Growing up, Beth Barron watched her father, Charley Gowland and his business partner, Billy Parker, open the first Chabill’s Tire & Auto Service center in Morgan City, Louisiana. in the late ‘60s. For Charley, he looked at it as a huge business opportunity, which has blossomed into 19 stores over the past 55 years. Yet if you asked a college-aged Beth at the time if she’d take over the business one day, her answer would have been “No.” But when you have rubber in your veins, it’s hard to escape.
“That wasn’t my plan when I went off to college,” admits Beth, now CEO of the business. But when her now-husband, Carey, came back to Morgan City to work in his family’s business, she started working for hers as well. Temporarily, of course.
As the business grew, Beth grew with it, and Charley began grooming her to take over the helm. In 2019, Beth was named president and CEO of the business, and soon after, Charley passed away. The next year, COVID hit and Beth was met with unprecedented times.
In this episode of Johnny g & Friends, presented by Firestone, hear from Beth about how she grappled with the loss of her father, who was her mentor, changes she has made since and how she’s grooming the next generation of leaders at Chabill’s Tire & Auto Service.
EPISODE OVERVIEW:
- Beth’s memories of her dad, Charley, and what she learned from him (1:37);
- How Beth dealt with the passing of her father one year and then COVID the next (4:57);
- Ways Beth has changed the business and how she has approached it with a “people mindset” (6:12);
- How Beth and her son, Charlie, are focusing on creating more training opportunities for Chabill’s team members and ways Beth is looking to grow its fleet business (10:13);
- Charlie Barron, Beth’s son and the company’s technical director and overall “utility player” on how he has helped improve the company’s analytics reporting to make tire ordering more efficient (13:15);
- Ways Charlie is helping implement employee appreciation platforms as well as various training and creating career paths for Chabill’s team members (17:22);
- Charlie reflects on memories of his grandfather (19:17);
- Beth details future plans for the business’s growth (22:13);
- The Rapid-Fire Round 🔥 (23:22).
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