The country’s largest independent commercial tire dealership has just gotten bigger. Midwestern commercial/retail tire chain Best-One Tire & Service has acquired four Easter Tire & Retreading Inc. commercial tire outlets in northwest Ohio.
The transaction opens a new market for Best-One, whose base of operation is in Monroe, Ind., says Pete Glesing, director of commercial development. “We had truck tire centers that serviced the northwest Ohio market… but I would say it was an open market for us. This acquisition gives us servicing truck tire centers in that area.”
The locations are located in Lima, Bryan, Findlay and Coldwater, Ohio. The Lima location includes a Bandag retread plant that produces 144 medium truck and 15 light truck tire retreads per day, according to Modern Tire Dealer research. Best-One now has 18 retread plants.
As with its other retread plants, Best-One would like to boost the Lima shop’s production numbers, says Glesing. “We’re always looking for new customers to increase the retreading at our plants.”
Based in Lima, “where the bulk of their commercial business was,” Easter Tire was privately owned by the Emans family. (Kurt Emans was its chief officer.)
“We’ve known the family and have had ongoing discussions with them for many years,” says Glesing. “They’ve had a long history of serving the commercial customer. It was a win-win and we put it together.”
Best-One, whose chairman is past MTD Tire Dealer of the Year award winner Paul Zurcher, has 52 commercial-only outlets and more than 120 combined commercial/retail outlets. The chain generated $230 million in sales in 2008.
The Easter Tire acquisition was in line with Best-One’s long-term growth strategy, says Glesing. “We are continuing to look at dealers who want to join our organization.”
