Jerry White represents the 26,000-member independent
tire dealer fraternity with aplomb. At 76, he finds himself in
the twilight of his business career. But that’s like saying Dolly
Parton isn’t as “inspiring” as she used to be.
He’s still a tire dealer, now part owner in White Tire
Supply Inc. in Beaumont, Texas. He’s still an ASE-certified
technician. He’s still a Tire Industry Association (TIA)
certified Commercial Tire Service instructor.
And, he says, “if time permits,” he wants to take the courses
and become a TIA Automotive Tire Service instructor. Why?“It’s still fun.”
“Fun” was the operative word when Jerry and four other
tire dealers travled to East Haddam, Conn., to visit with tire
engineers from Consumer Reports (CR) last February.
“I always wondered what criteria Consumer Reports uses
to test tires,” he said prior to the forum. “Their integrity is
never in question, but sometimes I wonder about the validity
of the tests. They’ve made some choices in the past that told
me I don’t think they tested the tires for a very long period of
time. A lot of things have a wonderful beginning, and come
a-cropper later on.”
He speaks from 55 years of homespun experience. Jerry
started working for the family business in 1942 at age 11.
The one-store, 12-bay, two story service facility is the oldest
dealership in east Texas.
“Our employees tend to stay with us a long time,” he says.“If you get good people and train them well and give them
supervision and encouragement, they’ll stay with you.”
Jerry describes his dealership’s pay scale as competitive,“but pay is not everything. The economic realities of our
business is that it doesn’t pay as much as other businesses. Butwe’re more like a family, and true families care for one another
and look out for one another.”
He brought both his business acumen and inquisitive
nature to the dealer forum. He commented on almost every
topic, from replacing speed rated tires (I’ve put on an ‘H’
where it had a ‘V’, but I won’t go down any more than that”)
to tire aging (“When they get over six years old, there is an
opportunity for mischief”) to an overly complex tire pressure
monitoring system recalibration procedure (“Somebody was
eaten up by the dumbs when they came up with that one.”).
Jerry said he understood why CR is against the purchase of
used tires. “but you are discriminating against a portion of the
public that has a heck of a time paying $2.75 for gasoline, and
all they can afford is a used tire that sells for $15.”
When lead tire test engineer Gene Petersen asked the
dealers for advice on tire topics for the magazine, Jerry was,
shall we say, forthcoming.
“When you write your next article - I love to tell people how
to run their own business - caution people to check their spare
tire,” he said. “If you have a flat tire, that’s an inconvenience,
but if you have a flat spare as well, that’s a disaster. We have
people come in with four-or five year old cars, and I will raise
the trunk and the spare still has that Detroit air in it or that
Tokyo air in it. Once a year, check it.”
Fellow forum attendee Michael Mellen, executive vice
president of Town Fair Tire Centers Inc., said he has no
problem competing with mass merchandisers like Sears or
Wal-Mart, or large dealer chains like Tire Kingdom.“But the toughest guy to compete against is the one-store
owner who takes good care of his customers, knows his
customers, does everything right. If he does everything right,
you can never hurt that guy.”
He was referring to dealers like Jerry White.“Like Mark Twain said, ‘Put all your eggs in one basket
- and watch that basket!’” said Jerry. “I would rather have
one store, and have it be the best in the area and be the most
profitable, than I would 10 stores.”
As featured in Modern Tire Dealer
He’s Still Got Game
David Milam Jr. hasn’t been a tire dealer for that long.
The 2007 winner of Tire Business’ Tire Dealer
Humanitarian Award opened his single-location retail tire
dealership, Milam Discount Tire Co., in Liberty, Texas, in
1999 after getting out of the exotic game business when the
market for ostrich meat and skins started waning.
At one time, Mr. Milam and his wife Debra owned what
was the largest ostrich ranch in Texas with 450 of the flightless
birds. They also raise animals such as zebra, elk, deer, emus
and kangaroos. Before that he was in the cellular phone
business operating his own store in Houston.
But it was the collapse of the exotic game market in the
early 1990s that prompted Mr. Milam to begin considering
another line of work. That’s when a customer of his, a tire
dealer from Odessa, Texas, suggested he look at a tire store
and invited him to visit his chain of five outlets.
Mr. Milam took him up on the offer, asking if he could tour
the dealership’s smallest location to see how it was faring.
What he had was a brand new building, a brand new
parking lot, brand new equipment and it was completely packed
with customers,” Mr. Milam said. “And they were averaging
$75,000 a month in a town half the size of Liberty.”
Mr. Milam returned home, talked to Debra, and the two
decided to become tire dealers. They purchased the necessary
land and constructed a building
Today, Milam Discount Tire Co. is a thriving nine-bay
retail outlet offering custom wheels and undercar services,
including brakes, struts, shocks, mufflers, ball joints and
alignments.
A member of the American Car Care Centers (ACCC) Inc.
and Tire Pros dealer marketing programs, Milam Discount
Tire offers Michelin, Uniroyal, and BFGoodrich tires, along
with ACCC’s American Radial and Cooper Tire & Rubber
Co.’s Mastercraft brands.
The dealership employs 13, including Mrs. Milam, who
handles the finances, and daughter Melissa Mooring, who
works in the office. The Milams also have a son, David III,
who helped start the business and is now out on his own
working as an independent contractor.
Sales at the dealership should reach $2.5 million.
Looking back on his decision to enter the tire business,
Mr. Milam said he will never forget the pitch his tire dealer
friend made.”
“He said, ‘If you build something brand new in a small
town everybody will come once. It’s up to you to get them to
come back.’ “That’s what we’ve done,” Mr. Milam said.
As featured in Tire Business
They’ve Got a Real Big Dream
The founders of Tiremax Corp. in Texas started out on a
shoestring, but that hasn’t stopped them from dreaming big.
Tiremax owners Christopher and Stephanie Wilkerson
just opened their 15th store in Texas, have five more under
construction for opening next year and are finalizing details
on a franchise concept that they envision will lead to a chain
of 100 stores or more in the coming three to four years.
The Wilkersons, who opened their first outlet in 2000
with just $10,000 capital, are seeking to differentiate Tiremax
from the competition by creating an “impressive customer
experience,” designing their stores to “rival most upscale restaurants in cleanliness, comfort and exceptional service,”
they state in prepared materials.
In short, the Christian-based firm’s strategy is to “sell
integrity, not just tires” by addressing tire buyers’ five greatest
purchase concerns: safety, speed, choice, value and expertise.
Tiremax offers name-brand tires installed in 30 minutes or less
with a 110 percent money back guarantee and free rotation,
free balancing and free repair for the life of the tire.
Because the couple doesn’t come from a tire background,
they feel it helps them to differentiate Tiremax from their
competition.
“...We did not grow up in the tire business so there were
no bad habits to break,” Mr. Wilkerson said. “We were young
when we started the company. We are now in our 30s so we
were from a different generation than most dealers.
“We wanted a modern, up-to-date tire store that would
rival most restaurants, which was unheard of when we began.
Our stores have bright yellow interiors, ceramic tile floors, Wi-Fi, complimentary cappuccino, flat-screen TVs and are
clean, clean, clean.”
The couple got into the tire business in 2000 after selling a
truck accessory/car audio company they had been running.
“We went on a search and research mission for something
we could build into a national brand that would have a
continued need for years to come,” Mr. Wilkerson said. “We
began the company in east Texas with me, Stephanie and one
other loyal employee, Kenneth Neumann, who is still with us
today, and $10,000 total. All of us pitched in, doing whatever
it took to get the job done. I busted tires. Stephanie handled
the front.”
Mr. Wilkerson describes Tiremax as a “volume-based tire/
wheel business. We do not do auto repair...We also have
capitalized on the continually evolving wheel market. We keep
many sets of wheels in stock for the impulse buyer.”
He credits Bridgestone/Firestone (BFS) for helping get
Tiremax off the ground. The Nashville, Tenn.-based tire
maker “took a chance on us,” he said.
“They’ve been instrumental in our success. We came on
with them right after the (Firestone tire) recall, when no
other manufacturers wanted to take a chance on us. I can’t say
enough about them. They have a lot of tools for dealers to
use and helped us with money to build our stores. I definitely
wouldn’t be where we are today without their help.”
Tiremax Corp. has three operating divisions, Mr.
Wilkerson said. He and Stephanie are co-owners of Tiremax
of North America L.L.C., the retail operating company,
and Tiremax Realty, a real estate development construction
company. The third entity is G&C Investments, a real estate
and construction company 50-percent owned by an outside
partner, Gerald Vess.
Mr. Wilkerson did not divulge the firm’s sales or capital
investment plans, other than to say the firm has three
stores being built in Colorado and two in Louisiana under
construction that are expected to open in the first quarter of
2008 as part of a plan to open nearly 20 stores next year.
As featured in Tire Business
