West Lebanon
Crowe has sold Interstate Tire, the tire service station on Bridge Street in West Lebanon that had been in his family for 56 years, to Vianor Tire & Auto Service, a fast-growing New England tire and auto service that is part of the Colchester, Vt.-based Nokian Tyres network of service centers.
The deal was completed Aug. 1 and Crowe, 63, said he expects to be at the store “at least through the end of November.” Then he’s retiring.
“It was just the right opportunity,” Crowe said of the offer to buy his business. “I’ve been at it six days a week for 45 years and it’s time for other projects,” such as “old motorcycles in boxes waiting to be restored.”
The sale of Interstate Tire comes as City Tire in West Lebanon is set to close in October, according to general manager Sean Childs, who said he didn’t know why the Massachusetts-based owner is closing the 20-year old operation.
“I didn’t ask as it was none of my business and there is nothing I could do about it anyway,” Childs said on Thursday morning at the shop’s Railroad Avenue location, tucked between the West Lebanon Fire Station and West Lebanon Feed & Supply.
Officials at City Tire, which operates 11 tire stores, did not return messages seeking comment.
The sale and closing of the two West Lebanon tire service shops occurs as the internet has “disrupted” the tire industry with a slew of online retailers such as Tire Rack that allow people to compare prices and shop online. Those aggressive moves have, in turn, pushed tire manufacturers Bridgestone, Michelin and Goodyear to follow suit.
Ben Lang, a mechanic at City Tire, said customers now regularly buy tires online and have them delivered to the store, which charges for the “bolt-on” to the customer’s vehicle but misses out on the tire sale itself. “It’s easy and convenient but definitely kills our sales,” he said.
Childs said he’s been notifying customers who have their winter tires stored at the shop that they need to come pick them up soon. The shop will remain open until Oct. 15.
“Right now I’m selling out the stock and cleaning up,” said Childs, who has worked at City Tire for 13 years.
The tire business has always been marked by feast-and-famine cycles — business picks up in the late fall and early spring as customers have their vehicle’s tires changed for the season.
“It’s still quite a profitable business, but most of it happens in the fourth quarter,” Crowe said. That’s when the service station is booked every hour with customer vehicle appointments and “I’m here until 10 p.m. catching up on orders,” he said.
But Crowe noted that, given the competitive pressure in the tire business — there are at least five other tire dealers within a several-mile radius, excluding auto dealerships — the growth of the business lies in automotive service work that Interstate did not do but which Vianor will introduce.
“The new guys will be doing mechanical,” he said. “There are bigger profits in mechanical.”
Rob Robbins, brought in as general manager by the new owners, said the shop will be offering “complete vehicle maintenance” such as front-end alignments, brakes, shocks, struts, oil changes and state inspections. “We’re really on the hunt for a good mechanic,” Robbins said.
Interstate Tire was established in 1942 and run as a partnership until the mid- to late 1940s when it was bought by Harry D. Nelson Sr., who sold the business to Franklin Crowe in the 1960s. Glenn Crowe, who had been working at the shop part-time during high school and then full-time after graduating in 1972, bought the business from his father in 1999.
But since starting work at 6:30 a.m. six days a week for 45 years — these days after breakfast at Shyrl’s Diner around the corner on South Main Street — the youthful-looking Crowe said he feels this is the right time to attend to some “projects” around his West Lebanon home.
And, with hope, some travel too, which Crowe said the demands of running his own business have not afforded him much of an opportunity to do.
“I was 47 the first time I was on a plane,” he said.
Correction
Interstate Tire was established in 1942 and run as a partnership until the mid- to late 1940s when it was bought by Harry D. Nelson Sr., who sold the business to Franklin Crowe in the 1960s. An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the history of the company.
