Locally-based Tire Discounters shares aggressive expansion plans

Tire Discounters, a privately-owned company headquartered in Sharonville, expects to keep opening locations at a pace of about 12 annually for the next seven-plus years, Ward said.

While most openings are new stores built from the ground up, growth plans also include remodels of many original Cincinnati-area locations.

“We’re the little guys still compared to a Firestone or a Goodyear. Those are the company-owned stores of a worldwide global manufacturer,” Ward said.

“But where we win is we take care of customers. Once we get a customer in our store, we grab them and keep them for life,” he said.

Today, Tire Discounters has approximately 90 stores and counting in greater Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Kentucky and Tennessee. Additional sites are under construction now.

“We will continue to add stores as the opportunities arise in our existing footprint. Our big push right now is in Tennessee,” Ward said.

Despite greater Nashville being the home of competitor Firestone, Tire Discounters will open 15 stores in the Nashville area by the end of 2015, he said.

Competitor Grismer Tire and Auto Service is a Dayton-based chain of independently-owned stores offering auto service and tire sales. Its also grown into new markets, and construction started this week on a sixth location in the Columbus area, said Co-Owner John Marshall. Grismer is also eyeing a new location on Wilmington Pike in Kettering, Marshall said.

Grismer, founded in 1932, presently operates 26 total locations.

“As far as the growth in the tire market, no, there’s not a lot of growth” in the number of units sold, Marshall said.

Auto service is growing, he said, because “the average age of the cars keeps increasing.”

However, “it’s been offset some in the number of miles driven has decreased some,” he said.

Tire Discounters, which employs more than 1,000 people in total, says it’s the nation’s ninth-largest independent provider of tires and automotive services.

The company’s first auto service shop opened on Wooster Pike in Mariemont in 1976. And early next year, Tire Discounters expects to celebrate the opening of its 100th store.

“We plan our a legacy of growth for many years to come,” Ward said.