Officials at Treadsy said that with more than 25 years of experience in tire e-commerce, they are "seeing brick-and-mortar stores and online merging together quickly and online moving away from ship-to-home services, especially as shipment costs have quadrupled."
According to Treadsy, partner companies and customers are seeking "valuable innovative services that work for them, such as state-of-the-art scheduling tools and network capabilities, and this drives us to create an innovative and continuously expanding suite of tools for the tire market."
ATD said the change marks another step in the evolution of the business as a technology solution. The e-commerce platform encompasses what ATD calls the U.S.' largest tire installation network, which now numbers 18,000-plus locations, including service with mobile vans.
Welch called it "an exciting moment for the business," noting that his team" has been working tirelessly to evolve Treadsy into an industry-leading technology solution. Treadsy will bring benefits for our supply and retail partners as they look for differentiation to compete in the highly competitive automotive aftermarket."
He said the partnership with Rent-A-Center will help the company "build a world-class tire category for their customers, supported by the best brand partnerships and installation capabilities in the country."
Officials said Treadsy was originally developed on the basis of the Avayler scheduling tool for mobile van installations (ATD still owns the North American license).
At the time, the company said it was the first to integrate mobile installation into its network. Since then, Treadsy has evolved into a suite of tools that encompasses mobile alongside other tools, services and market points for tire brands and partners.
Treadsy operates around 200 mobile vans, and said it is hoping to grow this number rapidly as more partners are brought on board.
The company said this completes a shift to providing business-to-business-to-consumer solutions "that will accelerate growth for its partners."
Treadsy, ATD said, will focus primarily on bringing to market its range of online tire operational resources and technical tools for organizations in the retail tire space., while also providing tire installation and scheduling services for e-commerce and fleet customers.
Treadsy said it is talking with "many more" potential partners and are in the development phase with several of them. The company expects to announce one particular brand in the first quarter of 2024.
"We are looking for partners where there is alignment with their customer base and membership as well as a fit with their service or product offerings," Treadsy told Tire Business. "We want to create more innovative partnerships in the market, where we can be the middle-man and bring together tire brands and delivery partners and ultimately see our tools benefit their businesses and their customers."
