2005 Editions Archives - Page 3 of 9 - Tire Review Magazine
Higher Standards?: New Form of Liability Suit Raises Issue of What Customers Should Expect

What do customers have a right to expect from your business? When they come in for new tires or complaining about some odd sound in the rear end, what level of service should they – or can they legally – expect from you? Should there be a “standard of care” for tire retailers and shops?

Develop Your Craft: Sell More Tires and Service By Tapping Your Inner Artist

The business of selling tires involves both hard and soft science, spontaneous and carefully planned art. Much more than ‘black and round,’ a tire incorporates physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and a host of other disciplines. So, a tire dealer has to be part scientist. And, knowing the science of tires is a useful weapon in

Labor Into Profit: At the Right Rates, Labor Can Cost Less Than 20% of Sales

In the August issue, we talked about how to make 53% gross profit on parts using a jobber/dealer matrix to price parts. This tool is vital to your business, as a 53% gross profit on parts is critical to meeting a 20%-30% net profit goal. This month, we’re going to tackle labor, a very difficult

No End in Sight: Whether Premium- or Value-Priced, UHP Tires Are Here to Stay

Need some good news for once? Ultra-high performance tires have mushroomed into the single fastest-growing tire segment. From 2000 to 2004, sales of UHP tires were up 161%, jumping 32% from 2003 to 2004 alone. In terms of units sold, the numbers look like this: 3.99 million in 2000, 7.9 million in 2003 and 10.4

Perfect Circle?: Out-of-Round Tires, Though Rare, Deserve a Second Look

We didn’t say much when they took the fat out of our ice cream and cholesterol out of our potato chips. Even the sweet taste in our iced tea probably isn’t sugar. Sometimes we don’t pay much attention to the changes taking place right under our noses. Take out-of-round tires, for instance. We used to

Pedal to the Metal: Drag Tires, Lightweight Wheels Quench Customers’ Thirst for Speed

Speed: (sped) n. Magnitude of a velocity. The act or state of moving rapidly. An unquenchable thirst for more. OK, I made up the last one, but you know what I’m talking about. In the world of instant gratification, motorsports is king. If a 10-second quarter was great yesterday, it’s just a start today. Because

Upward and Onward: Falken Takes Dealers to the Top of Pikes Peak to Show New UHP Tire

Falken Takes Dealers to the Top of Pikes Peak to Show New UHP Tire

High Society: Yokohama Brings Advan to the U.S., Targets “Super Premium” Market

Yokohama Brings Advan to the U.S., Targets “Super Premium” Market

Surviving the Big, Bad B: Confronting Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy looms in your future. If not for you, personally, then for one of your customers, employees or vendors. Chances are good at least one of you will end up in bankruptcy court. Nobody wants to think about bankruptcy. That’s understandable. However, now is the time to give it some serious attention. In April, the

Pushing Rope?: How High Will Another Price Increase Fly With Strapped End-Users?

Rumblings are up about an upcoming round of across-the-board tire price hikes. No one should be surprised. Legacy costs, operating costs and, most especially, raw material costs, are chewing up tiremakers, especially those on these shores. The price increases invoked over the last three years have certainly been warranted, and, for the most part, those

Running Silent: Denman’s New President Quietly Yet Decisively Charts a New Course

Career changes come in many forms, just as challenges do. When Manny Cicero took over as president of Denman Tire Corp. in May, he took on a very challenging career change. Like all small specialty firms, Denman, based in tiny Leavittsburg, Ohio, battles much larger but less agile competitors for sales and share. The tiremaker

Grab That Cash: “Profit” is Not a Dirty Word; You Should Net 30% Cash Profits

When you’re doing your annual business plan (You do write one each year, don’t you?), do you set simple, easily achievable goals? Or, do you push the envelope with goals that will be hard to reach? That alone says a lot about your management style. More importantly, though, do you write a plan for the