Page 12 - 4212StrictlyBusiness

12 Strictly Business

You can’t get
complacent. if you

aren’t growing, or
trying to grow, then

you are going to die on
the vine.

Johnny Wheels employee Steve Champlin stands in front
of the giant tire pressure “chamber,” one of the final
processes used to create a newly retreaded tire.
Storms was like “holy smokes.”
then they hired a truck tire sales-
man, who “worked” for the next six treading was a big part of it.” until they heard about how lucrative it
months without selling many, if any tires. they joined several federal organi- could be and that they would only have
At that point, bill, t.r. and tom de- zations and started to learn about re- to retread about 600 tires to break even
cided it was time to make a change. the treading tires. on the equipment they would need to do
first thing they did was fire the truck tire As they moved on, they started do- the work.
salesman. ing more and more and contacted people “We didn’t have aspirations to do all
the next thing bill and t.r. did was at retread plants. this, but one thing lead to another in our
load up two trucks with tractor-trailer business. We saw a need for it. We saw
tires, and hit the road about 4 a.m. opening a retread plant the advantage for it so we added to it. it
bill Storms drove to Pikeville and About 15 years ago Goodyear and has been really good for us,” bill Storms
pulled up at a garage where 20 – 30 coal Michelin approached Johnny Wheels noted.
trucks were parked. He knew what his about selling tires to them directly be-
costs were, but not much else about sell- cause of the company’s market share, retreading tires
ing coal tires. which they agreed to do. A large part of the process uses com-
“i was like, ‘i have your tires.’ they before they were buying tires from puterized or electronic equipment, which
said, “What do you mean?’ – that was my guys like them, who would call up with takes some of the human error out of it.
line – i said, ‘i have your tires. didn’t you 1,000 tires for sale and Johnny Wheels However, each tire undergoes a human
order these?’ they said, ‘No, i didn’t order agreeing to take 700 of them. inspection at each station in the process
any tires.’ i said, ‘i need to sell them to you “We were buying tires like crazy from as a final check on the work.
then,’” bill recalled. across the United States,” bill Storms said. once Johnny Wheels gets the tires to
both he and his brother came back About 12 years ago, someone asked be retreaded, each tire first undergoes an
that first evening with empty trucks and them how many retread tires they were inspection process with a piece of equip-
compared notes. selling a month, and then was shocked ment that examines the casing of the tire.
“We said, ‘What did you get out of to find out they didn’t have their own re- Assuming it passes inspection, the tire
yours?’ We didn’t know the market price. tread plant. then moves onto a second stage where
We didn’t know anything,” bill said laugh- At the time the company was fo- it gets what is essentially an Mri or X-ray
ing. “that is how we started. baby steps. cused on selling tires and not expanding to make sure there are no hidden faults
What we learned from that is that re- into the retread plant business, at least inside the tires.