charlie creighton started with a couple - modern tire dealer

MTD SEPTEMBER 2007 23

Charlie Creighton started with a couple of petroleum tanks and a delivery truck.

He’s now our Tire Dealer of the YearBy Mike Manges

The year was 1976 and Charlie Creighton was on aroll. Creighton, then 32, was working in theforestry equipment industry, selling machines for

one of North Carolina’s leading Caterpillar dealerships.He already had established himself as one of the

firm’s top salesmen with a knack for closing huge deals,including a $21 million order from a single customer.Selling tires had never crossed his mind.

Thirty-one years later, Charlie Creighton is the CEOof Colony Tire Corp., one of the country’s largest re-gional dealerships with 40 locations throughout NorthCarolina and Virginia and 2006 revenue in excess of$100 million. He also is Modern Tire Dealer magazine’s2007 Tire Dealer of the Year.

How Creighton went from a forestry equipment sales-man to one of the most successful and widely respectedtire dealers in North America is a testament to his workethic, his uncanny ability to seize opportunities that oth-ers have missed, and a quiet, understated confidence.

“I don’t think I’ve ever looked back,” he says. The500 individuals he employs, the thousands of customersColony Tire has served, and the tire industry itself areall better for it.

Risk taker“You must not have received very many entries,”

Creighton quipped when he was told he had been votedTire Dealer of the Year.

He said it with a smile on his face. Beneath the self-deprecating sense of humor, say colleagues, is a manwho knows he’s good at what he does.

Creighton is quick to attribute Colony Tire’s successto the people who work for him. But there would be noColony Tire if he hadn’t made a series of tough choicessome 30 years ago.

The first decision came in late 1976, when Creightonleft the Caterpillar dealership to go into business with afriend named George Wood.

The pair bought a small petroleum distributor inEdenton, N.C., now Colony Tire’s home base. Thebusiness included a couple of tanks, a truck and a lot ofopportunity.

“The American dream is to be in business for your-self,” says Creighton. But the decision was still difficult.

“It was a big challenge to leave a good job where youwere making good money and start driving a tankertruck. It took my wife 15 years to get over me quitting.I had a nice job and all of a sudden I was sellingkerosene.”

The new venture was called Creywood Oil Co. “Webuilt these little dollar bill pumps across the area, usu-ally on the edge of a cornfield. You’d drive up, stick adollar bill in and get some gasoline.

“There were a lot of days when we were out ofmoney. I knew how long it took for a check to go any-where in the country! I’d send one out and then have toscramble to cover it.”

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Creighton and his partner kept at it,and business began to improve. Theybought a second petroleum company ina nearby town in 1979.

The pair began looking for ways todiversify. In 1980, BP Oil talked theminto adding Goodyear tires. CreywoodOil sold its first tire on Christmas Eve1980. Creighton still remembers thecustomer: a local fisherman.

Neither Creighton nor Wood, whowas more of a silent partner, had expe-rience selling tires. “There was aGoodyear store in Edenton that hadclosed and Goodyear wanted to rent itto us for $700 a month. We were scaredto do it. So we built this little tin build-ing onto our oil warehouse. That be-came our tire store.”

Goodyear was Creywood Oil’s onlytire brand in those days. “You were re-quired to be exclusive. It was ex-pected.”

Creighton bought out Wood’s stock

in 1980. Creywood continued to sell oiluntil 1987, when that part of the busi-ness was sold. “The oil business and thetire business have always been thoughtof as similar businesses, but they aren’tvery similar at all. You make 20%,30% or 40% gross profit on tires andfar, far less on oil. We couldn’t evenrun the same profit and loss state-ment.”

It was time to focus on tires.

Learning curveCreighton admits he had a hard time

adjusting to being out of the petroleumbusiness. “The first morning after thesale I looked over at my old oil tanksand said, ‘How could they open upwithout me?’”

He couldn’t afford to ruminate fortoo long. Developing the tire businessrequired time and concentration. Healready had begun to build his staff. In1979, he hired Chauncey Krahenbill, anold friend from Virginia, and DougHodges, who came with the second oil

company. (Both are still with the com-pany. Krahenbill is a partner, vice pres-ident and manages Colony Tire’s com-mercial tire division; Hodges is now anexecutive vice president and runs oneof the company’s Mighty Auto Partsfranchises.)

Creighton’s duties included “every-thing and anything — selling, puttingon tires, loading trucks, you name it.One of my biggest responsibilities wasfiguring out how to get enough moneyto cover the checks I mailed out theprevious day.”

Looking back, he says the learningcurve was steep, “but I don’t think weknew how steep it was at the time. Welived from day to day.”

Within a few years the company wasup to three stores. In 1982, Creightonbought his fourth store, a small tireshop in Williamston, N.C. It burneddown 100 days after he bought it.

He didn’t have enough insurance tocover the loss and his bank wouldn’t

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Creighton, on the right, shares management duties and ownership with son Scott (left), son-in-law Andrew Berg-eron (middle) and Chauncey Krahenbill (not pictured). “Dad is a super salesman,” says Scott. “He’s not good at ac-cepting ‘no’ for an answer. A lot of the time, he’s trying to sell our own people on his ideas.”

loan him enough money to build a newoutlet. “I found a savings and loan thatloaned me the money to rebuild in abetter location. We then built a retreadplant next to our original store inEdenton.”

Meanwhile, the market was changing.Customers, especially at the retail level,wanted more choices. Goodyear re-mained Creywood’s top-shelf brand“but we made the decision that we hadto have a less expensive line of tires.”

Creighton added Mastercraft, manu-factured by Cooper Tire & RubberCo., as a second-tier line in the 1980s.“There are a lot of low-income peoplein our rural markets. We felt weneeded a more economically priced tireto sell them, and it worked.”

Creighton continued to add personnel.His son, Scott, joined the company in1990. Goodyear had offered Scott a jobafter graduation, but he decided to workin the family business. (Scott was namedpresident of Colony Tire last year and isanother partner in thedealership. Roundingout the company’sowners is Charlie’sson-in-law, AndrewBergeron, who joinedColony Tire in 1995.)

Opportunities in theform of new locationscontinued to presentthemselves, but thedealership had no“five-year plan,” ac-cording to the elderCreighton.

“We’ve never saidthat on January 1we’re going to opentwo new stores orwe’re going to buythree stores next year.I’m not advocatingthat as the right way to do it. That’s justhow we’ve done it.”

In 1991, the company changed itsname to Colony Tire. Up to this point,most of the firm’s stores were in smalltowns or rural areas. Creighton wantedto push into larger markets. He choseRaleigh, N.C., and opened a truck tirecenter there in 1992.

It was another learning experience. “I

thought all you had to do in Raleighwas open up and they’d be standingthere waiting for you. I was wrong. Itcosts so much more money to do busi-ness in Raleigh. The cost of land andpersonnel is much higher. The cost ofcongestion is much higher.

“Getting in a service truck and going15 miles to fix someone’s flat is easy inEdenton; it’s hard in Raleigh. It was a

big struggle to turn Raleigh into a prof-itable area for us.”

Colony Tire now has eight stores inthe greater Raleigh area. “Raleigh islike another world. We had to adjusthow we did everything there.”

“We’re a thousand times better thanwe used to be,” says Scott. “Thosestores are doing well and are making alot of money.”

The dealership also moved intolarger markets like Richmond, Va., andthe Chesapeake, Va., area.

Bigger and betterOn the retail side, Colony Tire has

added outlets through acquisitions andnew construction. Each method pre-sents its own challenges. (Colony Tire’sretail tire sales-to-automotive service

ratio is roughly 50-50.)“Some acquisitions have

been good, but in somewe’ve inherited a lot ofbad will,” says Creighton.“It’s taken a lot of work toeliminate that.

“We bought a store justsouth of Raleigh with lotsof traffic and a good loca-tion. There wasn’t anyquestion that the store wasgoing to do well. But ithad been operated for 10years by a man who had alot of bad press. I didn’tthink we’d ever turn itaround.”

But Creighton and hisstaff persevered and man-aged to restore relationswith customers. “Word-of-

mouth is what put that store in the holeand word-of-mouth is what pulled itout of the hole.”

Building new stores is challengingdue to the high cost of zoning, con-struction and in many cases, wadingthrough endless red tape, especially inlarger markets.

“In places like Raleigh, they have so




Chauncey Krahenbill (left) has been with Colony Tire since 1979. “Char-lie’s always been a great leader in opening the doors of opportunity,”says Krahenbill. “He knows how to relate to all kinds of people.”

Colony Tire has retail stores throughout North Carolina and Virginia. Thedealership invests about 3% of its total sales in advertising. “Advertising ishard to track,” says Creighton. “We have store managers who say directmail is the best method.” Colony Tire also uses TV and radio.

many restrictions you almost shudderthinking about it. You need a buildingpermit, you need a plumbing permit,you need a certificate of occupancy.One time we wanted to build a storeand had a hard time getting a buildingpermit, so we literally snuck into thebuilding inspector’s office, and when hecame walking by we talked to him!

“You can build a million-dollar storeand there will be another $100,000 inred tape expense,” he sighs. “It’s thecost of getting all of the bureaucracy tosay ‘yes.’”

Tire shops aren’t always embraced bycommunities, says Creighton. “Some-times they’re not sure they want a tirestore. Maybe they’ve had ugly stores inthe past or maybe there have been usedtires outside... it’s a negative image.”

It can take up to two years to open astore. “Smaller markets are theoreti-cally easier,” but regulations, even insmall towns, are always changing.

Colony Tire relies on direct mail tolure customers to its new retail stores.“If we’re going into a brand new townwhere nobody has ever heard of us, wealso use TV and radio. Overall, we’respending $2 million a year in advertis-ing, $1 million of that in electronicmedia.”

The dealership also distributes walletcards offering discounts on transmis-sion system flushes, coolant system

flushes and other services, in additionto free oil changes, alignment checksand tire rotations.

“We sell them for $10,” often tomajor area employers who, in turn,hand them out to their employees, saysCreighton. “We’ve been doing it foryears. Some of my store managersdon’t embrace the idea as much as I do,because they say all a person will do isa free oil change. I say, ‘Sooner or laterthat customer has to do something dif-ferent. What you have to do is be niceand charming during that oil change,and he or she will be back.’”

Evolution of a companyColony Tire now has 40 locations

throughout two states. Creighton’s re-sponsibilities have evolved along withhis business. He does more office workthan field work, but selling remains hisfirst passion.

“I’m glad we’ve done what we’vedone, but at the same time there’snothing more fun than being behindthe sales counter and meeting the cus-

tomer’s needs.”Scott Creighton, Berg-

eron, Krahenbill and oth-ers have taken on addi-t i o n a l d u t i e s . “ S c o t tstarted as a managertrainee. Chauncey startedout changing tires. An-drew came in to be our fi-

nancial person, but he trained in thestores for a good while before he wentto the office. They’ve all grown intomore management.

“Scott is far superior to me in a num-ber of tire-related subjects. Andrew isfar superior to me in computers and ac-counting. Chauncey is superior to therest of us in OTR tire knowledge. I’vebeen lucky in that they’ve broughtsomething new to the party. They havetheir own ideas and positions and havemade huge contributions to ourgrowth.”




Colony Tire sells passenger, light truck, medium truck, OTR, farmand other tires. It also sells specialty tires to logging operationsand other firms within the forestry industry. “Our business isonly as good as our customers’ business,” says Creighton.“When there’s no flow of money, we feel it.”

‘You can build a million-dollar store and there will be another $100,000

in red tape expense.’

By the early ’90s, Colony Tire had aretail division, a commercial divisionand a busy retread plant. Opportunitysoon beckoned again — this time at thewholesale level.

Colony Tire began wholesaling tosmaller tire dealers. “We’d go to oneof our stores and somebody nextdoor would need a tire. I thought,‘Why not sell it to him?’”

It didn’t take long to figure outthat wholesaling tires under theColony Tire name would bean awkward propos i t ion .Creighton quickly came upwith a new name for hiswholesale unit: AtlanticTire Distributors. “Re-sellers don’t want ColonyTire backing up to theirdoors, particularly intowns where there are Colonystores.”

The wholesale business, he says, ismuch different than retail or commer-cial. “We’ll gladly sell to anyone whowill hopefully pay us. When you charge

to re-sellers, somearen’t as quick (as cus-tomers in other seg-ments) to pay. It’s not afool-proof business byany means.”

Atlantic Tire Distribu-tors has three ware-houses: one in Edenton(which runs nine deliverytrucks), one in suburbanRaleigh (five trucks), andanother in Colonia lHeights, Va. (two trucks).

Creighton openly ad-mits Atlantic is stillw o r k i n g o u t s o m ekinks, but he’s happyw i t h t h e d i v i s i o n ’ sprogress. Putting theright leadership in placehas been critical.

“We’ve come a longway,” says Harold Stra-kusek, Atlantic’s generalmanager, who startedwith the unit 11 monthsago. “We have some-thing for everybody.”

Colony Tire also has another revenuestream in two Mighty Auto Parts fran-

chises, one in Edenton and another in Raleigh. The

loca-

tions sell Mighty parts to other tire deal-erships and automotive repair garages.

Sudden lossCreighton’s associates and colleagues

say you would be hard-pressed to find amore astute businessman in any profes-sion.

“He’s very shrewd,” says Bob Smith,former executive director of the NorthCarolina Tire Dealers and RetreadersAssociation. (Creighton was presidentof the group in 1989, has served on itsboard and remains active in the associ-ation.)

“Charlie can ask more questions thana three-year-old. He’s extremely in-quisitive and is always looking for waysto improve.”

His ability to react quickly to marketdevelopments is another valuable at-tribute, according to Smith.

Creighton doesn’t disagree with thatassessment. “When Ford and Firestonehad their first recall, we bought all ofthe available replacement sizes fromGoodyear three days before the recall




Colony Tire handsout its own pri-vate brandpeanuts to cus-tomers. The pack-age is producedby a company inEdenton. “One ofthe biggest indus-tries in our area ispeanuts,” saysCreighton.

“I’ve never felt that what we’ve done has been toomuch,” says Creighton (with a new Bandag retread).

was announced.” He had been follow-ing news reports leading up to the an-nouncement. “We guessed that it wasgoing to happen and figured if it didn’thappen, we could cancel the order. Thesame thing happened when the secondrecall occurred; we placed an orderthree days ahead of time.”

Then the unexpected happened, hesays. Goodyear canceled the order.“They found three trucks that were ontheir way to deliver the tires and calledthem back to give the tires to Ford.Ford was doing the recall and they letFord dictate where the tires went.

“But Ford had become good friendswith us during the first recall. They in-sisted that all the tires for our area comethrough us. Goodyear wanted to sendthe tires to their company-owned stores.Ford said, ‘We’re not going to get themthrough your company-owned stores.We want to get them through Colony.’”

Colony Tire gradually added tirebrands over the years, but Goodyearremained its main line.

Its relationship with Goodyear cameto an abrupt end in September 2005when, according to Creighton, theAkron, Ohio-based tire manufacturer“canceled” them.

Colony Tire, unhappy with Good-year’s retread system, had signed onwith Bandag. Creighton says he didn’tknow that he wouldn’t be able to sellGoodyear products if he switched toanother retread system. It was a toughblow — and a surprising one.

“Goodyear was a good partner. I toldthem — and I believe it to this day —had they told us before we signed withBandag that we would not be able tobe a Goodyear dealer, then I think wewould have continued making retreadswith the Goodyear system or we wouldhave just bought retreads from some-where else.”

Scott Creighton, Bergeron — whoalso serves as Colony Tire’s executivevice president — and Krahenbill alsowere at the meeting with Goodyear,which was held at Goodyear headquar-ters. On the flight home, they beganstrategizing.

“Immediately when we got back toEdenton we lined up meetings with




MTD Dealer Profile: Charlie CreightonFull name: Charles Alfred CreightonAge: 63Family: Susan B. Creighton (wife); C. Scott and Marshall Creighton (son

and daughter-in-law); Andrew and Stephanie Bergeron (son-in-law anddaughter); and six grandchildren.

I am most proud of: my family.My hobbies and interests include: boating, fishing and in years past,

hunting.My favorite childhood memory: being on the dairy farm with my grand-

father.My biggest regret: not being a better golfer.My favorite book: “Uncommon Carriers” by John McPheeMy favorite sport: football.My favorite athlete: Phil Mickelson.My favorite movie: “Out of Africa”My favorite food: steak.My favorite politician: none.Am I a morning or night person? morning.If I could change one thing about myself: I would have more will power

to be in better shape.My goal in life is: to be kind to everyone.A perfect evening for me is: a nice summer night at the beach with

family and friends.The smartest thing I’ve ever done: marry my wife, Susan, 42 years ago.Best advice my parents gave me: Do what is right at all times.My advice to my children: Practice the Golden Rule every day.My advice to a tire dealer who is just starting out: Try to find a special

niche and always provide the best customer service.The greatest thing about the tire industry today is: It provides an op-

portunity for successful business that seems to be somewhat recession-proof.

Charlie and Susan Creighton have been married for 42 years.

other suppliers and contacts, and by theend of the year, we had new programsin place,” says Bergeron.

“Charlie is extremely confident. Weknew the Colony name was strongenough that we could convince most ofour customers to switch over to some-one else.”

The process wasn’t easy, Creightonopenly admits. “We were Goodyearblue for so long it really took awhile forus to come to grips with not waking upevery morning and planning to dosomething for Goodyear. In the past,we would need to hit numbers and wewould do that even when it wasn’t nec-essarily the best decision for Colony.”

Since then, Colony Tire has worked

vigorously to build its own name in-stead of hitching its business to any onemanufacturer.

“Right here in Edenton, people usedto say, ‘Go to the Goodyear store.’Now everybody says, ‘Go to theColony store,’” says Bergeron. “Ourprimary push going forward is to beColony Tire.”

‘Full authority’Overall, Creighton describes Colony

Tire’s relations with its suppliers as“excellent. We’ve had days wherewe’re irritated by some of the programsthey try to push on us, but we’ve had a19-year marriage with Cooper that’sbeen superb, we’ve had a 10-year mar-riage with Toyo that’s been superb, andwe have new love affairs going on withMichelin, Continental and various oth-ers.”



Colony Tire has a wholesale division, Atlantic Tire Distributors. “Charlie says, ‘Run the business.Do what you need to do,’” says Harold Strakusek, Atlantic’s general manager. “But don’t think forone second that Charlie doesn’t step in when things aren’t going well. He steps in with both feet!”

‘We don’t call our managers and ask why they’re not following

our price matrix. We call and ask them why they

didn’t make a profit.’


Tire manufacturers often talk aboutwhat they expect from distributors anddealers, but suppliers also have obliga-tions to their customers, he says.

This includes providing quality prod-ucts at what Creighton calls “propermarket prices. I don’t care what I payfor a tire; I like to sell it for a profit. IfI’m paying $100 for a tire from Miche-lin and other dealers are paying $100and selling it for $110, that’s not Miche-lin’s fault. But if I’m paying $100 andselling it for $110 because my competi-tors are paying $80 and selling for $110,then Michelin has to help me.”

He and his partners have discoveredthat discounts are harder to negotiatethan in the past. “We understand thattire manufacturers need to recover thepricing they have in place becausethey’re having plenty of struggles withraw material costs and the erosion of

their volume from overseas. Therefore,getting them to discount prices is moredifficult today. There used to be moreroom for negotiation.”

The establishment of a multi-brandstrategy with products segmented notjust by price but by business unit hasworked well for Colony Tire. “One ofthe things Goodyear used to preach isthat having too many brands costsmore in inventory and causes too muchconfusion at the counter. By and large,they’re right. We have some brands we

tend to just retail and some we tend tojust wholesale.”

Colony Tire sells Mastercraft,Cooper, Toyo, Michelin, BFGoodrich,Uniroyal, Falken, Continental, Gen-eral, Kumho and Goodride brand tiresat both the retail and wholesale levels.The Cordovan brand is its wholesale-only brand.

The dealership does not dictateprices to its retail stores. “We do notinsist that our managers sell tires for



By land or seaColony Tire finds lucrative business

in forestry, port tiresWhen asked to give advice to tire dealers who are just

starting out, Colony Tire Corp. CEO Charlie Creighton simplysays, “Find a niche.” Colony Tire has found two profitableniches in forestry tires and selling tires to ports.

Creighton was first exposed to forestry tires as a child. “Ihad relatives in the forestry business.” But it wasn’t until hisstint as a Caterpillar salesman that hebegan closely looking at them. He learnedabout the tires and their fitments.

“The moment I went into the tire busi-ness I started selling forestry tires. At firstit looked like a wide open market to us.But it took us a long time to get successfulin the forestry tire business.

“It takes a lot of capital. You need bigservice trucks,” which typically costaround $150,000, he says. Outfitted withtire manipulators, they can cost up to$250,000 each.

Pitching Colony Tire’s services was an-other challenge. “Not every dealer aroundhere was selling forestry tires, but loggerswere getting tires from somebody, some-where.”

Colony Tire now counts 500 different firms among itsforestry tire clients, most of them loggers, sawmills andpaper manufacturers. These companies rely on Colony Tire’sexpertise to guide their purchase decisions.

“Forestry tires are a little more specialized than regulartruck tires,” says Creighton. In turn, Colony Tire charges ahigher premium for them.

Selling tires to ports has been another lucrative niche. “Wedo a lot of port and container business in the Tidewater, Va.,area,” which includes Norfolk, Chesapeake and some othercoastal towns. Colony Tire sells tires for machines that move

containers around, and for otherapplications.

“Ports also depend upon us forthe technical services we pro-vide. We’ve developed our owntracking software. They want usto manage their tires and alsotheir tire cost.

“It’s not the initial cost theycare about; it’s the total cost. Andthat’s a real plus for us, becausewe can sell our services ratherthan just the price of the tire.”

Colony Tire also sells plenty ofretreads to port operations. Itssupplier, Bandag Inc., even of-fers special tread patterns forcontainer movers.

“You can do alright without a niche,” buthaving one, or in Colony Tire’s case, sev-eral, doesn’t hurt, says Charlie Creighton.Colony Tire has carved out a profitableniche by selling tires to port operations.


$89. They sell it for whatever they want. They knowwhat the cost is. We think the motivation to sell it forthe right price is that we pay them based on netprofit. So if they’re selling the tire cheap, they’re notmaking any money.

“We don’t call our managers and ask why they’renot following our price matrix. We call and ask themwhy they didn’t make a profit. We empower them torun their stores with full authority; that includes sell-ing a tire that costs $50 for $49 if that’s what theythink they have to do. But at the end of the month, ifthey haven’t made a profit that’s when we have face-to-face meetings.”

An under-performing store can “almost always” betraced to personnel issues, says Creighton. “Youmight be able to find a place where the best managerin the country can’t make a living, but most of thetime the right management will make a store suc-cessful... pricing the tire correctly, giving the propercustomer service and selling the customer everythinghe needs instead of half of what he needs.”

Since most of his stores handle multiple types oftires, Creighton has installed separate consumer tireand commercial tire managers at many of them.

“It’s very hard to find a manager who can do a



Charting Colony’s growthIn 2000, Colony Tire Corp. had 27 locations. It now has 40 locations

throughout two states, North Carolina and Virginia. Here’s a graphthat charts the company’s growth.

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

Source: MTD Top Independent Tire Store Chains lists

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50


Congratulations to Charlie Creighton and the ColonyTire family for being named Tire Dealer of the Year

This award is a tribute to your commitment to your family, your community, and your customers. RDHTire & Retread Co. is honored to be one of your valued suppliers.

RDH Tire & Retread Co.1315 Redmon Rd., Cleveland, NC 27013www.rdhtire.com704-278-9621 or 800-228-4730

Staff masterDifferent things motivate employees,

says Creighton Recruiting quality personnel has always been a major chal-

lenge for Colony Tire Corp., says CEO Charlie Creighton. Andkeeping good employees presents its own set of challenges,he adds.

“We’ve always wanted to be a preferred place to work. Wetry to conduct ourselves and structure our benefit programsso we’re seen as a preferred employer.”

While Creighton says there’s no magic formula for em-ployee hiring and retention, the following strategies haveproven successful for Colony Tire:

1. High selectivity in hiring.2. Competitive wages and incentives.3. A strong benefits package.4. Recognition of employee achievements.

Here are Creighton’s thoughts in greaterdetail:

On competitive wages. “We have 500 em-ployees and 300 of them, in some manner,are paid based on profitability (above and be-yond their base wages),” he says. “In somecases, the commission they make for theprofitability of their stores is 60% to 70% oftheir total income.

“I don’t think there’s anything more im-portant than a tire changer feeling he canimprove his income by doing a better job,”says Creighton. “With our system, they feelmore appreciated than if they were making$10 an hour, period. If they’re making $8 anhour and then so much per tire they put on,so much per balance, so much per oilchange... they feel they have some controlover their destiny.”

On strong benefits. In addition to a full range of medicalbenefits, Colony Tire offers a 401(k) and a profit sharing pro-gram. For the 401(k), the company matches 40 cents per dol-lar up to 6% of an employee’s salary.

Colony Tire used to have an Employee Stock OwnershipPlan (ESOP), but has discontinued it. “The governmentchanged the tax laws on ESOPs pretty significantly, so webought the ESOP back, which was a big plus; our employeesreceived five years of income in advance. Then we replacedthe ESOP with a profit-sharing plan. If we make a profit, weshare that profit with our employees. We don’t have to do it.But if we stop our profit sharing plan, we’ll lose enthusiasmon the part of our employees.

On employee recognition: “Money motivates employees,but in many cases personal recognition is almost as impor-tant. Being respected and personally recognized for the suc-cessful performance of their job means a lot to them.” ColonyTire gives out safety awards, sales awards and its Top DogAward, an annual honor bestowed upon the employee “who’sdoing the best in all categories.”

Money, benefits and formal recognition are effective incen-tives. But so are intangibles like accessibility, a positive work

environment and a sense of belonging, according toCreighton. “We have an open door policy. Employees walkinto my office every day. We don’t have utopia, but we’reconscious of the fact that the best thing we can do for oursuccess is have good associates.”

“The first thing we try to do is promote from within,” says Creighton(with long-time employee Barry Hollowell). “It’s a cliché; everybodysays that. But when you can do it, it’s a good feeling.”


good job at both,” he says. “A lot oftimes if he’s good in retail, he’s not goodin commercial. It’s hard to understandthe consumer and commercial sides ofthe business at the same time.”

Of course, the division of labor has tomake sense from an income gen-eration standpoint. “If you’reonly doing $30,000 worth of con-sumer each month, you can’t af-ford to have a consumer-onlymanager. But if you’re doing$130,000 a month in consumerand $275,000 a month in commer-cial, you’ve got to have two peo-ple. I wish we could find man-agers who can do it all — and insome cases we have — but as a generalrule, it takes two different individuals.”

“He never wants to make his peopledo something,” says Scott Creighton ofhis father. “He wants to include themin the decision-making. He’s not dicta-torial at all. He gives his employees anawful lot of authority, and I think that’shelped him be very successful.

“He inspires people. He has a greatability to motivate the people whowork under him to want to do thingsfor him and enjoy what they’re doing.”

Profit opportunitiesCompetition in Colony Tire’s mar-

kets is intensifying due to an influx of

large national chains. In its early days,the company dealt primarily with otherindependent tire dealerships and tiremanufacturer-owned stores. Now its ri-vals include operations like DiscountTire Co. Inc. and Goodyear-owned JustTires. “And every town we’re in stillhas an excellent independent tiredealer. They’re always strong competi-

tors because they own the businessthemselves and do a good job.”

On the commercial side, Creightoncites Greensboro, N.C.-based SniderTire Co., Michelin-owned Tire CentersLLC and Goodyear’s Wingfoot Com-mercial Tire Systems LLC as particu-larly fierce competitors.

Following national trends, more cardealerships in Colony Tire’s marketsare heavily pushing passenger and lighttruck tires. Creighton decided his com-pany could make more money sellingto car dealerships than against them.But he concedes that car dealershipsare formidable rivals.



‘If you’re doing $130,000 a month inconsumer and $275,000 a month

in commercial, you’ve got to have two (managers).’

“They have a big advan-tage. They make money sell-ing the car and they makemoney doing warranty workon the car; then it’s tires andservice. They’ve alreadymade money selling the carand working on the car. Fi-nally, when the non-warrantyservice is available, we’recompeting for it. When thereplacement tire sale is avail-able, we’re competing for it.

“If they had to live on thesame sources of profit welive on,” he continues, “theywould be an entirely differ-ent kind of competitor. If Icould get everyone to stopselling to the car dealer andthe car dealer couldn’t get atire, then I might considerdoing the same. But he canget the tire. I might as wellbe the one to sell it to him.”

Independent tire dealer-

ships hold several advantages over cardealerships despite the latter group’sadditional revenue streams, accordingto Creighton. Number one, he says, areadvancements in tire technology thattire dealers understand and are betterequipped to sell. “When we had thebias-ply 195/75R14, they didn’t havemuch appeal. Now there’s a lot of glam-our associated with high performancetires and off-road tires and SUV tires.

“I think tires are a little more impor-tant than they used to be. They lastlonger and just have more appeal. Take aV-rated Toyo Versado; that’s not a com-modity — that’s the real thing.”

However, more tires bring moresizes, which, he admits, are hard totrack and inventory. “It’s a constantstudy process of what’s been sold andhow many tires we didn’t sell becausewe didn’t have them.”

Colony Tire constantly phases sizesin and out. “Phasing out is what’shard,” he says. “Some sizes go out ofstyle and you’re just left with them.”

Commercial tires, especially giant OTRtires, remain a big revenue generator for

40


“The best thing a boss can say to an employeeis, ‘Thank you for a job well-done,’” saysCreighton (checking customer files with BenRinehart, Colony Tire’s director of credit ser-vices). “Compliments are very important. I tryto find something to be positive about.”

www.moderntiredealer.com


the company, according to Krahenbill,who runs its commercial unit.

When the shortage of large OTRtires began several years ago, “we cre-ated a new company called GlobalTyres to service mines worldwide.”Global Tyres sources tires from Russiaand the Ukraine and ships them allover the globe. “We also developed an

OTR retread supplier in Peru. Webring casings into our yard in Edenton,we ship them to Peru, they come backto us and we ship them to our cus-tomers. We also offer tire managementprograms for our OTR customers.”

Creighton believes the only way tostay on top of changing sizes and newtechnologies such as tire pressure mon-

itoring systems is through constanttraining.

Colony Tire has a large training centernext door to its corporate headquarters.And it also employs a dedicated vicepresident of training, Scott Anderson,who travels from store to store.

“He’s exceptionally good at consumertire training. We’re working with him to

put (programs) into classroom form.”Colony tire is aggressive when it

comes to trying new software. (Its cur-rent point-of-sale software provider isASA Tire Systems.)

Creighton says he’s always “second-guessing” what he’s doing. He wantshis employees to be just as critical oftheir own performance.

“I don’t think anybody should decidethey’re doing it perfectly. Our jobsneed scrutiny every day. Once you de-cide you’re doing it perfectly, that’sprobably the beginning of the end.”

Community pillarAt 63, Creighton jokes that he’s slow-

ing down; he only works 60 hours aweek. “What I’d like tod o a r e o n l y t h e f u nthings.”

Earlier in his career, headmits he did “a poor,poor job” of balancing hisprofessional life with hispersonal life. “I’ve beenaccused of being a worka-holic. Over the last five to

10 years, I’ve been able to do morewith my family.”

Creighton also is finding more timeto pursue hobbies like boating and fish-ing. (The biggest fish he ever caughtwas an 80-pound tuna. “I’ve nevercaught a marlin.”)

He and his wife, Susan, have a houseContinued on page 42...

‘I think tires are a little more importantthan they used to be. They last longer

and just have more appeal.’


Creighton on the Colony Tire name: “ I wanted a name that could be everybody’s name. I want everybody here tosay, ‘I’m a part of the company.’” The name also reflects North Carolina’s colonial origins.


on North Carolina’s Outer Banks,where they spend weekends with fam-ily, including two grandsons and fourgranddaughters, ages eight monthsthrough 10 years.

Family is important to Creighton, andhe attributes much of his success toSusan. “She tolerates my work sched-ule, she tolerates me being late for thisor that — she tolerates a lot of thingsother wives wouldn’t tolerate. Shemakes it easy for me to do what I needto do. She’s also a tremendous volun-teer in the community.”

Both are extremely active in commu-nity affairs. “I’ve been president of theEdenton Chamber of Commerce, the Ro-tary Club, and the Lion’s Club. I’m in-volved in my church, St. Paul’s Episcopal.”

Creighton’s philanthropy extends be-yond Edenton. In early 2002, he andSusan spent a week in New York Citynear Ground Zero serving food to WorldTrade Center rescue workers. “We chosethe night shift because it was a harder



Insights into Charlie Creighton......from the people who know him best

If Charlie Creighton elicits two things from people, it’s loyalty and admiration.Here are some different takes on our Tire Dealer of the Year from some of thepeople who know him best — his partners.

• Scott Creighton, president of Colony Tire Corp.: “He never wants to makehis people do something. He wants to include them in the decision-making. Hewants everybody to feel like they’re making their own decisions instead of ‘I’mthe boss. You have to do it my way.’”

• Andrew Bergeron, executive vice president and chief operating officer:“He’s a sales-oriented guy. He can talk to anyone and get along with anyone.Charlie is extremely confident.”

• Chauncey Krahenbill, vice president andgeneral manager, Commercial Division: “Heknows how to relate to all kinds of people. It’sbuilding relationships and having a connectionwith everyone he’s come across. And he’s in-stilled that in his people.”

Bob Smith, former executive director of theNorth Carolina Tire Dealers & Retreaders Asso-ciation, has known Creighton for 20-plus years.Smith admires Creighton’s leadership skills.“You can’t put together an organization like hehas without extremely strong leadership.”

shift,” he recalls. “It was a heck of an ex-perience. You see these firefighters andconstruction workers crying... Sept. 11was probably the worst thing that everhappened to this country.”

Creighton also donated $50,000 toHurricane Katrina relief efforts. “Hisnature is not to make a big to-do abouthis community involvement and charityparticipation,” says Roland Vaughan,Edenton’s mayor. “Charlie is a hard-driving businessman but also a verycompassionate person who’s alwayswilling to reach out.

“He sees a need, and when he under-stands that need he’s an above-averagecontributor to whatever the cause maybe. I think that’s part of his analyticalnature.”

Vaughan is particularly grateful forthe positive economic impact ColonyTire has on Edenton, which has fewerthan 6,000 residents. “Charlie couldhave located his headquarters in a lotof other places, probably in placesmore suitable than Edenton. But hisheart is in this community.”

As one of Edenton’s top employers,“Colony Tire is a tremendous eco-nomic benefit.”

Creighton plans to keep it that way.The company, he says, is in good shape.And if he has his way, he’ll get out andsell some more. “Nothing ever happensuntil you sell something, and when yousell something a lot of things happen.

“I don’t like mean customers. I don’tlike customers who are unreasonable.But most of the people you deal withare wonderful folks, and if you dosomething for them they appreciate it.

“I’ve never had any illusions aboutthe tire business being a glamorousbusiness. When I was selling Caterpil-lar machines I never spent much timethinking that I wanted to be a tiredealer. When I was selling kerosene

and diesel fuel I never thought Iwanted to be a tire dealer.”

What separates independent tiredealers from other business people?“We make less money,” he says with alaugh. “We work harder and get dirtier.You know, when I wasn’t in the tirebusiness it had no appeal to me. Butonce I got in it, I found that I loved it.It meets all of my needs. I don’t wantto be a lawyer. I’m not smart enough tobe a doctor. The tire business hasserved me well and I’m delighted to bein it. I don’t want to be anything else.”

Creighton has been approachedabout selling his dealership — in fact,several times. Some of the offers wereextremely lucrative. “We’ve gone downthe path with (a few interested parties)pretty far, but we didn’t like their ideasand didn’t go any further. We likeworking for ourselves.” ■



Member FDIC. ® Registered trademarks of Royal Bank of Canada. RBC Centura is a trade name used byRBC Centura Bank. SM “Let’s do something giant.” is a service mark of RBC Centura Banks, Inc.

RBC Centura congratulates our valued partner, Charlie Creighton and ColonyTire Corporation as the 2007Dealer of the Year. You are aGIANT in the tire industry.

Elite companyCreighton joins a 15-member club as Tire Dealer of the YearCharlie Creighton is the 15th winner of Modern Tire Dealer’s Tire Dealer of

the Year award. In recognition of his achievement, Modern Tire Dealer is donating a total of

$8,000 to three charities he has selected: the American Cancer Society, ChowanHospital Foundation and Lawrence Academy, a private school near Edenton,N.C. Creighton was selected by the following independent judges:

• Anne and Russ Evans of Hebron, Conn.-based tire importer/exporter Tyres2000 Ltd.;

• Saul Ludwig, long-time author of MTD’s Ludwig Report and a managingdirector with KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio;

• Dick Morgan, president of Morgan Marketing Solutions in Dallas, Texas.

The following is a list of past Tire Dealer of the Year award winners. All pastDealer of the Year stories can be found on www.moderntiredealer.com.

Modern Tire Dealer would like to thank Colony Tire’s suppliers who have runcongratulatory ads in this section and have made possible the generous donationsthat were made to the charities of Charlie Creighton’s choice.

1993 - Barry Steinberg, Direct Tire & Auto Service

1994 - Jerry Bauer, Bauer Built Inc.1995 - Tony Troilo,

Rosson & Troilo Motor Co.1996 - David Stringer,

Stringer Tire Co.1997 - Walt Dealtey Sr.,

Service Tire Truck Centers1998 - Tom Gegax,

Team Tires Plus Ltd.1999 - Raynal Pearson,

Pearson Tire Co.

2000 - Les Schwab,Les Schwab Tire Centers

2001- Larry Morgan, Morgan Tire & Auto Inc.

2002 - Tom Raben, Raben Tire Co.2003 - John Marshall,

Grismer Tire Co. Inc.2004 - Bob and Juanita Purcell,

Purcell Tire & Rubber Co.2005 - Paul Zurcher,

Zurcher Tire Inc.2006 - Bill Williams,

Jack Williams Tire Co.

charlie creighton started with a couple - modern tire dealer

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