AKRON — The "typical" larger-scale, multi-store independent retail tire dealership in North America operates 22 stores, generates slightly over $3 million in revenue per outlet and carries a dozen tire brands.
That's the picture gleaned from Tire Business' look at the North American tire retailing sector, based on surveys submitted by many of the leading players in the U.S. and Canada.
The dealership size of 22 stores is the median of the 100 dealerships profiled in this year's report. That's a slight bump from 21 a year ago.
The average size of a Top 100 dealership stands at 90 stores, versus 88 a year ago, reflecting the top-heavy nature of the Top 100 dealership rankings, with four companies controlling over 900 stores each, including two — Monro Inc. and Reinalt-Thomas Corp. (Discount Tire/America's Tire) — with 1,000-plus locations.
The cutoff to make the Top 100 this year was 11 stores, the same as in 2020.
In addition, Tire Business research reveals there are 57 more dealerships just outside the top 100 collectively operating more than 550 stores — 10 with 10 stores, 11 with nine stores, 28 with eight and 19 with seven.
The average sales revenue of a store — based on data from 40 companies that supplied sales information — was just north of $3 million, up slightly from $2.9 reported in 2019, while the median store sales of the companies that reported revenue was $1.8 million, down roughly 5% from a year ago, reflecting perhaps the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The typical large dealership derives 55% of its sales from tires and related services, 41% from automotive services and 4% from other, miscellaneous sources, according to information derived from the dealerships that shared that information with Tire Business or that was publicly available.
The split skewed noticeably toward tires versus the prior year.
The share of a dealership's sales represented by automotive service ranges from zero, at Discount Tire, to 80% at Virginia Tire & Auto.
The typical Top 100 tire dealership offers a dozen brands — six to seven flag, four to five import and one to two private — with Michelin, BFGoodrich, Bridgestone and Firestone the dominant brands, carried by 71, 70, 67 and 65, respectively, of the leading dealerships that make up this year's ranking.
Other leading brands carried by the largest dealerships include: Continental (offered by 60 dealerships); Goodyear (57); General (53); Cooper (52); Dunlop (47); Pirelli (46); Uniroyal (44); Yokohama (42); Kelly (41); Toyo (40); Hankook (38); Kumho (35) and Falken (34).
All but three of the 101 dealerships profiled this year are privately owned, including Ben Tire Distributors Ltd., Commercial Tire and Max Auto Supply Inc., which are employee-owned.
The firms publicly owned or controlled by outside financial holdings — Monro Inc., Icahn Automotive and TBC Corp. — are Nos. 1, 3 and 6 on the largest dealerships ranking.
In addition, Mavis Tire Supply, Les Schwab Tire and Sun Auto Tire & Auto, Nos. 3, 6 and 8 on this year's Tire Business Top 100, are controlled by private equity groups — Mavis by a consortium comprising BayPine L.P., TSG Consumer Partners LP (TSG) and West First Management (WFM); Les Schwab by Meritage Group; and Sun Auto by Leonard Green & Partners.
WFM, it should be noted, is a holding company controlled by David and Stephen Sorbaro, the co-CEOs of Millwood, N.Y.-based Mavis.
In Canada, Goodyear owns minority stakes in Fountain Tire, Coast Tire & Auto Service Ltd. and Beverly Tire (Nos. 9, 63 and 64 on this year's list, respectively).
Three dealerships, Virginia Tire & Auto (18 stores) of McLean, Va.; Chabill's Tire & Service L.L.C. of Morgan City, La. (17 stores) and Pneus Ratté of Quebec City, Quebec (12 stores), have female top executives — Julie Holmes is co-CEO of Virginia Tire & Auto alongside her husband Michael Holmes; Beth Barron is CEO of Chabill's; and Charlayne Ratté is co-owner of Pneus Ratté, a Point S-affiliated dealership.
Looking at the market geographically, Bridgestone Americas' retail network — Firestone Complete Car Care, Tires Plus and Wheel Works — is the most prevalent, with a presence in all 10 of the regional areas profiled by Tire Business, including being the largest in five regions: Southeast, Upper Midwest, Southeast Central, Southwest Central and Northwest Central.
Monro Inc., the No. 1 dealership overall, is present in eight regions, including being No. 1 in New England and the South Atlantic.
Discount Tire/America's Tire, No. 2 nationally with 1,113 outlets, has a presence in seven of the 10 regions, however it is not No. 1 in any one of them.
TBC Retail shows up in four of the 10 regions with its National Tire & Battery and Tire Kingdom brands, and also is No. 1 in the Mountain region via its Big O Tires franchise network.
American Tire Distributors Inc.'s Tires Pros network has only one dealer among the Top 100, but collectively Tire Pros dealers are among the largest dealer groups in seven of the 10 regions.
