cover the deficit.

The group's first president, Thomas Whitehead of Chicago, said the deficit occurred because the group was trying to accomplish too much too quickly.

Another financial crisis happened during the Great Depression when the NTDA had to accept money from tire manufacturers to help keep it afloat. That kept the group around, but not for long, as NTDA was replaced by a new group, the National Association of Independent Tire Dealers in 1935.

The NAITD was not a legal successor to NTDA, so the new group was not responsible for the old group's debt problems. The NAITD ultimately rebranded itself in 1955 as the NTDRA.

The ARA dates to the late 1950s and was formed after the NTDRA barred George Edwards, editor of the newly launched Retreaders Journal, from attending its 1957 conference in Cincinnati.

This not only incensed Mr. Edwards but also E.L. "Red" Davis, a Radcliff, Ky.-based retreader. Mr. Davis had some muscle behind his name as he was the principal retreading supplier to the U.S. Army's Fort Knox Armored Center and was vice president of the Central States Retreaders Association, a regional group.

W.W. "Bill" Marsh, then executive vice president of the NTDRA, made the call to bar Mr. Edwards and directed Philip Friedlander, then editor of the NTDRA's Dealer News, to tell Mr. Edwards he was not allowed to attend the convention.

Messrs. Davis and Edwards and their wives left the show, deciding on the trip home to create their own convention for retreaders.

Mr. Davis owned the show, then called the Louisville Retreaders Conference, and Mr. Edwards was given a contract to run the gathering sponsored by Central States, which changed its name in 1964 to the ARA.

What followed was some 40 years of acrimony before both sides came together to create TIA nearly 20 years ago.

And just to add to the alphabet soup of titles, by the time of that merger, the NTDRA had again changed its name to the Tire Association of North America and the ARA had changed its name to the International Tire & Rubber Association.

What was once an unthinkable marriage between sworn enemies has birthed an association that's clearly focused and in its strongest position ever, Mr. Littlefield said.

"You had two associations that were fighting with each other for 40 years," he remembered. "I always believed we were better off working together."

The current TIA head has been employed by the trade group since 1979, coming from the NTDRA side. He's been in charge since 2003.

"We've had great growth both because of the training programs and because of government affairs," Mr. Littlefield said. Since narrowing the focus of the trade group, he said, "I think people have a better understanding of what we stand for."

"About 15 years ago the executive committee said we can't be all things to all people. So let's focus on two strengths we have, and one of them is training and one of them is government affairs. Since we've done that, I think people have a better understanding of what we stand for," he said.