Big Jim’s Eastside Tire
Big Jim’s acts small and sells big ‘Do something for one customer and they tell their neighbors’ By Joy Kopcha
F
armers have been the backbone of Big Jim’s Eastside Tire Inc. ever since the tire business was founded in May 1990. It’s grown into a two-store operation in eastern North Dakota in a region known as the Red River Valley. The valley’s fertile farmland is home to corn, wheat, sunflower and sugar beet crops. Jim Hiebert has been known as “Big Jim” for as long as he can remember, and he’s worked with these farmers ever since he moved to Grand Forks, N.D., in 1979. He spent 11 years working in local tire stores before responding to his customers’ requests to open his own store. “I started Big Jim’s with $11,000, and $5,000 of it was borrowed,” he says with a laugh. The business’ reach and customer base is expansive, serving farmers in a 100-mile radius from stores in Grand Forks and Minto. Combined, the two tires-only locations generate $5 million in sales. In Grand Forks, there are four bays, but some work has to be done outdoors due to the size of the equipment. That means even on an early December day, with snow on the ground, temperatures in the teens and winds whipping at 35 mph, tire technicians are changing truck tires outside.
A growing business It used to be that Big Jim’s passenger and light truck tire business was limited to the pickups of farmers who brought the rest of their equipment to the store. But there’s been a shift. In 2017 the owner of American Tire Service Inc. in Grand Forks decided to retire, and he sold his two-store operation to another North Dakota-based tire dealer, Northwest Tire Inc. In September Northwest closed the American Tire store down the street from Big Jim’s. Big Jim’s may have been “built on ag,” but Dick Hiebert says the PLT business has really been booming since that nearby American Tire store closed. Dick Hiebert is Big Jim’s younger brother, and he manages the business. “I used to call it filler, or a back up to our commercial business, because as the seasons would change, then the PLT would kick in. But in the past year our PLT has tripled,” he says. But the closure of American Tire did more than boost Big Jim’s consumer business. It also opened up access to a key farm tire brand. Big Jim’s has become a certified dealer with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. “We had tried to get it a couple years prior, but it would have been us and American and Interstate Power Systems, and that’s too many in too close of a radius,” Dick Hiebert says. “So when American closed, that put us in position. “For a lot of John Deere tractors and Case IH, the OE tire is Goodyear. Firestone’s getting in, and Michelin’s getting in, but Goodyear has a tire for everything out there.”
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Tyson Lafferty props up a tire against a Caterpillar road grader. Big Jim’s replaced all six tires on the piece of equipment while the customer, a local farmer, waited.
The best marketing? Taking care of customers Big Jim’s prides itself on its hometown roots. “We’re locally owned, small and not corporate,” says Dick Hiebert. He and Jeramy Lafferty are the primary salesmen, but they’re just as likely to unload a pickup truck of tires from the warehouse or pull vehicles in and out of the bays as any of the tire technicians. Jamie Jacobson is the shop manager, but he’s also learning sales so he can fill in up front. Big Jim’s isn’t the kind of tire store that has massage chairs and a cappuccino machine in the lobby, but the waiting area
Jeramy Lafferty, right, and Dick Hiebert are the two primary salesmen at the Big Jim’s location in Grand Forks.
MTD February 2018
