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Carroll Tire
Company has evolved from a single retail location in
Hapeville
,
Georgia
to one
of the nation’s largest distributors of private and major brand tires.
Founder Bobby Carroll entered the wholesale tire business as a way to bring
competitive and consistent pricing to a network of small independent Georgia
tire dealers. As his reputation grew for supplying quality products coupled
with availability and consistent pricing the business began to grow. For a
number of years Bobby was content to expand his growing operation by
partnering with associate wholesale tire distributors who were assigned
specific marketing areas throughout Georgia’s mostly rural counties.
In 1972,
Carroll Tire Company made its way across the border into
Jacksonville
,
Florida. This
was the beginning of Carroll’s expansion explosion. Soon after, the company
opened a branch in Orlando, Florida and another in Tampa. The successful
independent retail tire dealers were eager for the straight talk and
exclusive marketing areas that Bobby and his hand picked managers offered.
To control costs and therefore selling prices, Carroll’s did not offer
delivery. On a typical day scores of tire dealers’ trucks were lined up at
the warehouse doors waiting to be loaded. More often than not the owner of
the shop was driving the truck. The formula was simple—keep costs down in
order to offer outstanding value to customers. As their dealers’ businesses
flourished and became more profitable, Carroll Tire Company continued to
expand.
The
cornerstone supplier during all of Bobby Carroll’s expansion was the TBC
Corporation with its Multi/Mile and Cordovan private brands. TBC provided
Carroll with cutting edge, ahead of the curve products at sharply
competitive prices. Very quickly Carroll Tire Company became TBC’s largest
customer and TBC was Carroll’s largest vendor. A marriage was destined and
only time was needed.
By the mid 90s Carroll Tire
Company had fourteen branches located in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and
South Carolina. The business was bigger than Bobby Carroll had ever dreamed
and was becoming more complex. The proliferation of tire sizes and products
dictated change. In order to meet the needs of his dealers, Bobby
implemented daily delivery at all branches in 1994. All the while, Bobby
worked seven days a week ordering product, entering information into the
computer system, and mailing price sheets. The pace was relentless but
business was terrific.
At the end
of 1997 Bobby realized it was time to pass the torch to the next generation.
If, as he had envisioned, Carroll Tire Company were to become the dominant
wholesale tire distributor in the
United States
,
the company would need to make changes; money and guidance would be needed.
On November 18, 1998 Carroll Tire Company merged with TBC Corporation and
became the parent company’s wholesale tire distributor subsidiary.
Today,
Carroll Tire Company has twenty-five branches providing service to
independent tire dealers from Miami, Florida to Portland, Maine. But however
successful its growth and expansion, the company remains true to the goals
Bobby Carroll started out with:
Ø Sell a program –
Multi/Mile, Cordovan, Sigma, Vanderbilt
Ø Offer products at the most
competitive prices
Ø Grow Carroll Tire Company &
the Independent Tire Dealer
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