Rural Strikeforce Tire hits big with large inventory

KEYSVILLE, Va. — Strikeforce Tire L.L.C. is a successful, single-location dealership that defies current trends in the retail tire industry: the business is in a rural community, offers only tires and mounting services, and maintains a large inventory.

When Jeff Cohen moved to rural Virginia and opened up a tire shop in a town of 700 in 2016, he thought it was a bad business move with such a small customer base.

"We opened up, and we took off like wildfire. It was amazing. We get people who drive two hours to buy tires from us," he said.

Business has been "incredible," he said. "Last year we did $3.6 million. Remember that's tires. … We're the only ones busy right now."

He said it is common to sell more than 2,500 tires a month at the shop located about 70 miles west of Richmond.

"Word of mouth is supreme here. Just word got out, and it's amazing."

Cohen relies on his decades of experience in the tire business, having previously operated Regal Tire, a retail tire business in Doylestown, Pa., from 1978-82 and then opening Network Tire Inc., a wholesaler to small dealers, which he operated from 1982-2014.

In 2010 that company spawned SimpleTire.com, co-founded by his nephew Andy Chalofsky, which has become a national online tire retailer.

In 1985, Cohen and a partner started Traction Wholesale Center, another wholesaler to small dealers that offered one-hour delivery. He sold that company in 2014 and moved to Virginia two years later from Philadelphia and founded Strikeforce Tire.

The retail shop features one large drive-through bay with a tire mounting machine and spin-balancer. Two to four techs mount, rotate and balance new tires and provide flat repairs. A typical mounting of a set of new tires takes about 15-20 minutes, Cohen said.

"In one hour we could easily sell 12 tires and install them."

In addition to the 14-foot-high bay, the shop has a smaller bay to do tire rotations or flat repair, but is seldom used, he said. He maintains a staff of 10.

He acknowledged that operating with essentially one bay would normally hamper production, "but if you're efficient, if three people are in the showroom, all getting four tires, nobody is going to be there more than an hour," he said.

"A lot of times you would pull up, and it looks like we're not even busy. And we might have put on 24 tires already at 11 o'clock because my people are so quick."

The business also has three warehouses to store the truckloads of tires he orders: one is part of the 12,000-sq.-ft. retail location; one 12,000-sq.-ft. warehouse is located two miles down the road; and another 50,000-sq.-ft. storage building is 30 miles away.

"No one is used to going to a tire shop, getting four tires in less than half an hour and leaving. Nobody," Cohen said.

"In our area, nobody stocks tires. So they talk about the tires. They point to pictures. They order them online. Come back two days later, wait an hour while they're finishing up a brake job. And then two hours later they're finally driving off with their tires. That's what normally happens.

"We've changed that. You walk in, we have your tires in stock. We put them on, and in half an hour you're leaving. You didn't have to come and order them. You didn't have to go through all the things that our competition goes through."

He said he'll orders tires at discounted prices by the truckload so the brands he carries can vary.

"But everything I buy in stock is below market. I don't buy it just to have it. I buy it because it's a deal. We're buying truckloads of tires, putting them in stock and then marking them up. Our mark-ups are probably less than most people's.

"I really look at it from a customer's point of view. ... How can we make it efficient, nice and they save money? That's really what our focus is," Cohen said.

He said low prices attract customers, and they are usually not looking for a particular tire brand.

"They're just looking for a good tire at a good price," he said.

After moving to Virginia to be closer to his grandchildren, Cohen said he decided to open a tire shop in the rural community.

"I wanted to help the community because I saw nobody stocks tires anymore. My background was a lot of wholesale for many years, so I thought what would it be like if somebody did a retail business that actually had tires in stock. As soon as people found out that we had them, we just took off like wildfire.

"Because I was a northerner moving south, moving into Rebel territory, I realized I had to do something special. So I decided for every tire we sell, we'll give $2 to the local volunteer fire, volunteer rescue, the sheriff's department, the high school. So we donated roughly $50,000 back to the community last year. …

"So people knew that if they bought four tires here, we're going to donate ($8) to the community. I thought that would ease the pain to buy your tires from a Yankee in Rebel territory," he said.

In addition to running daily commercials on four radio stations, the dealership designed car decals, t-shirts and hats emblazoned with the Strikeforce logo and its motto: "Helping the community one tire at a time."

The swag is given free to any customer who buys two or more tires, which provides more advertising for the dealership.

"We spent about $30,000 a year on hats and t-shirts, but if you go anywhere, I mean if you stand in line at Walmart, you're going to be behind someone wearing my hat or in front of you wearing my t-shirt. … We have over six years of giving them out for free," he said.

He claimed that he can drive 50 miles from the store and spot his decal on customers' vehicles.

Cohen, 68, admitted in the past he was always pursuing ways to turn a profit, but his focus changed when he opened Strikeforce Tire.

"Our whole modus operandi is to make the customer happy. ...

"If you do the right thing, it all comes back to you. And it comes back to you tenfold. If you just treat people right. If you treat your customers right, they respond.

"The fact that we do no automotive service, people can bring their car here for tires and know we're not going to try to get a brake job or another job off of their car."

Employees will alert a customer if they need an automotive service, such as replacing worn brakes.

"That caring transforms over to customers putting a lot of trust in us," he said.

"When you walk into Strikeforce Tire, right away you're greeted by my people. … We make it that they have such a good experience here, they tell us before they leave, 'I'm going to tell my friends. I'm going to tell my family. This place is awesome.' …

"If our customers have a problem, we ask them, 'What will make you happy?' And whatever they say, we do. We take care of them."

He created a showroom to look more like a family room than a typical tire shop, he said. Instead of tire displays or banners, there is a big-screen TV, couches and a play area for the children.

"People come, and we get done with their car in half an hour, and they want to stay. Who wants to stay in a tire shop? They do," he said, relating how he has had customers who stayed longer to finish watching a TV show or children who didn't want to stop playing with the toys.

The staff also will offer water, sodas and snacks to people who are waiting.

"We just want to make sure everyone is comfortable. And that turns into profit," he said.

Cohen said he is in the give-back mode of his life: "I'm not doing it for the money; I'm doing it to teach people and give back. I'm in the give-back mode of my life. I've been blessed."

He admitted he doesn't always have the answers, so he makes a point of inviting his employees to share ideas to improve business. He lets the employees decide if an idea is worthy of implementation, and he also runs the idea past his top customers.

"And if they both agree it's a good solution, I go with it, and it works 100% of the time. It never doesn't work," he said.

This procedure also works to improve the shop's culture and employee morale.

"They all have buy-in because it's their idea, not the boss' idea. ...

"So if you listen to the people that work for you, they have all the answers. So I would say business is an open-book test, and if you ask your customers what they think of an idea, ask your employees if they think it's a good idea and they both say yes, it is a good idea. Do it.

"So I don't need to go into any meeting having all the answers. I go in and I ask questions and they give me the answers and, guess what, their answers are dead on."

Cohen said he makes a point of hiring employees from outside the tire business. He finds people where they are currently working so he can observe the potential hire in action, attending to customers and displaying a good attitude and personality.

"We can teach tires but we can't teach you being a caring, good-attitude person. That's something you have to have before you come work here.

"We look for people in the workplace. ... I'd rather teach people that have never been in the tire business, don't know anything about tires. I train them, I give them a career and everybody's happy," he said.

He is proud of the company culture and how his employees focus on customer service.

He related how sometimes when the shop gets busy around lunchtime, the techs in the bay will delay their lunch breaks to make sure all the customers are serviced.

"That's just the culture. The employees are willing to go above and beyond because they know that the focus is on the customer, not them. It works really good."

Cohen plans to sell the business eventually to his store manager, who has been running the shop while Cohen focuses on overseeing operations and buying tires.

He offered his advice to other small tire dealerships seeking to improve profits.

"It's good to stock tires. Even if you stock the A-movers that your customers use, it's good to stock tires. And if you work and compare pricing and things like that, you can actually make a profit on stocking tires," he said.

Since tire prices fluctuate, he said he has bought tires below current market value and was able to mark up the retail price but still stay below the current selling price.

"If you make good tire buys, you can make a profit on the tires sitting there. There's deals we buy that could save people a lot of money and they do. We do a fair markup, and then we're buying them so good that a lot of times we can sell them and put them on for the price our competitors pay for four tires to be delivered today.

"So instead of the profit going to the wholesaler, it goes to us because we stock the tires," he said, noting that he stocks nearly a year's worth of tires.

"Tires I'm replacing just now I own them way, way cheaper than the prices today. We use that to our advantage. We bought extra and had the tires on hand and didn't have to pay these crazy prices when they skyrocketed."

He also urged small dealers not to worry about slow economic conditions impacting market share.

"Most retail places have 2% to 5% of market share. It doesn't matter if the economy goes down 20%, which would be horrendous, you still only have 2% to 5%. You just have to go out and get your competition's customers. So you should never have a down year because you should always be going after your competition because you only have 2% to 5% (share)," he said.

"It doesn't matter what the picture is in the overall marketplace, people still have to buy tires. So we never have an excuse that our business is slowing down because of the economy. That's crazy. Just go get other people's customers."