VIP Tires & Service eyes steady growth

ROCKPORT, Maine — The last eight months have marked some of the most aggressive expansion ever in the 95-year history of VIP Tires & Service Inc.

The Auburn, Maine-based dealership has opened five locations (two in Vermont, two in Massachusetts and one in New Hampshire) during that time span, bringing to 65 the number of locations it operates.

According to Tire Business calculations, VIP ranks as the fourth largest independent dealership in New England and the 20th largest in the U.S., with 35 locations in Maine, 20 locations in Massachusetts, six in New Hampshire and four in Vermont.

Another shop is slated to open in late 2022 in Bennington, Vt.

• This story appears in the Oct. 25 print edition of Tire Business.

In this age of breakneck mergers and acquisitions, however, the family-owned dealership doesn't have any aggressive expansion goals in mind — other than opening one or two locations a year and growing the business of each existing shop.

"Being privately held, we are in no rush," VIP Executive Chairman John Quirk told Tire Business during a break at the dealership's Turn on the Ignition Manager's Conference. The four-day event was held in early September at the Samoset Resort in Rockport.

"We're looking at the long haul and being frugal as far as rents are concerned."

CEO and President Tim Winkeler said the dealership doesn't set a goal to open a certain number of stores per year or reach 100 stores. Instead, he said, they want to grow responsibly.

"John wants to be the best, but John has never said he wants to be the biggest," Mr. Winkeler said.

"There's a big difference We want VIP to represent the best way to run the business, which we think is focusing on our people and making it the best place to work, and then making it the best place for customers to come and have their service done.

"It's a simple approach. That's our No. 1 focus, being the best and getting better and better in our processes."

Since promoting Mr. Winkeler to run VIP's day-to-day operations in 2019, Mr. Quirk has focused on long-term projects, such as identifying suitable existing locations, with favorable lease terms, across New England.

Mr. Winkeler said the eventual goal is to expand the VIP footprint to smaller communities in New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts. Once the Bennington location opens in southwest Vermont, it opens the possibility of expanding into upstate New York.

One thing we won't see is VIP expanding in a large metro area.

"Other companies know how to (operate successful stores in urban areas)," Mr. Winkeler said. "Maine is mostly fairly small towns. We look for markets that look similar to the towns we operate well in. Luckily enough there's still lots and lots out there."

VIP invests more of its resources into bolstering its existing locations to make them more profitable.

"The building itself has very little to do with success," Mr. Winkeler said. "It has to do with people running the business. We'll open stores faster if we can bring the right people into the organization, and ... we have a good formula how we take a store from new to turning a profit."

Here's a good example. Five years ago, VIP's location in Wyndham, Maine, had sales of $1.3 million. The dealership said it put together a great team there, and the store suddenly was pushing $2 million in sales.

The company then added an adjoining building, a former Tim Horton's coffee shop. Ten bays were added, and now Mr. Winkeler said the store will approach $3 million in business.

"There's tremendous growth potential in most locations," he said. "We don't want to focus on growth but rather helping every team get better at what they do."

Company culture

A huge part of the VIP success, according to the Messrs Quirk and Winkeler, is the company's culture, which has two key components: customer engagement and employee engagement.

"We tell our guys all the time we're in the relationship business, and people buy services from competent people who they trust," Mr. Quirk said.

"What are the tools that you need? My job as the owner of the company is to give you all the tools you need to be successful."

A huge part of the customer engagement is establishing a strong relationship with that customer — not only by the folks running the store or behind the counter, but also by the technician who performs the service.

Customers are introduced to the technicians who work on their vehicles. VIP techs carry business cards to pass out to those customers.

"The majority (of customers) have never been to the shop," Mr. Quirk said. "They're like, "Wow.'"

Mr. Quirk said some clients view workers behind the counter as they do salesmen at an auto dealership, "probably being paid on commission."

Meeting a technician, he said, helps to establish trust with the client.

"Competitors say, 'Are you crazy, giving them business cards?' You're going to lose them,'" Mr. Quirk said.

"If they're not happy, I'm going to lose them anyway."

The survey says

The other integral part of VIP's success is the annual employee survey.

Each spring for the last eight years, each of the 500-plus VIP employees are asked to fill out a 30-question survey, basically asking employees what the dealership is doing right, and most importantly, what it can be doing better.

The answers are compiled anonymously, and each employee is provided a copy of those results.

"Talk about looking into a mirror," Mr. Quirk said. "The first year we did it, there was some pretty tough stuff to stomach in it, but it was the best thing we did. If we're going be honest, we have to be truthful with each other and look at what are the best opportunities to improve the company and how do we best support the changes that have to happen in those areas."

The company's leadership team reviews the suggestions and invariably implements suggestions that make sense not only for the employee, but also for the business.

The signature change that has resulted from the survey is this: VIP pays for every ASE certification test that each of its technicians take, pass or fail. There is no limit.

Mr. Quirk said that while the budget for this tripled, the number of ASE certifications "exploded." So VIP developed a compensation criteria based around accreditations, rather than manager-driven raises.

Today, Mr. Quick said VIP employs 11 world class technicians and 56 master technicians, with as many as 10 in queue ready to earn it. The goal is to have a master tech on duty every hour that a VIP store is open.

"We're not there yet, but we have several stores with three or four master techs," Mr. Quirk said. "Their (sales) growth is double and triple the other stores."

Other employee-generated ideas that have been implemented include:

• The development of an in-house equipment repair team. Employees told the company that stores suffered down-time needlessly, waiting for contractors to show up and fix equipment. Today, VIP has a two-man team that handles most repairs. "If a machine goes down on a Friday night, the team is there Saturday morning," Mr. Winkeler said.
• Added an extra week of vacation at nearly every level, in terms of tenure.
• Increased 401K matches.
• Added sick time as an additional benefit.

During the September meeting, it was announced that VIP would cover the cost of safety shoes for employees who had wanted them.

"The fact that they have a voice and they can help us make the company better is one of those pieces that's really important in our culture because we're not a company where (management) will sit in a room and make all the decision as to what makes the company better," Mr. Winkeler said.

"My job is to create a culture where people are engaged, they care, they want to speak up, they're not afraid to speak, and we show them with our actions that we are listening and taking action."

Mr. Winkeler said management also addresses why no action is taken on other suggestions.

"We owe them an explanation as to why we do what we do. Or if we don't have one, we owe them that we should change it and make it better. So we do one or the other. That's a great part of our culture."

Focus on employees

Managers routinely attend two off-site conferences each year. The signature event is held in the fall, at the end of the fiscal year, and as part of the program, store managers are lauded for their achievements over the past year, be it for sales growth, employee retention, safety, etc.

During the most recent conference, VIP presented its Presidential Award, the top award given, to Colleen Chassie, in her third year as the dealership's digital marketing manager.

Ms. Chassie manages all digital media — and that includes addressing all negative online reviews.

"She represents the brand in the space as well as the managers represent the brand in the customer space," Mr. Winkeler said, noting that the social media landscape remains one of the dealership's top challenges.

That attention to social media reviews represents VIP's approach to business, Mr. Winkeler said.

"VIP is filled with people who enjoy serving others," he said. "If you approach that in business, not to mention in life, when you enjoy serving others, that defines leadership.

"It's a form of humility: I want to help you. That is our culture — filling the company up with people who are humble and who help each other."