Focus on dealers
Big O Tires grows sales and adds stores By Ann Neal
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online. It would be tough as an independent dealer to do this on your own. Digital marketing is one of the great benefits of being with Big O Tires.” The event included presentation of Standing “O” awards to franchisees and
ig O Tires LLC franchisees celebrated growth in all business metrics and recognized the first store to surpass $7 million in sales at their annual convention April 4-5, 2017, in San Diego, Calif. The TBC Corp. subsidiary says same-store total retail, service Big O Tires unveiled the Big Foot X/T, a premium on-, offand tire unit sales as well as car count grew year-over-year road commercial traction tire in 2016. Franchisees also had significant total sales growth, with a durable 2-ply carcass according to Kim McBee, design that resists cutting vice president of marketing and chipping. The zigzag and advertising. Sales were center groove design allows the X/T to dig through soft led by the Big O Tires store surfaces and provides a comin Dublin, Calif., which fortable highway ride. became the first member of the “$7 Million Dollar Club” in 2016. The Dublin store is one of six Big O Tires stores in Northern California owned by Bruce Cherry. “Hitting a sales level we’ve never reached before was so exciting for us,” says McBee. “The Dublin store has always been a top performer. This Jared Edwards won a prize for owning the only store (in year, they focused on service Sandy, Utah) to reach $6 million in annual sales. Pictured sales, alignment sales and (from left) are Rick O’Neil, district vice president west; Jim A Big O Tires store in Ohio fleet sales. They say at the Bull, district vice president east; Jared Edwards; and John opened in January 2017 in Hamilton, near Cincinnati. end of the day it’s just doing Kairys, executive vice president and general manager. the Big O Tires process and holding their team accountable.” corporate associates for going “above and beyond.” This year’s recipients are Matthew Two new states Greco, co-owner of 23 stores in California and Colorado; Mitch Big O Tires added 19 stores in 2016 and began 2017 by Beranek, co-owner of 10 stores across Colorado and New opening locations in Ohio and Tennessee. The newest stores, Mexico; Rodger Anderson, real estate development manager which expand the Big O Tires footprint to 21 states, are owned at TBC Corp.; Darrell Jackson, field training manager at TBC by new franchisees. Nick Benge, president of Big OKI LLC, Corp.; and Ferdie Brown, franchise business consultant for opened a store in Hamilton, Ohio, in January 2017. Also in Big O Tires’ East Division. January, Benge opened two stores in Kentucky, in the cities The Point of Light award went to Tony Williams for conof Georgetown and Lexington. tributing his knowledge, expertise, and dedication. Williams In Tennessee, the Tun Tavern Group opened stores in is a member of the Franchise Advisory Council and a leader Knoxville and Farragut in March and in Murfreesboro in April. in his local dealer group. With his partners, he owns seven The franchise group is owned by Tom Coke, Joe Eltringham stores in the Phoenix, Ariz., market. and Derrick Martin. Jerry Tidwell, store owner in Phoenix, Ariz.; Jeff Schwab, multi-store store owner in Iowa and Nebraska; and Bruce Focus on digital marketing Cherry received Franchisee of the Year awards. Big O Tires is investing in digital marketing with a focus on Kevin Kormondy was inducted into the hall of fame. He keyword search, according to McBee. “We’re shifting dollars joined Big O Tires in 1981 and retired in 2016 as executive to where shoppers are.” She says it’s an art and a science to vice president and chief operating officer. ensure Big O Tires shows up in website searches. Big O Tires has 398 franchisee-owned and two company“It’s a focus for us to make sure we’re aware of where the owned stores primarily located in the western and midwestern tire shopper is. Those are the people raising their hands and United States. It also distributes tires and other automotive saying, ‘I’m in market.’ We want to be there when they search service products to associate dealers in western Canada. ■
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MTD May 2017
