And it was time for a little “back to basics,” as the TBC Retail Group outlined during its recent national conference just how it plans to move forward.

The three-day meeting in Orlando brought together some 1,600 Big O franchisees and Tire Kingdom, NTB and Merchant’s store managers for the very first time. In the past, the franchisees held their own annual get-together while the TBC-owned Tire Kingdom, NTB and Merchant’s stores met separately.

And while the meeting brought together 1,220 retail tire and service stores covering 40 states, the boisterous, excited crowd made it seem more like a major political convention. Streamers, confetti, huge banners and miscellaneous noisemakers dominated the conference’s first general session, adding to the festive, optimistic mood.

Themed “Flight Plan,” the group sessions and smaller educational seminars stayed focused on what the retail group deemed as integral to future growth – the basics of tire and service sales and customer care.

The meeting also featured a large trade fair featuring more than 100 exhibiting suppliers.

Serving as master of ceremonies was Bob Crostarosa, senior vice president of marketing for the retail division, who outlined the direction of the meeting and the expected result. In the face of a troubled economy and fierce competition, he said, “When you leave here you will leave here ready to do battle.”

Larry Day, TBC Corp. president and CEO, was the first major presenter during the opening session, presenting a broad overview of TBC Corp. and parent company Sumitomo Group positions, and how they view the closer relationship being brought to bear between the four store brands.

“We are ahead of the plan we started with,” Day said of the company’s results in the face of a difficult economic picture, and the company is working toward a fully integrated retail group. “We see no differentiation in the group when it comes to investment by Sumitomo Group or by TBC. “Our number one priority is to grow retail. We have four great brands – Tire Kingdom, Big O, Merchant’s and NTB – and no single brand is more important than the other.”

TBC claims it holds an 8.5% share of the U.S. replacement market – a formidable 20 million units – but it is splintered as four separate brands that, for the most part, have acted individually.

“This meeting is the beginning of the TBC Retail Group,” he stated.

TBC had a profitable 2008, he said, without offering any details, “and has the strongest balance sheet in many years.” Sumitomo, he said, “is optimistic about the future of all of our divisions.”

Day himself is “incredibly optimistic about 2009,” and sees great opportunities for growth through acquisitions, new store openings and improved logistics.

The “consolidation” of the TBC Retail Group will aid TBC’s bottom line by streamlining logistics, purchasing, product development and sourcing, he suggested.

Following Day was retail group president and CEO Orland Wolford, who reinforced Day’s position. “2009 is going to be a banner year for the retail group,” he said. “Our goal is to be the number one tire and service supplier in the industry.”

TBC Retail Group is certainly the largest. At the time of the meeting, Tire Kingdom had 256 stores, Merchant’s had 109 locations, NTB had 337 stores, TBC-owned Big O stores totaled 31 and Big O franchisees held 487 stores.

Reflecting on the meeting theme, Wolford urged the store representatives to follow the lead of military fighter pilots, who put the most effort in pre-flight planning, strong execution and post-mission debriefing. “True success takes tight, complete planning and precise execution.”

Taking the execution issue further, Tire Kingdom executive vice president and COO Bill Ihnken talked about the value of the group-wide vehicle inspection program, and how even small improvements can add up to greater sales and higher returns.

The goal, he said, is to make TBC Retail Group a true “category killer” in the tire and service market. “We don’t want to give the competition one tire sale,” he said. “We don’t want to give them one customer. That’s what it takes to be a category killer.”

After recounting the current economic downturn, Ihnken said, “This is our ‘perfect storm.’ This is absolutely the perfect environment for our stores to prosper.”

With car dealers and competition either closing locations or cutting back, and consumers keeping their vehicles longer, there are greater service sales opportunities, he noted. “The competition is retrenching, they are not playing offense. We have to seize the moment.”

The inspection program “provides you with a tool that you need to meet the customers’ needs and deliver higher profits,” he told attendees.

Tires, fluids, alignments, brakes and shocks – TBC’s so-called “T-FABS” – are the heart and soul of what TBC stores are all about, he said. “Proven processes, like the inspection program and T-FABS, are designed to improve customer service by allowing us to focus on what is really important to keeping the customer’s vehicle on the road.”

Trustworthy expert advice, simple explanations and future maintenance planning creates a positive shopping experience for the customer, he said. The inspection program is “non-negotiable, and it must be consistent, accurate, timely, informative, comprehensive and done 100% of the time.

Kim McBee, Big O director of marketing, discussed Big O’s 2009 promotion and advertising plans. Four national promotions, tied to key holidays like Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Christmas, will extend on Big O’s long-standing “straight talk” theme, she said.

The “Team You Trust” tag has been used to better position Big O in consumer’s minds as a place that will treat them right, she noted, and it was time to build off of that. The new Big O TV and radio spots go outside of the box by trying to create excitement about making tire and service purchases at Big O.

The new series of TV and radio spots will hit in all of Big O’s markets, she said.

Crostarosa returned to the podium to discuss how TV and radio would become the integral part of future Tire Kingdom, NTB and Merchant’s advertising efforts. With key major advertisers like car companies and dealers and national store chains cutting back on their ad buys, premium advertising inventory is available at significantly lower rates than in the past. So the company-owned store group will move away from a radio-newspaper ad mix to a radio-TV mix, with added store-based direct mail efforts, he said.

He also unveiled TBC’s new Service Central line of service parts, which will cut across the entire retail group. The first branded products are a line of batteries, produced by Interstate Battery for TBC, which will be followed by a private label line of vehicle fluids and chemicals. Other parts and components will be added over time, giving the entire store group its own comprehensive offering.

Complete Service Central POP kits will be out to stores soon, he noted, and the Service Central brand was prominently displayed at the meeting’s trade show.

New Web sites are also being developed, he explained, and will be soon launched for all four store brands. They were developed, he said, “to make it easier for consumers to develop a relationship with us.” The Web site re-works are part of TBC’s “click-to brick” strategy to address consumer needs for information and stores’ need to boost traffic. And TBC plans to bolster the store brands’ standing in search engines to result in higher search rankings for increased visits, he said.

Dave Moyer, vice president of customer relations, talked about the need for stores to redouble their efforts on customer service. “Delivering outstanding customer service is key to our future,” he said.

He outlined simple ways each store can immediately improve customer service through better interaction with customers, improved service and sales skills, education on the inspection process, how to present vehicle service needs to the customer, and improving the image each store projects to the public.

In a breakout session for Big O franchisees, Big O executive vice president and COO Kevin Kormondy tried to put some rumors to rest while talking up the benefits of having a closer relationship with others in the retail group.

Kormondy addressed rumors that TBC was moving away from a franchised Big O program to an all company-owned format. Currently there are 31 company-owned Big O locations vs. 487 franchise stores, and he said that TBC and Sumitomo both intend to remain with a franchise program for Big O. The company-owned stores, he said, came about only in markets where TBC wanted to protect market share and presence. “We will use the company stores to support the franchise system.”

In the past year, though, “we had to close some stores,” he noted. “They were underperformers that were hurting the brand.” Moving forward, the focus will be on growth and in helping existing franchisees be successful.

“We want to maintain the ‘Big O family’ feel while recognizing and using the benefits of being part of the TBC Retail Group,” he said. “Despite the changes we’re seeing in the marketplace, we can keep that family feeling that has served us all so well.”

In terms of products, Big O dealers will see a new Big Foot ST line, this one produced by Yokohama Tire Corp., with 23 sizes covering S through V speed ratings. The new line replaces a Cooper-produced sports touring line, officials said.

Also new for Big O on an exclusive basis is the Yokohama AS530, an all-season performance line, with 26 H-, V- and W-rated sizes carrying a 60,000-mile warranty.

Tire Kingdom stores will soon be getting the Cooper Lifeliner GLS, which will replace a similar Uniroyal line, officials said, and the Nitto Terra Grappler, a niche light truck line dealers were seeking. Tire Kingdom is also considering the addition of the Nitto Dura Grappler, the company said. (Tire Review/Akron)