Tire Rack sold to Discount Tire

https://www.scca.com/articles/2015687-discount-tire-to-acquire-tire-rack

Very interesting. There's a lot of brands that each carry and the other doesn't. Hopefully this is a good thing. 

I've always had good service from both.

Let's hope they keep the Tire Rack web site rather than switching to the DTD one...

Tom1200 said:

I've always had good service from both.

Me as well.

Veddy interesting... hopefully they'll keep the TR distribution center that's <5 miles from work, so I can pick up tires with no shipping.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. and SOUTH BEND, Ind., Dec. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Discount Tire, a leading independent retailer of tires and wheels, is acquiring Tire Rack, a leading independent tire tester and consumer-direct source for tires, wheels and performance accessories. The acquisition is a significant investment in Discount Tire's commitment to provide the most Inviting, Easy, and Safe omnichannel, B2B, and fleet customer experiences in the world. The transaction is expected to close December 31, 2021.

Discount Tire chief executive officer Dean Muglia, a 32-year veteran of the business, will continue as CEO of Discount Tire. Mike Joines, with 42 years leading Tire Rack, will join the combined organization as CEO of Tire Rack along with Matt Edmonds and Mark Veldman of Tire Rack's executive team. The Tire Rack executive team and management team will continue in their roles to advance the company's digital sales and online customer experience and partner with Discount Tire on integration efforts. The Veldman family, founders of Tire Rack, will have representation on the Board of Directors of Discount Tire.

Discount Tire, which was founded by Bruce T. Halle in 1960 and remains privately held, intends to continue to use the Tire Rack brand name as TIRERACK.COM online, TR Wholesale Solutions in car dealer and wholesale channels, and TIRE RACK MOBILE INSTALLATION in the mobile installation arena. The company, which is legally named The Reinalt-Thomas Corporation, currently does business as Discount Tire in most of the U.S., America's Tire in parts of California, and Discount Tire Direct online.

Tire Rack was founded by Peter and Wilma Veldman along with Mike Joines in 1979 in Indianapolis, Indiana, and grew rapidly as one of the most trusted and respected sources of information for online buyers of tires, wheels and accessories. As of October 31, 2021, privately held, family-owned Tire Rack employed more than 950 Team Members. It will become wholly owned by Discount Tire, also a privately held family-owned business, at closing. Tire Rack Team Members will be integrated into Discount Tire with the Tire Rack headquarters being maintained in South Bend, Indiana.

"We have for many years admired one another from afar, each pushing the industry forward to meet customers where they are most confident shopping for tires and wheels," said Dean Muglia, CEO at Discount Tire. "We could not be more excited about adding Tire Rack's operations and its excellent team led by Mike Joines, who I've come to know well. This accelerates our omnichannel strategy, provides a broader distribution network and a platform to enhance our B2B and fleet capabilities. Quite simply, we are better together."

"The acquisition of Tire Rack is a natural pairing of two storied, family-owned brands that built thriving businesses by treating people how they want to be treated, and focusing on delivering the best possible experiences for our people and our customers," said Michael Zuieback, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors at Discount Tire. "We were attracted to Tire Rack for the vision they share with Discount Tire in transforming the omnichannel, B2B and fleet customer experiences. We are excited to collaborate on enhancing the tools and technologies that will advance an entire industry. Together, we will make more dreams come true for all our wonderful people."

"We believe we can provide a greater impact through better service to Customers that have chosen Tire Rack for their tire and wheel needs and provide better opportunities for our Team Members through this partnership," said Mike Joines, Tire Rack CEO. "Joining the Discount Tire family is an incredible milestone for our business, an opportunity for our Team Members and a testament to the hard work and legacy of Pete and Wilma Veldman. We're thrilled to become a part of Discount Tire, a company that serves customers through an Inviting, Easy, and Safe experience while also taking care of and valuing their Team Members."

For more information, visit discounttire.com.

About Discount Tire

Discount Tire, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is a leading independent retailer of tires and wheels. Discount Tire was founded in 1960 by Bruce Halle and serves customers at 1,100 stores in 37 states. The company does business under the trade name Discount Tire in most of the U.S. and America's Tire in parts of California. Discount Tire's latest tool to help get you taken care of, Treadwell, is a proprietary online tire buying experience that uses decades of data and individual driving habits to recommend the right tires. For more information, visit discounttire.com.

About Tire Rack

Tire Rack, family-owned and headquartered in South Bend, Indiana, is a leading independent tire tester and consumer-direct source for tires, wheels and performance accessories. Since 1979, Tire Rack has grown from a single-point retail store in Indianapolis to encompass over 2.8 million square feet of space in ten distribution centers across the country. Tire Rack does business as TIRERACK.COM online, TR Wholesale Solutions in the car dealer and wholesale channels and TIRE RACK MOBILE INSTALLATION in select areas as a mobile installation solution.

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

Let's hope they keep the Tire Rack web site rather than switching to the DTD one...

Yeah, the DTD site blows

Well, if you eliminate your primary competition, you get to ratchet the prices up without fear...

Testing.  The Tire Rack was always the leader in testing tires.  I hope this is not lost.  I find it interesting that the press release even states TR to be a tire tester first and a retailer second:

Tire Rack, family-owned and headquartered in South Bend, Indiana, is a leading independent tire tester and consumer-direct source for tires

Its always cool to see things like this ice testing associated with TR:

The onsite skid pad at TR is a world class facility for a very specific activity:  

And, it's complete with a sprinkler system...not for the grass.  

Streetwiseguy said:

Well, if you eliminate your primary competition, you get to ratchet the prices up without fear...

I dunno about "regular" tires, but on performance stuff they did not have much crossover. Seemed like each had half the brands of wheels and tires. 

Simple Tire is the new big player, plus there's still Costco, Vulcan, 1010 Tire, etc.

I'm hoping that now I can get R compounds more easily with Discount..

Streetwiseguy said:

Well, if you eliminate your primary competition, you get to ratchet the prices up without fear...

This. I don't think this is a good thing for consumers. Tire Rack was a major factor in driving down prices. Many sectors have experienced increase concentration of competitors in a few big players.

Additionally, I imagine margins are getting tighter with ever increasing tire longevity. Probably a good time to sell.

Snrub said:

Streetwiseguy said:

Well, if you eliminate your primary competition, you get to ratchet the prices up without fear...

This. I don't think this is a good thing for consumers. Tire Rack was a major factor in driving down prices. Many sectors have experienced increase concentration of competitors in a few big players.

Additionally, I imagine margins are getting tighter with ever increasing tire longevity. Probably a good time to sell.

Yeah, from a competition perspective I don't think this is such a great thing for consumers. Especially given how many smaller independents are also Tirerack dealers/installers.

NickD said:

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

Let's hope they keep the Tire Rack web site rather than switching to the DTD one...

Yeah, the DTD site blows

I mean the bar is pretty low. Maybe they can band together and make one actually good site. If the only thing that comes of this is the tire rack site gains the ability to search wheels by spec (or DT selling some real wheel brands), I'd call it a win.

I noticed recently that tire rack had started selling a wheel brand mostly only sold by DT. Wonder if that's coincidence or not.

Terrible thing for consumers. 

I've noticed TireRack support has been lacking of late and I'm curious if there was some stuff happening on the backend that was causing some of these issues and this spells it all out. 

TR has a much more intuitive website and much easier to just buy a set of tires at a specific size. Try doing that on DTDs site and it makes you attach it to a vehicle then they won't let you purchase because it doesn't match the specs for that vehicle (square setup for S2000 being example A, big ole 33inch A/Ts for my Sequoia being example B). 

Both have served me well when I've needed them in the end, I just like having a choice, especially when it comes to tires for competition events. 

In reply to DirtyBird222 :

So Fitment Industries lets you search wheels and tires by size/spec instead of vehicle. They also have a vehicle search specifically for non-stock with different levels of aggressiveness. You can literally search for wheels that fit specifically with lowered suspension and rolled fenders.

I was really happy with them.

I'm a big TR fan but my new Silverado K02 tires were a lot cheaper at Costco.   I've driven to South Bend for the whole TR experience.  (Maybe I made a sales call in the area to justify it)

If either one of them sold Panasports, I'd have bought at least half a dozen sets by now. 

^never owned a set of Panasports. 

My perception:

In the Denver/Boulder area Discount has been a solid reputable supplier for 20 years or more.  I have shopped TireRack for street tires several times: Way too expensive. (Compared to Discount and several local suppliers).

Walmart is the best value supplier near me for street tires.

Rog

From the press release:

"As of October 31, 2021, privately held, family-owned Tire Rack employed more than 950 Team Members. It will become wholly owned by Discount Tire, also a privately held family-owned business, at closing. Tire Rack Team Members will be integrated into Discount Tire with the Tire Rack headquarters being maintained in South Bend, Indiana."

A "privately held, family-owned business" tends to be very focused on executing their business as well as they can.  So I don't think DTD is going to bleed the value out of Tire Rack the way a leveraged buy-out firm might.

I think of Tire Rack and DTD as the two biggest players in on-line tire sales.  Losing 50% of the competition is not going to benefit consumers and I think it will hurt consumers.  Competition is what makes capitalism great.

The press release says the Tire Rack headquarters will stay in Indiana.  Yeah, sure it will, right up until it gets auctioned off.  Two headquarters is twice the expense, and DTD is not going to close their Arizona headquarters and move to Indiana.  Not gonna happen.  If I was an Indiana employee of Tire Rack I would start vacationing in Phoenix and learning the housing market there.  :-)

In reply to DWNSHFT :

Are you suggesting that the folks at GRM Headquarters should be at that auction in Indiana?

Dang.  I've always been a TR fanboi.  My uncle used to work there before he passed away.  One of the things I liked about TR is that they were absolute rock bottom prices (except Michelin which has its own minimum pricing).  He was allowed to give family one set of tires per year at cost.  The difference between cost and retail was about $15 per tire on the Potenzas I had picked.  They were all about volume.  If you've never been inside the big warehouse, it's a trip.  Monstrous warehouse with automated forklifts, fleets of test vehicles, tire shavers, balancers that look like they cost a fortune, and a bank of Nitrogen tanks that could probably suffocate everyone in the building if they blew.

I have nothing against DTD, but I never got the impression that they had quite the market leverage that TR did.  I'm afraid this might be bad all around.  Greater buying power on the wholesale side with fewer players to fight pricing, and less competition on the retail side to keep prices down.

Time will tell.  Maybe it's time for a Costco membership.

boulder_dweeb said:

Walmart is the best value supplier near me for street tires.

Rog

Walmart does sell cheap tires. However, they are big enough that manufacturers frequently make retailer-specific tires for them to sell at low prices. They may or may not be equal to what you would buy at the tire shop down the street. 

Only time will tell if this buyout is a good or bad thing. As a TR customer, I'm not hopeful. Discount Tire is a cluster f*** as an online retailer.