The 1% Solution: Knowing Your Break-Even Point
Every business wants to make a profit, right? An important key tomaking a profit is understanding your break-even point. Figuring it outis a simple and necessary process for any tire dealer’s success. Surprisingly, many owners or store managers don’t know their break-evenpoint. Yet, calculating a break-even point is a common tool in mostbusinesses. The variable
The Care and Feeding of Brake Lathes
How often do you use your brake lathe? Once a month? Once a week? Once a day? If you’re like most tire dealers, your brake lathe is humming along for at least several hours per day, every day. Even a small shop will find a brake lathe to be an indispensable piece of equipment. How
Five Minutes: Talking Your Way Into More Sales
Five minutes isn’t long is it? What can you do in five minutes? Not much, but then again, five minutes can mean a lot. My wife was telling me the other day about something one of her friends told her about a pediatrician we both use for our kids. It seems her child was developing
Women In the Marketplace
[Editor’s Note: The following is an except from the soon-to-be-published “Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better” by Maddy Dychtwald with Christine Larson. While most of this passage deals with auto dealers, there are plenty of lessons for tire dealers.] Start Your Engines: Transforming the Automotive Industry You don’t
April 2010 Sales Intelligence
Covering San Francisco, Calif.; Louisville, Ky.; Denver, Colo.; Philadelphia, Pa.; St. Louis, Mo.; and Tampa, Fla., retail tire markets during the period of April 4-7. Tire Review and InteliChek present up-to-date tire and service price information from U.S. metropolitan areas.For this monthly feature, InteliChek directly contacts a selection of independent tire dealers, mass merchants and
Sorting Through Nitrogen Inflation Options
Nitrogen in tires is no longer just for car enthusiasts and commercial vehicle fleets. Used for years in space shuttle and commercial aircraft tires, race car, military vehicle and off-road truck tires, nitrogen has become a popular replacement for standard air at many tire dealers. Among nitrogen’s advantages are improvements in tire pressure retention, improved
Stay Up to Date on Safety Cage Regulations
Truck tire service, especially the inflation process, can be dangerous or even fatal if not performed according to proper procedures. Due to the number of accidents associated with tire inflation, OSHA now mandates that all truck tires be inflated in an acceptable restraining device. The safety requirements for such devices, commonly called tire inflation safety
TIA Steps Up With GTE, Now Industry Needs to Get on Board
There is no "I" in "team." If we’ve heard that golden adage once, we’ve heard it a gazillion times. But there is an "I" in "Integrity." And in "Industry." And especially in "Unity." In late March, after five months of meetings, research, discussions and planning, TIA and SEMA took the wraps off of an all-new,
New Global Tire Expo to Bring Entire Industry Together, Expand Potential
The tire industry’s role in the SEMA Show – and with SEMA – changed dramatically with the creation of the tire industry-only Global Tire Expo Powered by TIA, and TIA gaining permanent seats on two key SEMA committees. Announced by TIA on March 31, the formation of the GTE came five months after TIA and
Toyo’s Sendai Plant More Than Modern Enough to Meet Customer Needs
Ask Toyo folks about the company’s tire plants in Japan, and you’ll get the same answer: "Have you seen our plant in Georgia?" Still, while Toyo’s showcase plant in the U.S. houses the tiremaker’s highly automated ATOM production system, its two manufacturing facilities in its homeland are no slouches.In February, we had the opportunity to
Nokian Tyres Launches New Hakka 7, Outlines Global Growth Strategy
In March, Nokian Tyres gave North American dealers a preview of its new winter tire, the Hakkapeliitta 7, by inviting select U.S. and Canadian dealers and media to Finland for an introduction. The tiremaker also used the trip as an opportunity to show off its headquarters and state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, as well as to share
With GPX Purchase Done, Alliance Chief Touting Company’s New Strengths
Yogesh Mahansaria, group CEO of Alliance Tire Group, based in Thane, India, is rare among his tiremaker CEO brethren. This is Mahansaria’s second go-round as head of a major tiremaker, having once been CEO of India’s Balkrishna Tyre. At Balkrishna, where he was a partner with his father, Mahansaria helped turn the tiny bicycle and