St. Charles, Mo.- After going to work for Sparks Tire & Auto in 1985, Ron Tinner said he worked his way up through the ranks, starting out changing oil then moving up to a master technician. In 2000, Tinner said the owner offered to sell him and his wife, Sonja, the business.
"When the opportunity arrived to purchase the company, it was tough to say no," Tinner said. "It was a little rough at the beginning, but it soon paid off. At the end of the day I would rather be an owner than work for someone else."
Sparks Tire & Auto moved to its current location in 2004, he said. "We started off with one technician, and now we have four. Our business has been doing well."
Sparks Tire & Auto is in a 10,000-square-feet facility with seven lifts, eight bays, and an alignment rack.
Tinner said he believes that since automobiles and tires are manufactured better today and wear and fail less often, tire sales help bring in other types of work to his business.
"In some instances, tires are a building device," he said. "A customer brings in their auto for a tire replacement, tire rotation, or other service, and that leads to the possibility of finding other issues with their vehicle, which leads to more work like chassis or brakes."
Tinner said that when he first got into the business, he believed that a shop could stock a couple of hundred tires and pretty much handle any issue that came its way. He said he quickly came to realize that you could have several hundred tires in stock and still not have the one that you need.
Tinner said his relationship with Community Tire through its Independent Tire Dealer (ITD) program has made his tire business much more profitable.
"I can't say that I wouldn't buy tires from someone else, but ITD is one of the smarter moves that I was recommended to make," Tinner said. "They are very helpful. Any time I have a situation they are very quick to resolve the issue," he said.
Community Tire makes two deliveries a day to his shop if needed, Tinner said, adding that it also enables him to stay on top of tire trends and helps him with advertising, in addition to training technicians. "Their belief of service to the customer is phenomenal," he said.
Another key supplier to Sparks is NAPA of St. Charles, he said.
"My affiliation is deep; the loyalty is definitely there," Tinner said, adding that the shop is a NAPA AutoCare Center. "NAPA made a lot of things happen for us." He said he uses NAPA for primarily all of its undercar parts.
Tinner emphasized that he likes to deal in the best possible service. "I believe in top-tier technicians, top-tier parts, top-tier suppliers, and top-tier tools and equipment," he said. "This way of thinking and doing business has allowed me to draw in a higher quality of customer, too."
The purchase of a Corghi Artiglio Master tire machine falls into this way of thinking.
Tinner said that several of his peers thought he was getting in over his head with the purchase of the Corghi tire machine, but with the trend to large-diameter custom wheels, the machine has more than paid for itself by limiting damage on expensive wheels that are hard to mount.
Tinner said that keeping an open mind and always looking for ways to keep his business growing and moving forward to new horizons and ideas prompted him to join NAPA's business development group. The program allows independent owners to try to make changes as a group instead of treating each other as competitors, he said.
