Tire Pros looks to triple locations in five years

NASHVILLE — If Greg Bell has his way, the country's supply problems won't include Tire Pros dealerships.

The president of American Tire Distributors Inc.'s (ATD) Tire Pros marketing group said the franchise wants to grow to 2,000 locations "in the next five or so years," an ambitious plan considering it currently has 609 locations representing about 440 owner-operators.

"I don't want to stop there," Mr. Bell said of the 2,000-location mark. "I think in order to understand your destination, you have to understand where you are today — and we do.

"We're going to continue to pave the way and work with our franchise partners to bring forward benefits to grow the network to ultimately reach that goal. That's where we have our sights set right now."

While Tire Pros' growth has been "about flat" this year — it has added 25 locations this year through a combination of new prospects and growth from its existing franchise base — Mr. Bell said that was due to being in "unique times."

"The fact that we've been able to keep pace in the last 18 months of the pandemic is something that we're proud to be able to do, but we also recognize that the business and the priorities of the owners is what comes first," he said.

While Tire Pros has always looked to expand, its ambitions have grown since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Mr. Bell, who was promoted to president in October 2019. Many small business owners want to maintain their company's name and independence, but are struggling to compete with the buying power of national franchises.

That's where Tire Pros can fill a niche, allowing them to maintain local ownership while tapping into the benefits of a franchise.

"I'm going to use the word 'opportunity,'" Mr. Bell said. "Taking a step back and evaluating what happened in the pandemic, we know there are owners out there that are thinking about retirement and a succession plan and we think Tire Pros is the right avenue to help support them. But, also, these aren't self-serving goals. We're doing this to benefit the broader franchise group."

Tire Pros was formed in the late 1980s and has more locations in California than any other state, with Texas a close second. The Southwest and the Southeast "is pretty well saturated," which is why the brand's growth will likely come in the Northeast and the Upper Midwest, he said.

"We're starting to fill in some key areas where we lack a little density," Mr. Bell said. "It's a little bit about controlling your destiny. We could take the approach of sitting back and saying, 'We don't really have a presence there. Let's focus on the areas where we do.'

"We actually decided to take a different tack. … There are no geographic limits or boundaries because we have or don't have the right market density."

Tire Pros has identified four other initiatives it plans to emphasize over the next year:

Thanks to digital tools, customers can now interact with dealers when they want, where they want and how they want. Tire Pros is leaning into that evolution with its "Showroom of the Future," revamping its brick-and-mortar showrooms to include more digital offerings while making it possible for customers to get service without stepping foot into a store.

The new offerings include:

• Digital kiosks. While customers have dropped off their keys for years, the locker-like kiosks allow them to also pick them up safely and securely by scanning a QR code on their smartphones.

• Digital tire wall. Tire Pros is "taking the physical product into the digital world," Mr. Bell said, with digital tire walls that include QR codes that customers can scan to get content downloaded to their phones.

• Work stations/work pods. Tire Pros wants to offer a more private, enclosed space for customers in the waiting room who want to work on laptops and tablets (or even just read a book).

• Service menu board. This board lists the services offered at each store, along with the price.

• Vehicle workflow status board. This lists the vehicle being serviced, the technician working on the vehicle and where the vehicle is in the process (inspection, repair, ready for pickup, etc.).

At the center of this evolution is Tire Pros' online customer portal, which customers can create themselves or in the shop. The portal allows customers to see everything about their vehicle from current repair updates (along with photos) to past invoices, recalls, services due and an overall health report.

"One of the things we're really focused on is digitally connecting with the consumer and being able to have a social relationship with them beyond brick and mortar," Brent Nix, director, franchise operations for Tire Pros, said.

"We really feel like this positions us in the industry head and shoulder above where our competitors are today in the customer experience."

ATD has developed a microlearning platform called Spark, which trains managers, counter staff and shop personnel through five- to seven-minute educational videos each day.

The videos — which are updated continually and can be viewed on a computer, tablet or phone — include quizzes that track knowledge and retention.

"We don't bombard you with a fire hose of information," John Hastings, director, learning business partner for ATD, said. "Over the course of the year, you get two full weeks of training just by doing this. And it's more effective (than longer training sessions)."

The questions include rote memorization (Level 1), multiple choice (Level 2) and scenario-based questions (Level 3), Mr. Hastings said. The questions circle back to previous training, ensuring employees retain the information even if they aced the initial quiz.

"It's tailor-made for our industry because you don't have to build a day around training," Mr. Hastings said. "Everyone is short-staffed. You don't have to leave the counter, techs don't have to leave the shop and no one has to stay after work for an hour."

Employees who follow the training have better compliance numbers and sell more products they're trained on, Mr. Hastings said.

"We're not trying to create training for the sake of education," he said. "We do it to close performance gaps and knowledge gaps. If we're not helping shops sell more tires, have better customer retention and enhance the image of their store, then the training's not effective enough."

Tire Pros will sponsor JR Motorsports driver Josh Berry for nine races in the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series, continuing a partnership that began earlier this year.

"As a race car driver, partnerships like this are extremely important," Mr. Berry said. "One thing that's key for them is growing their social media presence and we can definitely help a lot with that. And, obviously, you want to get customers buying tires. That's the goal."

JR Motorsports is co-owned by former NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has 2.4 million followers on Twitter and nearly 900,000 on Instagram. By contrast, Tire Pros has about 2,000 followers on Twitter and 400 on Instagram.

"We have been able to connect with customers in new and meaningful ways," Mr. Bell said.

The new Partner Perks program allows Tire Pros dealers to buy goods and services at a discounted rate through bulk deals with companies such as Staples Inc., Dell Inc. and Waste Management Inc. Dealers can buy things like office supplies, computers, trash pickup, cleaning services, rental cars and even health insurance through an Amazon-like portal.

"The feedback I've gotten from our dealers is, 'We don't know how to drive our costs down,'" ATD Senior Director Michael Koontz said. "They can do a lot for revenue, but they don't know how to manage costs.

"We negotiate a price for everything."

Tire Pros dealers can save 3% on their operating costs with Partner Perks, Mr. Koontz said.

"We provide them the same benefits as a larger corporation," he said.