Road Trip!

ARTICLENovember 04, 2009
Road trip!

By: Bob Ulrich

Alray Tire & Muffler of Conover

“How come you never do stories on southern tire dealers?”

That question was posed to me by a dealer from Alray Tire & Muffler of Conover at the North Carolina Tire Dealers and Retreaders Association convention in 2007. He was part of a contingent representing Alray Tire’s four stores, each owned separately but working together as “kissing cousins” in Conover, Boone, Lenoir and Valdese, N.C.

How do you answer that question when you know the magazine has featured dealers south of the Mason-Dixon Line on many occasions? I told them I would try and visit one day.

Two years later, I showed up almost on the dealership’s doorstep. One of the dealers at the convention, Chad Fowler, still worked at the Conover store, and remembered the conversation (the employee who asked the question was no longer working at Alray).

Now the manager, Fowler said business was back to normal this year following a slow start.

“At the end of last year, I was very skeptical. It was very scary. But it seems to have picked up with tax season, and it kept growing. We are up to the level of last year.

“I think people think it’s better to fix what they have than buy what they don’t need.”

Fowler has a good working relationship with local car dealerships. He not only supplies tires to them, but also handles overflow when their bays are full.

Village Motors of Conover, a used vehicle dealer, is “probably the biggest commercial account we have,” said Assistant Manager Dustin Curtis. There is so much business between the two that they communicate using walkie-talkies.

Curtis said the idea was born from accidentally leaving his cell phone in the car of a Village Motors of Conover customer. When the service manager called to let him know he had found it, he saw the potential in walkie-talkies.

At the time of my visit, Curtis had just purchased a second set, this one for Robinson Motors #2, another used vehicle dealer.

Danny Bollinger, manager of the Robinson Motors dealership in downtown Conover, thinks it’s a great idea.

“It’s not going to tie up our customers calling in,” he said. “As frequently as they call, it’s like their own private line.”

It’s a two-way street, said Fowler. “It gives them more access to us, and rightfully so, given the amount of work they give us.”

Fowler stocks Michelin, Firestone, Mastercraft, Goodyear, Geo-Trac, Dayton, Kumho, Nankang, Lexington, BFGoodrich and GT Radial. POS material also promotes Yokohama.

“If it’s made, I will try and get it for you,” he said. “It’s not fair to say we sell this or that. If it’s a tire, we can do it.”