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Strictly Business 11

Like many family run businesses, bill nating to and sponsoring any number of warehouse for many of the businesses
Storms and his brother, thomas ray ‘t.r.’ things, such as school and community the company works with.
Storms Jr., essentially grew up hanging sports programs across the tri-County the other location is a retread plant
around the business. area. where workers recondition used tires es-
they worked there after school “i am always, every day, writing a sentially rebuilding the tires from their
some, over the summers, and then full- $100 check to this one or that one. if they core up.
time after college. need $500 to host a regional tournament the company typically employs be-
The brothers officially took over run- or $200 to run buses up to a basketball tween 35 – 40 workers at any given time
ning the business after the retirement of thing, i will try to take care of them,” bill between all of its facilities.
their parents in 1996. Storms said. “if you are bigger, you really
the company has had various loca- can’t do that. it has never bothered me to truck tire business
tions across Kentucky and tennessee grow and then to just downsize it.” bill Storms said that he and his fa-
over the years. Some of the other loca- the company now has four loca- ther were at the Goodyear convention in
tions were sold due in part to the diffi- tions, all of which are in Whitley County. Las Vegas one summer around 1990 or
culty in finding good help. Another store there are the two auto service stores so when they ran into their local repre-
in eastern Kentucky closed in 2014 due to that many people in the community are sentative, who was a friend of theirs. the
the downturn in the coal industry. familiar with on 18th Street in Corbin representative suggested getting into the
Given that he is a very “hands on” and along US25W in Williamsburg. those sale of truck tires.
manager, bill Storms admits that he likes stores typically do light auto service work, “He said there is big money and this
having his stores relatively close by. such as oil changes, and, of course, sell and that,” Storms said.
“We kind of said, ‘it is not our cup of tires. So tom Storms ordered three trac-
tea over there,’ and moved our inventory the company also has two other tor-trailer loads of truck tires. there was
and some of our stuff going into Ohio, locations off Cumberland Falls Highway a problem though.
West Virginia, Virginia and tennessee that are right next to one another. “We didn’t know how to sell them.
with routes out through there, distribu- one is a distribution warehouse We didn’t know who to sell them to. We
tion to other tire stores and other com- for tires ranging from car tires to heavy didn’t know anything,” bill Storms noted.
mercial accounts and stuff like that,” he equipment tires to tractor-trailer tires, the company had 90 days to pay for
said. which are most of the business. it started the 900 tires that cost several hundred
bill Storms noted that the company as a distribution warehouse just for John- dollars each.
tries to be a part of the community do- ny Wheels but has grown to a distribution When it came time to pay the bill, bill
Johnny Wheels was originally founded by Tom and
Barbara Storms in 1972 at the junction of Main and
18th streets, but now operates its main store front on
Cumberland Falls Hwy.