What’s Treading with Tire Review

It's hard to grow amid a pandemic, but Kenda Tire was the outlier. Its message of “premium performance at a value price” found consumers at the right time, and Kenda officials say it’s proven fruitful for the tiremaker. However, just days deep into 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce threw a wrench into the works. Kenda and its fellow Taiwanese tiremakers are now working to escape unscathed from...

As trade shows, tire launches and other events continue to go virtual into 2021, we wanted to provide a look back on one of the largest aftermarket trade shows to go online and see how it turned out. That show is the Virtual AAPEX Experience, co-owned by the Auto Care Association and MEMA, the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers’ Association. This past year, AAPEX transitioned its show offerings int...

With the start of a new year, it’s the perfect time for independent tire dealerships and businesses alike to rethink old processes, set new goals and learn more about technology and how to use it to your advantage. In this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, we talk about how you can do just that with credit card processing. Sure, it's not the sexiest topic to start off 2020, but it is im...

Sure, 2020 has been a treacherous year. There've been supply challenges, along with an unprecedented set of business decisions you’ve had to make as a tire dealer. But despite this, there are chances to turn those challenges into opportunities. In this episode, we speak with members of our 2020 Class of Club 3633, Tire Review’s group of industry innovators and influencers. This year’s members delv...

Coming off the heels of its Consumer Tire Business Meeting, Bridgestone made it clear it's creating a path to become a mobility solutions provider of the future. But just what does that mean? In this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, we speak with Paolo Ferrari, Bridgestone Americas' president and CEO, to gain insight into Bridgestone's long-term business strategy and how dealers fit in...

Private equity firms have long been in the tire industry, and a few have been making waves during the coronavirus pandemic. One of them is GB Auto Service, a company backed by Greenbriar Equity Group that has grown over 450% in just three years - and has made three acquisitions since July. In this episode of What’s Treading with Tire Review, we spoke with the company’s CEO, Frank Kneller, about it...

With SEMA360 kicking off Monday and the AAPEX Virtual Experience starting today, welcome to your first virtual industry week! In this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, we get a sneak peek from the companies demonstrating their products in the Joe's Garage section of the AAPEX Virtual Experience. More than 15 different automotive aftermarket companies are slated to conduct product demos...

COVID-19 has affected tire manufacturers in a myriad of ways, and Continental Tire the Americas is no exception. While the company has made changes to its dealer program this year, they've shown resilience with the help of industry partners and have a big 2021 ahead. On this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, we sat down with Bill Caldwell, senior vice president of sales and marketing fo...

Although AAPEX had to cancel its in-person event this year, the Virtual AAPEX Experience will feature dozens of training sessions and the opportunity for shop owners, service advisors and technicians to meet with exhibitors to learn more about products and services for their shops. In this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, we feature an episode from the Shop Owner Podcast with host Doug...

While many trade shows have been canceled or postponed due to COVID-19, the AAPEX Show isn't following suit. In fact, it's gone virtual, and is using this remote opportunity to shift its focus to you: shop owners and their staff. On this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, we get a feel for what the Virtual AAPEX Experience will be like. Vic Tarasik, founder of Shop Owner Coach who also s...

With rapid change around supply and demand during the onset of COVID-19, the need for just-in-time tire delivery was critical, especially when economies started to open up. At the forefront of predicting and acting on these supply and demand swings was American Tire Distributors. ATD has more than 140 distribution centers across the U.S. serving a network of around 9,000 dealers. Add COVID-19 into...

As the fall and winter seasons approach, your customers will be coming into your shop to gear up for the weather ahead. And some may need new tires. Luckily, you have options – maybe you fit them with an all-season depending on where you live, or perhaps their best bet is a designated winter tire. For situations sandwiched between those two, a tire in the all-weather segment could be a better bet....

How has the coronavirus pandemic affected tire dealership operations at a shop level? Each year, Tire Review conducts its Tire Dealer Survey, and in this episode, we use our 2020 survey results to answer that question. On this episode of the podcast, we talk with Bruce Kratofil, Babcox Media’s Audience Insights Manager who conducted not only our tire dealer survey but also a variety of aftermarket...

Despite COVID-19, 2020 has been a big year for several tire manufacturers, including Apollo Tyres. The Indian tiremaker launched its Vredestein brand in North America last year, and has already released two tires specifically designed for the North American market in 2020. According to company executives, there's much more to come with its "approach of entrenchment" in the U.S. market. In this epi...

Let's face it: The way tire dealers across the country run their businesses today looks a lot different from they operated just six months ago. And Tire Review's Top Shop Winners and Finalists - tire dealers awarded for being the best of the best at what they do - are no exception. In this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, we hop on a call with several of our Top Shops to hear how their...

Many tire dealers are reporting their best weeks of sales this year as states and provinces gradually reopen their economies. And that trickles through the tire supply chain, from distributors to manufacturers. On this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, we talk with Andrew Muerer, Michelin North America's vice president of sales, to get an update on how the company has handled the pandem...

Data is king. It helps you make smart business decisions and drive the growth of your business. And in this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, we delve into the numbers. We speak with experts from GfK, one of the largest market research organizations in the world that collects tire sell-out data from thousands of tire dealer POS systems across the U.S. Neil Portnoy, managing director of...

In this week's episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, we talk with Doug Kershaw, vice president of BKT USA, to check in not only on BKT’s business during the coronavirus but also get a status report on how different segments of the OTR industry are faring the pandemic. In this episode, we discuss: - BKT's coronavirus response and production ramp-up - How different segments of the OTR tire ma...

As tire manufacturers start to ramp up their production, changes have been made in factories worldwide just to keep workers safe amid the coronavirus. So what's that like? How have factories changed? In this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, we speak with Nokian Tyres, a rather new tire manufacturer on North American soil, to see what it was like to shut down its plant, which opened lat...

With businesses starting to reopen in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, social distancing, mask-wearing and a slew of other hygiene practices have become the norm just to stay safe. So, how are equipment manufactures working to service shops right now? In this episode of "What's Treading with Tire Review," we talk with Kevin Keefe, vice president of service for Hennessy Industries, manufactur...

In the last few weeks, it seems like the world has shifted into a more digital mindset due to the coronavirus. On today’s podcast, we talk with Rob Infantino, founder of Openbay, about the artificial intelligence and machine learning you can bring to your shop’s digital presence and how online chat platforms could be beneficial for your business. Openbay is an online marketplace that connects cons...

In this week's episode of What’s Treading with Tire Review, we talk to Todd Ford, owner of Custom Upfits, a company based in Sacramento, California that specializes in building mobile repair units for the tire, wheel and auto body industries. In the tire industry, mobile tire service and install units - whether they're vans or trucks - have risen in popularity. Increasingly, tire dealerships are a...

In this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, we catch up with Ryan Slobodian, executive vice president of Snap Finance, who details how the coronavirus pandemic is shaping the consumer finance industry. In the last four weeks, more than 17 million Americans have filed for unemployment, which means for tire dealers and retailers across the country, many people don’t have the money for unpla...

With the passage of the CARES Act - aka the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act - small businesses, including tire dealers and auto repair shops, are entitled to a myriad of different forms of relief and funding. But do you know exactly what your business is eligible for? In this episode of What's Treading with Tire Review, we delve into what tire businesses need to know about the C...

In this episode of What’s Treading with Tire Review, we’re talking about what’s been on everyone’s minds for the past couple of weeks: the coronavirus. We delve into how the spread of this disease is impacting the tire industry and what we can expect in the future. We spoke with Steven Rathbone, managing director at international investment banking firm Stout, and his colleague and tire industry v...