K&M Tire Is ‘Shaping the Future’ With Big Investments
K&M Tire Inc. is making investments today that will position the wholesale-distributor and its customers for continued success.
That was one of the key messages relayed by K&M Tire’s management team to the hundreds of tire dealers who attended its annual conference and trade show, which took place Jan. 21-23 in Columbus, Ohio.
The theme of this year’s K&M Tire meeting was “Shaping the Future: Tomorrow Starts Today.”
Gene Bova, K&M Tire regional program manager and one of the event’s featured speakers, provided an overview of growth initiatives that the Delphos, Ohio-based company successfully completed in 2024.
These include the acquisition of Lancaster, Pa.-based K&W Tire Inc., the addition of two tire brands, upgrades to three of K&M Tire's distribution centers, enhancements to K&M Tire's Mr. Tire/Big 3 associate dealer programs and other endeavors.
Finalized this past September, the addition of K&W Tire “has allowed us to enhance our capabilities in the Northeast,” said Bova.
The deal gave K&M Tire six distribution centers in Lancaster; Chester, Pa.; Allentown, Pa.; Claremont, N.H.; Ayer, Mass., and Beacon Falls, Conn.
The acquisition also brought two of K&W Tire’s tire brand offerings, Cooper and Mastercraft, to K&M Tire, while at the same time adding 80 dealers who participate in the Cooper Medallion program to K&M Tire’s network of customers.
“We’ve expanded both outer edges of our geographic region,” Bova told attendees.
In addition to facilities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, K&M Tire has distribution centers in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin for a total of 40 warehouses that serve customers throughout 31 states.
Bova also provided attendees with an overview of K&M Tire’s logistics operations. The company currently runs 384 delivery routes, including 125 that deliver twice a day. In total, K&M Tire delivery trucks cover around 24.5 million miles a year.
He emphasized that K&M Tire will continue “to embrace the things that got us to where we are. We’re going to be proactive in our roles and we’re going to be innovative – working with you and our vendor partners to deliver what you want.”
Evolving K&M Tire’s Mr. Tire/Big 3 associate dealer programs will be a big part of that. (Mr. Tire and Big 3 “are identical programs,” Bova told attendees.)
New for 2025 are exclusive Mr. Tire/Big 3 same-day digital consumer rebates so end users won’t have to wait for rebate gift cards to be mailed to them after the purchase of qualifying tires.
Also new are consumer financing options through Koalifi and Synchrony.
In addition, K&M Tire officials discussed details of the Mr. Tire road hazard program; enhancements to the Mr. Tire parts program, which includes 10 major parts suppliers and provides amplified rebate kick-backs; various benefits of K&M Tire’s agricultural and commercial volume bonus programs; and additions to the company’s exclusive “boost programs” that involve a variety of tire brands, including for the first time in 2025, Bridgestone.
This year’s K&M Tire event featured 11 seminars. Jon Zurcher, K&M Tire executive vice president, discussed succession planning during his presentation.
Zurcher told attendees that when he thinks of succession planning, he thinks about “leadership. Who’s going to lead your company? I also think of succession planning in terms of the business itself and ownership of that business.
"The smoothest transitions (of ownership) happen when the current owner of the business has identified at least one – if not multiple people – as potential successors," he said.
“How do you identify successors? The number one thing I see is having the same core values that the owner has.... and the same attitude when it comes to serving customers.”
Loudan Hammersmith, K&M Tire’s agricultural tire sales manager, discussed trends in ag tires and farming, in general.
“There are fewer farmers and fewer farms and less land being farmed” than decades ago. However, farmers will be confronted with the need to produce more over the next few decades as there will be a 60% increase in demand for food throughout the world by the year 2050, he said.
To help boost farmers' productivity, ag tire technology continues to develop, with Hammersmith citing increased flexion (IF) and very-high flexion (VF) technology as examples.
K&M Tire also brought in Emily Clayton, senior economic analyst for the American Trucking Associations, to provide an overview of the challenges facing the U.S. trucking industry.
“We’re seeing less production of heavy-duty trucks,” she told attendees. “We’re seeing an over-supply in the industry. Revenue-per-mile has been down. We’re seeing a leveling-out (of fleet revenue) at a rate that’s much lower than what we’d like to see. A lot of fleets aren’t going to be able to stay in business while rates are low.”
Many fleets “are in a really tough spot,” which could lead to continued capacity reduction, according to Clayton.
Prize Udo, training manager for Pirelli Tire North America Inc., discussed favorable trends for consumer tire dealers, including the ongoing proliferation of high-diameter tires at the original equipment level and the continual increase in consumer demand for SUVs and CUVs.
Udo told attendees that in 2019, five out of 10 new vehicles were SUVs. This year, six out of 10 new vehicles will be SUVs, he said. And by 2030, up to seven out of 10 new vehicles will be in the SUV category.
This will provide enhanced profit opportunities for enterprising tire dealers, he said.
K&M Tire is celebrating its 55th anniversary in 2025.
