The story of K&M Tire’s growth is still the story. It spent the majority of its 43 years flying under the radar, slowly building from a small two-bay retail store founded in Ottoville, Ohio, to become one of the nation’s largest regional tire wholesalers.

K&M Tire has come a long way even over the last three years since it bought the Triton Tire & Battery division of Universal Cooperatives in 2010, growing its distribution business while gaining a retail dealer marketing program in the process. Its Mr. Tire program grew from some 190 dealer locations at the time of its 2011 dealer meeting to 278 stores in 2012 to more than 360 today.

That success curve led K&M Tire to launch its own home-grown Big 3 Tire marketing program for dealers in Indiana, Ohio and Georgia – states where it cannot expand Mr. Tire into due to a naming right deal with Monro Muffler Brake. Since it launched last year, Big 3 already has grown to 40 dealer locations.

As of the dealer meeting, K&M Tire had 15 warehouses servicing dealers in 20 states from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border, from Montana east to Ohio.

(Since the meeting – in early February – K&M Tire sold its Macon, Ga., warehouse to Blackwood, N.J.-based Reliable Tire. In September 2012, K&M Tire bought two of Reliable Tire’s warehouses in Texas – one each in Dallas and Houston.)

Those distribution points, K&M Tire officials said, reach some 9,000 active dealer customers, including its Mr. Tire and Big 3 Tire dealers.

In 2012, the Delphos, Ohio-headquartered K&M Tire added two warehouses in Texas, opened a new distribution center in Kansas City, Mo., began expansion of its Barnesville, Minn., warehouse and its home Delphos warehouse, and acquired Don’s Tire in Wisconsin and Michigan Tire & Wheel in Crystal, Mich.

This year, K&M Tire has its sights firmly on continued expansion of both its Mr. Tire and Big 3 Tire dealer marketing programs, opening new warehouses in both Dallas and Oklahoma City, improving delivery and service to all customers, and seeking other “growth opportunities.”

K&M Tire also has come a long way from its first formal K&M Tire Dealer Trade Show, where about 100 dealers gathered at a casino/hotel in frosty cold Red Wing, Minn., in January 2011, to this year’s Jan. 17-18 event in much warmer Orlando, where an estimated 250 dealers gathered at the Rosen Centre Hotel.

Carrying the theme “Roll With the Best,” the 2013 edition kept attendees engaged for two full days. The trade show portion was expanded with a broader array of vendors covering everything from service parts to insurance to Internet marketing to tires.

The overall event was expanded to include a series of breakout meetings with tiremakers like Goodyear, Bridgestone Americas, Carlisle, Mitas, Hankook, Cooper, Continental, Pirelli and Yokohama, as well as an engaging series of educational sessions on web development and Internet marketing; social, local and mobile marketing; tire sales strategies; building business with women customers; and phone sales.

Outside guest speaker Dr. Alan Zimmerman presented a four-part seminar on customer and employee relationships and leadership. A motivational speaker, Zimmerman discussed ways for dealers to better understand and improve customer service, create greater teamwork among employees, and get the best out of everyone.

The event-closing banquet included a vast series of door prizes proffered by K&M Tire suppliers, and a rocking performance by a Blues Brothers tribute band.

K&M Tire surely wants to continue to grow, but officials said they also are taking care to not outgrow those things that are important to the company’s most familiar customers. While they claim to not have “true nationwide ambitions,” as was stated during the 2012 dealer meeting, it’s obvious that K&M wants to shore up its territory coverage to ensure dealers get the best possible service and have a reliable partner.

At the same time, the K&M family wants to maintain the family-owned and relationship-oriented reputation that helped it grow.