Charlie Creighton started with a couple
of petroleum tanks and a delivery truck.
He’s now our Tire Dealer of the Year
By Mike Manges
T
he year was 1976 and Charlie Creighton was on a
roll. Creighton, then 32, was working in the
forestry 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 CEO
of Colony Tire Corp., one of the country’s largest regional dealerships with 40 locations throughout North
Carolina and Virginia and 2006 revenue in excess of
$100 million. He also is Modern Tire Dealer magazine’s
2007 Tire Dealer of the Year.
How Creighton went from a forestry equipment salesman to one of the most successful and widely respected
tire dealers in North America is a testament to his work
ethic, his uncanny ability to seize opportunities that others have missed, and a quiet, understated confidence.
“I don’t think I’ve ever looked back,” he says. The
500 individuals he employs, the thousands of customers
Colony Tire has served, and the tire industry itself are
all better for it.
Risk taker
“You must not have received very many entries,”
Creighton quipped when he was told he had been voted
Tire Dealer of the Year.
MTD SEPTEMBER 2007
He said it with a smile on his face. Beneath the selfdeprecating sense of humor, say colleagues, is a man
who knows he’s good at what he does.
Creighton is quick to attribute Colony Tire’s success
to the people who work for him. But there would be no
Colony Tire if he hadn’t made a series of tough choices
some 30 years ago.
The first decision came in late 1976, when Creighton
left the Caterpillar dealership to go into business with a
friend named George Wood.
The pair bought a small petroleum distributor in
Edenton, N.C., now Colony Tire’s home base. The
business included a couple of tanks, a truck and a lot of
opportunity.
“The American dream is to be in business for yourself,” says Creighton. But the decision was still difficult.
“It was a big challenge to leave a good job where you
were making good money and start driving a tanker
truck. It took my wife 15 years to get over me quitting.
I had a nice job and all of a sudden I was selling
kerosene.”
The new venture was called Creywood Oil Co. “We
built these little dollar bill pumps across the area, usually on the edge of a cornfield. You’d drive up, stick a
dollar bill in and get some gasoline.
“There were a lot of days when we were out of
money. I knew how long it took for a check to go anywhere in the country! I’d send one out and then have to
scramble to cover it.”
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Creighton, on the right, shares management duties and ownership with son Scott (left), son-in-law Andrew Bergeron (middle) and Chauncey Krahenbill (not pictured). “Dad is a super salesman,” says Scott. “He’s not good at accepting ‘no’ for an answer. A lot of the time, he’s trying to sell our own people on his ideas.”
Continued from page 23...
Creighton and his partner kept at it,
and business began to improve. They
bought a second petroleum company in
a nearby town in 1979.
The pair began looking for ways to
diversify. In 1980, BP Oil talked them
into adding Goodyear tires. Creywood
Oil sold its first tire on Christmas Eve
1980. Creighton still remembers the
customer: a local fisherman.
Neither Creighton nor Wood, who
was more of a silent partner, had experience selling tires. “There was a
Goodyear store in Edenton that had
closed and Goodyear wanted to rent it
to us for $700 a month. We were scared
to do it. So we built this little tin building onto our oil warehouse. That became our tire store.”
Goodyear was Creywood Oil’s only
tire brand in those days. “You were required to be exclusive. It was expected.”
Creighton bought out Wood’s stock
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in 1980. Creywood continued to sell oil
until 1987, when that part of the business was sold. “The oil business and the
tire business have always been thought
of as similar businesses, but they aren’t
very similar at all. You make 20%,
30% or 40% gross profit on tires and
far, far less on oil. We couldn’t even
run the same profit and loss statement.”
It was time to focus on tires.
Learning curve
Creighton admits he had a hard time
adjusting to being out of the petroleum
business. “The first morning after the
sale I looked over at my old oil tanks
and said, ‘How could they open up
without me?’”
He couldn’t afford to ruminate for
too long. Developing the tire business
required time and concentration. He
already had begun to build his staff. In
1979, he hired Chauncey Krahenbill, an
old friend from Virginia, and Doug
Hodges, who came with the second oil
company. (Both are still with the company. Krahenbill is a partner, vice president and manages Colony Tire’s commercial tire division; Hodges is now an
executive vice president and runs one
of the company’s Mighty Auto Parts
franchises.)
Creighton’s duties included “everything and anything — selling, putting
on tires, loading trucks, you name it.
One of my biggest responsibilities was
figuring out how to get enough money
to cover the checks I mailed out the
previous day.”
Looking back, he says the learning
curve was steep, “but I don’t think we
knew how steep it was at the time. We
lived from day to day.”
Within a few years the company was
up to three stores. In 1982, Creighton
bought his fourth store, a small tire
shop in Williamston, N.C. It burned
down 100 days after he bought it.
He didn’t have enough insurance to
cover the loss and his bank wouldn’t
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loan him enough money to build a new
outlet. “I found a savings and loan that
loaned me the money to rebuild in a
better location. We then built a retread
plant next to our original store in
Edenton.”
Meanwhile, the market was changing.
Customers, especially at the retail level,
wanted more choices. Goodyear remained Creywood’s top-shelf brand
“but we made the decision that we had
Colony Tire has retail stores throughout North Carolina and Virginia. The
to have a less expensive line of tires.”
dealership invests about 3% of its total sales in advertising. “Advertising is
Creighton added Mastercraft, manuhard to track,” says Creighton. “We have store managers who say direct
factured by Cooper Tire & Rubber
mail is the best method.” Colony Tire also uses TV and radio.
Co., as a second-tier line in the 1980s.
The dealership also moved into
thought all you had to do in Raleigh
“There are a lot of low-income people
larger markets like Richmond, Va., and
was open up and they’d be standing
in our rural markets. We felt we
the Chesapeake, Va., area.
there waiting for you. I was wrong. It
needed a more economically priced tire
costs so much more money to do busito sell them, and it worked.”
ness in Raleigh. The cost of land and
Creighton continued to add personnel.
Bigger and better
personnel is much higher. The cost of
His son, Scott, joined the company in
On the retail side, Colony Tire has
congestion is much higher.
1990. Goodyear had offered Scott a job
added outlets through acquisitions and
“Getting in a service truck and going
after graduation, but he decided to work
new construction. Each method pre15 miles to fix someone’s flat is easy in
in the family business. (Scott was named
sents its own challenges. (Colony Tire’s
Edenton; it’s hard in Raleigh. It was a
president of Colony Tire last year and is
retail tire sales-to-automotive service
another partner in the
ratio is roughly 50-50.)
dealership. Rounding
“Some acquisitions have
out the company’s
been good, but in some
owners is Charlie’s
we’ve inherited a lot of
son-in-law, Andrew
bad will,” says Creighton.
Bergeron, who joined
“It’s taken a lot of work to
Colony Tire in 1995.)
eliminate that.
Opportunities in the
“We bought a store just
form of new locations
south of Raleigh with lots
continued to present
of traffic and a good locathemselves, but the
tion. There wasn’t any
dealership had no
question that the store was
“five-year plan,” acgoing to do well. But it
cording to the elder
had been operated for 10
Creighton.
years by a man who had a
“We’ve never said
lot of bad press. I didn’t
that on January 1
think we’d ever turn it
we’re going to open
around.”
two new stores or
But Creighton and his
Chauncey Krahenbill (left) has been with Colony Tire since 1979. “Charwe’re going to buy lie’s always been a great leader in opening the doors of opportunity,” staff persevered and manthree stores next year. says Krahenbill. “He knows how to relate to all kinds of people.”
aged to restore relations
I’m not advocating
with customers. “Word-ofbig struggle to turn Raleigh into a profthat as the right way to do it. That’s just
mouth is what put that store in the hole
itable area for us.”
how we’ve done it.”
and word-of-mouth is what pulled it
Colony Tire now has eight stores in
In 1991, the company changed its
out of the hole.”
the greater Raleigh area. “Raleigh is
name to Colony Tire. Up to this point,
Building new stores is challenging
like another world. We had to adjust
most of the firm’s stores were in small
due to the high cost of zoning, conhow we did everything there.”
towns or rural areas. Creighton wanted
struction and in many cases, wading
“We’re a thousand times better than
to push into larger markets. He chose
through endless red tape, especially in
we used to be,” says Scott. “Those
Raleigh, N.C., and opened a truck tire
larger markets.
stores are doing well and are making a
center there in 1992.
“In places like Raleigh, they have so
lot of money.”
It was another learning experience. “I
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many restrictions you almost shudder
thinking about it. You need a building
permit, you need a plumbing permit,
you need a certificate of occupancy.
One time we wanted to build a store
and had a hard time getting a building
permit, so we literally snuck into the
building inspector’s office, and when he
came walking by we talked to him!
Colony Tire relies on direct mail to
lure customers to its new retail stores.
“If we’re going into a brand new town
where nobody has ever heard of us, we
also use TV and radio. Overall, we’re
spending $2 million a year in advertising, $1 million of that in electronic
media.”
The dealership also distributes wallet
cards offering discounts on transmission system flushes, coolant system
Evolution of a company
Colony Tire now has 40 locations
throughout two states. Creighton’s responsibilities have evolved along with
his business. He does more office work
than field work, but selling remains his
first passion.
“I’m glad we’ve done what we’ve
done, but at the same time there’s
nothing more fun than being behind
the sales counter and meeting the customer’s needs.”
Scott Creighton, Bergeron, Krahenbill and others have taken on additional duties. “Scott
started as a manager
trainee. Chauncey started
out changing tires. Andrew came in to be our financial person, but he trained in the
stores for a good while before he went
to the office. They’ve all grown into
more management.
“Scott is far superior to me in a number of tire-related subjects. Andrew is
far superior to me in computers and accounting. Chauncey is superior to the
rest of us in OTR tire knowledge. I’ve
been lucky in that they’ve brought
something new to the party. They have
their own ideas and positions and have
made huge contributions to our
growth.”
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‘You can build a million-dollar store
and there will be another $100,000
in red tape expense.’
“You can build a million-dollar store
and there will be another $100,000 in
red tape expense,” he sighs. “It’s the
cost of getting all of the bureaucracy to
say ‘yes.’”
Tire shops aren’t always embraced by
communities, says Creighton. “Sometimes they’re not sure they want a tire
store. Maybe they’ve had ugly stores in
the past or maybe there have been used
tires outside... it’s a negative image.”
It can take up to two years to open a
store. “Smaller markets are theoretically easier,” but regulations, even in
small towns, are always changing.
flushes and other services, in addition
to free oil changes, alignment checks
and tire rotations.
“We sell them for $10,” often to
major area employers who, in turn,
hand them out to their employees, says
Creighton. “We’ve been doing it for
years. Some of my store managers
don’t embrace the idea as much as I do,
because they say all a person will do is
a free oil change. I say, ‘Sooner or later
that customer has to do something different. What you have to do is be nice
and charming during that oil change,
and he or she will be back.’”
Colony Tire sells passenger, light truck, medium truck, OTR, farm
and other tires. It also sells specialty tires to logging operations
and other firms within the forestry industry. “Our business is
only as good as our customers’ business,” says Creighton.
“When there’s no flow of money, we feel it.”
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By the early ’90s, Colony Tire had a
retail division, a commercial division
and a busy retread plant. Opportunity
soon beckoned again — this time at the
wholesale level.
Colony Tire began wholesaling to
smaller tire dealers. “We’d go to one
of our stores and somebody next
door would need a tire. I thought,
‘Why not sell it to him?’”
It didn’t take long to figure out
that wholesaling tires under the
Colony Tire name would be
an awkward proposition.
Creighton quickly came up
with a new name for his
wholesale unit: Atlantic
Tire Distributors. “Resellers don’t want Colony
Tire backing up to their
doors, particularly in
towns where there are Colony
stores.”
The wholesale business, he says, is
much different than retail or commercial. “We’ll gladly sell to anyone who
will hopefully pay us. When you charge
to resellers, some
aren’t as quick (as customers in other segments) to pay. It’s not a
fool-proof business by
any means.”
Atlantic Tire Distributors has three warehouses: one in Edenton
(which runs nine delivery
trucks), one in suburban
Raleigh (five trucks), and
another in Colonial
Heights, Va. (two trucks).
Creighton openly admits Atlantic is still
working out some
kinks, but he’s happy
with the division’s
progress. Putting the
right leadership in place
has been critical.
“We’ve come a long
way,” says Harold Strakusek, Atlantic’s general
manager, who started
with the unit 11 months
“I’ve never felt that what we’ve done has been too ago. “We have somemuch,” says Creighton (with a new Bandag retread). thing for everybody.”
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Colony Tire also has another revenue
stream in two Mighty Auto Parts franchises, one in Edenton and an
other in Raleigh. The
loca-
Colony Tire hands
out its own private brand
peanuts to customers. The package is produced
by a company in
Edenton. “One of
the biggest industries in our area is
peanuts,” says
Creighton.
tions sell Mighty parts to other tire dealerships and automotive repair garages.
Sudden loss
Creighton’s associates and colleagues
say you would be hard-pressed to find a
more astute businessman in any profession.
“He’s very shrewd,” says Bob Smith,
former executive director of the North
Carolina Tire Dealers and Retreaders
Association. (Creighton was president
of the group in 1989, has served on its
board and remains active in the association.)
“Charlie can ask more questions than
a three-year-old. He’s extremely inquisitive and is always looking for ways
to improve.”
His ability to react quickly to market
developments is another valuable attribute, according to Smith.
Creighton doesn’t disagree with that
assessment. “When Ford and Firestone
had their first recall, we bought all of
the available replacement sizes from
Goodyear three days before the recall
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MTD Dealer Profile: Charlie Creighton
Full name: Charles Alfred Creighton
Age: 63
Family: Susan B. Creighton (wife); C. Scott and Marshall Creighton (son
and daughter-in-law); Andrew and Stephanie Bergeron (son-in-law and
daughter); 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 grandfather.
My biggest regret: not being a better golfer.
My favorite book: “Uncommon Carriers” by John McPhee
My 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 opportunity for successful business that seems to be somewhat recessionproof.
Charlie and Susan Creighton have been married for 42 years.
32
was announced.” He had been following news reports leading up to the announcement. “We guessed that it was
going to happen and figured if it didn’t
happen, we could cancel the order. The
same thing happened when the second
recall occurred; we placed an order
three days ahead of time.”
Then the unexpected happened, he
says. Goodyear canceled the order.
“They found three trucks that were on
their way to deliver the tires and called
them back to give the tires to Ford.
Ford was doing the recall and they let
Ford dictate where the tires went.
“But Ford had become good friends
with us during the first recall. They insisted that all the tires for our area come
through us. Goodyear wanted to send
the tires to their company-owned stores.
Ford said, ‘We’re not going to get them
through your company-owned stores.
We want to get them through Colony.’”
Colony Tire gradually added tire
brands over the years, but Goodyear
remained its main line.
Its relationship with Goodyear came
to an abrupt end in September 2005
when, according to Creighton, the
Akron, Ohio-based tire manufacturer
“canceled” them.
Colony Tire, unhappy with Goodyear’s retread system, had signed on
with Bandag. Creighton says he didn’t
know that he wouldn’t be able to sell
Goodyear products if he switched to
another retread system. It was a tough
blow — and a surprising one.
“Goodyear was a good partner. I told
them — and I believe it to this day —
had they told us before we signed with
Bandag that we would not be able to
be a Goodyear dealer, then I think we
would have continued making retreads
with the Goodyear system or we would
have just bought retreads from somewhere else.”
Scott Creighton, Bergeron — who
also serves as Colony Tire’s executive
vice president — and Krahenbill also
were at the meeting with Goodyear,
which was held at Goodyear headquarters. On the flight home, they began
strategizing.
“Immediately when we got back to
Edenton we lined up meetings with
Continued on page 34...
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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 for
one second that Charlie doesn’t step in when things aren’t going well. He steps in with both feet!”
Continued from page 32...
other suppliers and contacts, and by the
end of the year, we had new programs
in place,” says Bergeron.
“Charlie is extremely confident. We
knew the Colony name was strong
enough that we could convince most of
our customers to switch over to someone else.”
The process wasn’t easy, Creighton
openly admits. “We were Goodyear
blue for so long it really took awhile for
us to come to grips with not waking up
every morning and planning to do
something for Goodyear. In the past,
we would need to hit numbers and we
would do that even when it wasn’t necessarily the best decision for Colony.”
Since then, Colony Tire has worked
vigorously to build its own name instead of hitching its business to any one
manufacturer.
“Right here in Edenton, people used
to say, ‘Go to the Goodyear store.’
Now everybody says, ‘Go to the
Colony store,’” says Bergeron. “Our
primary push going forward is to be
Colony Tire.”
‘Full authority’
‘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.’
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Overall, Creighton describes Colony
Tire’s relations with its suppliers as
“excellent. We’ve had days where
we’re irritated by some of the programs
they try to push on us, but we’ve had a
19-year marriage with Cooper that’s
been superb, we’ve had a 10-year marriage with Toyo that’s been superb, and
we have new love affairs going on with
Michelin, Continental and various others.”
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their volume from overseas. Therefore,
getting them to discount prices is more
difficult today. There used to be more
room for negotiation.”
The establishment of a multi-brand
strategy with products segmented not
just by price but by business unit has
worked well for Colony Tire. “One of
the things Goodyear used to preach is
that having too many brands costs
more in inventory and causes too much
confusion at the counter. By and large,
they’re right. We have some brands we
tend to just retail and some we tend to
just wholesale.”
Colony Tire sells Mastercraft,
Cooper, Toyo, Michelin, BFGoodrich,
Uniroyal, Falken, Continental, General, Kumho and Goodride brand tires
at both the retail and wholesale levels.
The Cordovan brand is its wholesaleonly brand.
The dealership does not dictate
prices to its retail stores. “We do not
insist that our managers sell tires for
Continued on page 37...
Tire manufacturers often talk about
what they expect from distributors and
dealers, but suppliers also have obligations to their customers, he says.
This includes providing quality products at what Creighton calls “proper
market prices. I don’t care what I pay
for a tire; I like to sell it for a profit. If
I’m paying $100 for a tire from Michelin and other dealers are paying $100
and selling it for $110, that’s not Michelin’s fault. But if I’m paying $100 and
selling it for $110 because my competitors are paying $80 and selling for $110,
then Michelin has to help me.”
He and his partners have discovered
that discounts are harder to negotiate
than in the past. “We understand that
tire manufacturers need to recover the
pricing they have in place because
they’re having plenty of struggles with
raw material costs and the erosion of
MTD SEPTEMBER 2007
35
By land or sea
Colony Tire now counts 500 different firms among its
forestry tire clients, most of them loggers, sawmills and
paper manufacturers. These companies rely on Colony Tire’s
Colony Tire finds lucrative business
expertise to guide their purchase decisions.
in forestry, port tires
“Forestry tires are a little more specialized than regular
When asked to give advice to tire dealers who are just truck tires,” says Creighton. In turn, Colony Tire charges a
starting out, Colony Tire Corp. CEO Charlie Creighton simply higher premium for them.
Selling tires to ports has been another lucrative niche. “We
says, “Find a niche.” Colony Tire has found two profitable
do a lot of port and container business in the Tidewater, Va.,
niches in forestry tires and selling tires to ports.
Creighton was first exposed to forestry tires as a child. “I area,” which includes Norfolk, Chesapeake and some other
had relatives in the forestry business.” But it wasn’t until his coastal towns. Colony Tire sells tires for machines that move
containers around, and for other
stint as a Caterpillar salesman that he
applications.
began closely looking at them. He learned
“Ports also depend upon us for
about the tires and their fitments.
the technical services we pro“The moment I went into the tire busivide. We’ve developed our own
ness I started selling forestry tires. At first
tracking software. They want us
it looked like a wide open market to us.
to manage their tires and also
But it took us a long time to get successful
their tire cost.
in the forestry tire business.
“It’s not the initial cost they
“It takes a lot of capital. You need big
care about; it’s the total cost. And
service trucks,” which typically cost
that’s a real plus for us, because
around $150,000, he says. Outfitted with
we can sell our services rather
tire manipulators, they can cost up to
than just the price of the tire.”
$250,000 each.
Colony Tire also sells plenty of
Pitching Colony Tire’s services was an- “You can do alright without a niche,” but
other challenge. “Not every dealer around having one, or in Colony Tire’s case, sev- retreads to port operations. Its
here was selling forestry tires, but loggers eral, doesn’t hurt, says Charlie Creighton. supplier, Bandag Inc., even ofwere getting tires from somebody, some- Colony Tire has carved out a profitable fers special tread patterns for
niche by selling tires to port operations.
container movers.
where.”
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$89. They sell it for whatever they want. They know
what the cost is. We think the motivation to sell it for
the right price is that we pay them based on net
profit. So if they’re selling the tire cheap, they’re not
making any money.
“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. We empower them to
run their stores with full authority; that includes selling a tire that costs $50 for $49 if that’s what they
think they have to do. But at the end of the month, if
they haven’t made a profit that’s when we have faceto-face meetings.”
An under-performing store can “almost always” be
traced to personnel issues, says Creighton. “You
might be able to find a place where the best manager
in the country can’t make a living, but most of the
time the right management will make a store successful... pricing the tire correctly, giving the proper
customer service and selling the customer everything
he needs instead of half of what he needs.”
Since most of his stores handle multiple types of
tires, Creighton has installed separate consumer tire
and commercial tire managers at many of them.
“It’s very hard to find a manager who can do a
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MTD SEPTEMBER 2007
Charting Colony’s growth
In 2000, Colony Tire Corp. had 27 locations. It now has 40 locations
throughout two states, North Carolina and Virginia. Here’s a graph
that charts the company’s growth.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
Source: MTD Top Independent Tire Store Chains lists
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Staff master
Different things motivate employees,
says Creighton
Recruiting quality personnel has always been a major challenge for Colony Tire Corp., says CEO Charlie Creighton. And
keeping good employees presents its own set of challenges,
he adds.
“We’ve always wanted to be a preferred place to work. We
try to conduct ourselves and structure our benefit programs
so we’re seen as a preferred employer.”
While Creighton says there’s no magic formula for employee hiring and retention, the following strategies have
proven successful for Colony Tire:
1. High selectivity in hiring.
2. Competitive wages and incentives.
3. A strong benefits package.
4. Recognition of employee achievements.
Colony Tire used to have an Employee Stock Ownership
Plan (ESOP), but has discontinued it. “The government
changed the tax laws on ESOPs pretty significantly, so we
bought the ESOP back, which was a big plus; our employees
received five years of income in advance. Then we replaced
the ESOP with a profit-sharing plan. If we make a profit, we
share that profit with our employees. We don’t have to do it.
But if we stop our profit sharing plan, we’ll lose enthusiasm
on the part of our employees.
On employee recognition: “Money motivates employees,
but in many cases personal recognition is almost as important. Being respected and personally recognized for the successful performance of their job means a lot to them.” Colony
Tire gives out safety awards, sales awards and its Top Dog
Award, an annual honor bestowed upon the employee “who’s
doing the best in all categories.”
Money, benefits and formal recognition are effective incentives. But so are intangibles like accessibility, a positive work
Here are Creighton’s thoughts in greater
detail:
On competitive wages. “We have 500 employees and 300 of them, in some manner,
are paid based on profitability (above and beyond their base wages),” he says. “In some
cases, the commission they make for the
profitability of their stores is 60% to 70% of
their total income.
“I don’t think there’s anything more important than a tire changer feeling he can
improve his income by doing a better job,”
says Creighton. “With our system, they feel
more appreciated than if they were making
$10 an hour, period. If they’re making $8 an “The first thing we try to do is promote from within,” says Creighton
hour and then so much per tire they put on, (with long-time employee Barry Hollowell). “It’s a cliché; everybody
so much per balance, so much per oil says that. But when you can do it, it’s a good feeling.”
change... they feel they have some control
environment and a sense of belonging, according to
over their destiny.”
On strong benefits. In addition to a full range of medical Creighton. “We have an open door policy. Employees walk
benefits, Colony Tire offers a 401(k) and a profit sharing pro- into my office every day. We don’t have utopia, but we’re
gram. For the 401(k), the company matches 40 cents per dol- conscious of the fact that the best thing we can do for our
success is have good associates.”
lar up to 6% of an employee’s salary.
Congratulations to Charlie Creighton and the Colony
Tire 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. RDH
Tire & Retread Co. is honored to be one of your valued suppliers.
RDH Tire & Retread Co.
1315 Redmon Rd., Cleveland, NC 27013
www.rdhtire.com
704-278-9621 or 800-228-4730
38
www.moderntiredealer.com
Continued from page 37...
good job at both,” he says. “A lot of
times if he’s good in retail, he’s not good
in commercial. It’s hard to understand
the consumer and commercial sides of
the business at the same time.”
Of course, the division of labor has to
make sense from an income generation standpoint. “If you’re
only doing $30,000 worth of consumer each month, you can’t afford to have a consumer-only
manager. But if you’re doing
$130,000 a month in consumer
and $275,000 a month in commercial, you’ve got to have two people. I wish we could find managers who can do it all — and in
some cases we have — but as a general
rule, it takes two different individuals.”
“He never wants to make his people
do something,” says Scott Creighton of
his father. “He wants to include them
in the decision-making. He’s not dictatorial at all. He gives his employees an
awful lot of authority, and I think that’s
helped him be very successful.
“He inspires people. He has a great
ability to motivate the people who
work under him to want to do things
for him and enjoy what they’re doing.”
Profit opportunities
Competition in Colony Tire’s markets is intensifying due to an influx of
tors because they own the business
themselves and do a good job.”
On the commercial side, Creighton
cites Greensboro, N.C.-based Snider
Tire Co., Michelin-owned Tire Centers
LLC and Goodyear’s Wingfoot Commercial Tire Systems LLC as particularly fierce competitors.
‘If you’re doing $130,000 a month in
consumer and $275,000 a month
in commercial, you’ve got to
have two (managers).’
MTD SEPTEMBER 2007
large national chains. In its early days,
the company dealt primarily with other
independent tire dealerships and tire
manufacturer-owned stores. Now its rivals include operations like Discount
Tire Co. Inc. and Goodyear-owned Just
Tires. “And every town we’re in still
has an excellent independent tire
dealer. They’re always strong competi-
Following national trends, more car
dealerships in Colony Tire’s markets
are heavily pushing passenger and light
truck tires. Creighton decided his company could make more money selling
to car dealerships than against them.
But he concedes that car dealerships
are formidable rivals.
Continued on page 40...
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Continued from page 39...
“They have a big advantage. They make money selling the car and they make
money doing warranty work
on the car; then it’s tires and
service. They’ve already
made money selling the car
and working on the car. Finally, when the non-warranty
service is available, we’re
competing for it. When the
replacement tire sale is available, we’re competing for it.
“If they had to live on the
same sources of profit we
live on,” he continues, “they
would be an entirely different kind of competitor. If I
could get everyone to stop
selling to the car dealer and
the car dealer couldn’t get a
“The best thing a boss can say to an employee tire, then I might consider
is, ‘Thank you for a job well-done,’” says
doing the same. But he can
Creighton (checking customer files with Ben
Rinehart, Colony Tire’s director of credit ser- get the tire. I might as well
vices). “Compliments are very important. I try be the one to sell it to him.”
to find something to be positive about.”
Independent tire dealer-
40
ships hold several advantages over car
dealerships despite the latter group’s
additional revenue streams, according
to Creighton. Number one, he says, are
advancements in tire technology that
tire dealers understand and are better
equipped to sell. “When we had the
bias-ply 195/75R14, they didn’t have
much appeal. Now there’s a lot of glamour associated with high performance
tires and off-road tires and SUV tires.
“I think tires are a little more important than they used to be. They last
longer and just have more appeal. Take a
V-rated Toyo Versado; that’s not a commodity — that’s the real thing.”
However, more tires bring more
sizes, which, he admits, are hard to
track and inventory. “It’s a constant
study process of what’s been sold and
how many tires we didn’t sell because
we didn’t have them.”
Colony Tire constantly phases sizes
in and out. “Phasing out is what’s
hard,” he says. “Some sizes go out of
style and you’re just left with them.”
Commercial tires, especially giant OTR
tires, remain a big revenue generator for
www.moderntiredealer.com
the company, according to Krahenbill,
who runs its commercial unit.
When the shortage of large OTR
tires began several years ago, “we created a new company called Global
Tyres to service mines worldwide.”
Global Tyres sources tires from Russia
and the Ukraine and ships them all
over the globe. “We also developed an
itoring systems is through constant
training.
Colony Tire has a large training center
next door to its corporate headquarters.
And it also employs a dedicated vice
president of training, Scott Anderson,
who travels from store to store.
“He’s exceptionally good at consumer
tire training. We’re working with him to
“I don’t think anybody should decide
they’re doing it perfectly. Our jobs
need scrutiny every day. Once you decide you’re doing it perfectly, that’s
probably the beginning of the end.”
Community pillar
At 63, Creighton jokes that he’s slowing down; he only works 60 hours a
week. “What I’d like to
do are only the fun
things.”
Earlier in his career, he
admits he did “a poor,
poor job” of balancing his
professional life with his
personal life. “I’ve been
accused of being a workaholic. Over the last five to
10 years, I’ve been able to do more
with my family.”
Creighton also is finding more time
to pursue hobbies like boating and fishing. (The biggest fish he ever caught
was an 80-pound tuna. “I’ve never
caught a marlin.”)
He and his wife, Susan, have a house
Continued on page 42...
‘I think tires are a little more important
than they used to be. They last longer
and just have more appeal.’
OTR retread supplier in Peru. We
bring casings into our yard in Edenton,
we ship them to Peru, they come back
to us and we ship them to our customers. We also offer tire management
programs for our OTR customers.”
Creighton believes the only way to
stay on top of changing sizes and new
technologies such as tire pressure mon-
MTD SEPTEMBER 2007
put (programs) into classroom form.”
Colony tire is aggressive when it
comes to trying new software. (Its current point-of-sale software provider is
ASA Tire Systems.)
Creighton says he’s always “secondguessing” what he’s doing. He wants
his employees to be just as critical of
their own performance.
41
Creighton on the Colony Tire name: “ I wanted a name that could be everybody’s name. I want everybody here to
say, ‘I’m a part of the company.’” The name also reflects North Carolina’s colonial origins.
42
www.moderntiredealer.com
Continued from page 41...
on North Carolina’s Outer Banks,
where they spend weekends with family, including two grandsons and four
granddaughters, ages eight months
through 10 years.
Family is important to Creighton, and
he attributes much of his success to
Susan. “She tolerates my work schedule, she tolerates me being late for this
or that — she tolerates a lot of things
other wives wouldn’t tolerate. She
makes it easy for me to do what I need
to do. She’s also a tremendous volunteer in the community.”
Both are extremely active in community affairs. “I’ve been president of the
Edenton Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, and the Lion’s Club. I’m involved in my church, St. Paul’s Episcopal.”
Creighton’s philanthropy extends beyond Edenton. In early 2002, he and
Susan spent a week in New York City
near Ground Zero serving food to World
Trade Center rescue workers. “We chose
the night shift because it was a harder
Continued on page 44...
MTD SEPTEMBER 2007
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 the
people who know him best — his partners.
• Scott Creighton, president of Colony Tire Corp.: “He never wants to make
his people do something. He wants to include them in the decision-making. He
wants everybody to feel like they’re making their own decisions instead of ‘I’m
the 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 and
general manager, Commercial Division: “He
knows how to relate to all kinds of people. It’s
building relationships and having a connection
with everyone he’s come across. And he’s instilled that in his people.”
Bob Smith, former executive director of the
North Carolina Tire Dealers & Retreaders Association, has known Creighton for 20-plus years.
Smith admires Creighton’s leadership skills.
“You can’t put together an organization like he
has without extremely strong leadership.”
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Continued from page 43...
shift,” he recalls. “It was a heck of an experience. You see these firefighters and
construction workers crying... Sept. 11
was probably the worst thing that ever
happened to this country.”
Creighton also donated $50,000 to
Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. “His
nature is not to make a big to-do about
his community involvement and charity
participation,” says Roland Vaughan,
Edenton’s mayor. “Charlie is a harddriving businessman but also a very
compassionate person who’s always
willing to reach out.
“He sees a need, and when he understands that need he’s an above-average
contributor to whatever the cause may
be. I think that’s part of his analytical
nature.”
Vaughan is particularly grateful for
the positive economic impact Colony
Tire has on Edenton, which has fewer
than 6,000 residents. “Charlie could
have located his headquarters in a lot
of other places, probably in places
more suitable than Edenton. But his
heart is in this community.”
As one of Edenton’s top employers,
“Colony Tire is a tremendous economic 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 and
sell some more. “Nothing ever happens
until you sell something, and when you
sell something a lot of things happen.
“I don’t like mean customers. I don’t
like customers who are unreasonable.
But most of the people you deal with
are wonderful folks, and if you do
something for them they appreciate it.
Elite company
Creighton joins a 15-member club as Tire Dealer of the Year
Charlie 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, Chowan
Hospital 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 Tyres
2000 Ltd.;
• Saul Ludwig, long-time author of MTD’s Ludwig Report and a managing
director 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 past
Dealer of the Year stories can be found on www.moderntiredealer.com.
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 Centers
1998 - Tom Gegax,
Team Tires Plus Ltd.
1999 - Raynal Pearson,
Pearson Tire Co.
Modern Tire Dealer would like to thank Colony Tire’s suppliers who have run
congratulatory ads in this section and have made possible the generous donations
that were made to the charities of Charlie Creighton’s choice.
“I’ve never had any illusions about
the tire business being a glamorous
business. When I was selling Caterpillar machines I never spent much time
thinking that I wanted to be a tire
dealer. When I was selling kerosene
RBC Centura congratulates
our valued partner,
Charlie Creighton and Colony
Tire Corporation as the 2007
Dealer of the Year. You are a
GIANT in the tire industry.
Member FDIC. ® Registered trademarks of Royal Bank of Canada. RBC Centura is a trade name used by
RBC Centura Bank. SM “Let’s do something giant.” is a service mark of RBC Centura Banks, Inc.
44
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.
and diesel fuel I never thought I
wanted to be a tire dealer.”
What separates independent tire
dealers from other business people?
“We make less money,” he says with a
laugh. “We work harder and get dirtier.
You know, when I wasn’t in the tire
business it had no appeal to me. But
once I got in it, I found that I loved it.
It meets all of my needs. I don’t want
to be a lawyer. I’m not smart enough to
be a doctor. The tire business has
served me well and I’m delighted to be
in it. I don’t want to be anything else.”
Creighton has been approached
about selling his dealership — in fact,
several times. Some of the offers were
extremely lucrative. “We’ve gone down
the path with (a few interested parties)
pretty far, but we didn’t like their ideas
and didn’t go any further. We like
working for ourselves.” ■
www.moderntiredealer.com