1. business and industrial

The name that’s known is
Larry Morgan
Our Tire Dealer of the Year
has a tried-and-true blueprint for building tire store chains
By Bob Ulrich
L
arry Morgan bleeds Firestone red. He was hired out
of college in 1965 by the Firestone Tire & Rubber
Co., and almost immediately put in their “fast track”
program.
His seven years at Firestone gave him the confidence to
succeed — as a tire dealer. He left the company as a district
manager and joined Merchant’s Inc., taking over a familyrun, nine-store tire dealership and turning it into one of the
largest independent tire store chains in the country.
He might never have left, if not for a conflict of interests
that came to a head in 1990. “In the simplest of terms, as I
look back on it, we had different philosophies,” says Morgan.
“I thought I owned the company, and they really did.” Of
course, Merchant’s sold Firestone tires during his tenure
there.
A year later, he purchased Don Olson Firestone, a 33-outlet chain based in Clearwater, Fla. Ironically, Olson, a former
Firestone employee himself, hired Morgan as a Firestone
trainee in 1965. In the next 10 years, Morgan Tire & Auto increased its number of stores almost 17 fold!
On August 9, Morgan announced he had sold majority interest in his 558 stores to, who else? Bridgestone/Firestone Inc.
If it seems Morgan has come full circle, he hasn’t. He still
owns 48% of his soon-to-be renamed Tires Plus chain, and
has a contract to run it his way through 2008. By then, BFS
will own 100% of the dealership.
His undeniable successes have earned him Modern Tire
Dealer’s “Tire Dealer of the Year” honors, and a monetary
donation in his name to the charity
or charities of his choice.
Formative years
In high school, Larry was
captain of the football team as a
MTD SEPTEMBER 2001
linebacker and fullback. He was the starting catcher in baseball, and a power forward in basketball. He also was a discus
thrower and shot putter for the track team. “I wanted to be a
football coach,” he says. “That was my original plan. After a
short period of time, I realized I wasn’t going to make a lot of
money doing it.”
“My mom thought I was nuts for growing my company so
big,” says Morgan. “She would ask me, ‘Why do you want
more responsibility, more pressure, more financial obligations?’ But to me, it’s not a monetary issue. I enjoy the thrill
of the hunt, the accomplishment.
“Mostly, I like to see my people grow, do things I used to
do. Some 40 people in the company do what I used to do:
They run 30 stores. I try to instill in them the idea that ‘Hey,
look what might be in store for you some day.’”
Their different perspectives make sense given Larry and his
mom were products of radically different eras. Larry’s mom
and dad, Marguerite and Cecil, were greatly affected by the
Depression. They had purchased his grandfather’s farm, and
then lost all their money when their bank went out of business. Larry’s mom, a teacher, rode a horse seven miles to
school every day; she carried coal in the saddlebags to heat
the school. “She was a real pioneer woman,” he says.
Larry was born in a farm house in LaBelle, Mo., or, as he
says, “Missoura.” His sister, Joe Ellen, came along two years
later. “We had an outhouse till I was 12, then we got indoor
plumbing!” he says.
A few years after he was born, his father became a state
highway patrolman, and his parents rented the farm to a
sharecropper. “After they found out I wasn’t going to be a
farmer, they sold it.”
His father would take him hunting and fishing, or to a baseball game from time to time. His mother applied scholastic
pressure. Both instilled a strong work ethic in their only son.
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“My mom was kind of my mentor. She used to visit stores
with me, go to the waiting room, talk to customers. She’d
have those people really believing in us in a short period of
time.”
His mother died in 1998 at age 88; his dad passed away in
1989. “He was a mentor, too, in many ways. But she lived
quite a few years longer.”
Seven times in seven years
In high school and college, Larry sold
fireworks at a truck stop on the Missouri
side of the Missouri-Illinois border. “The
last year before my senior year of college, I
had been open three weeks and a huge storm came up,” he recalls. “A tornado was coming, and my tent was flapping. I’m
thinking if my inventory gets wet, I’m a dead man. I had no insurance. I was praying in the tent. I could see five years of
work going up in one big storm. It was a scary moment.” Luck
was with Morgan; he lost very little of his inventory, and had
the money to finish college.
As he was wrapping up his business administration degree
from the University of Missouri, a number of companies
were on campus prospecting for fresh talent. One of them
was Firestone. “Truthfully, I didn’t know the hood from the
trunk,” said Morgan. “I was never a car buff. But there was
something about the job that intrigued me.” After graduation, he went to work as a trainee in a Firestone store, but
was soon put in the company’s “college management class.”
He was the first member of his class to be a store manager,
store supervisor, division store supervisor and district manager (“Being first was just the competitive nature coming out
of me”). He was Store Manager of the Year in Independence, Mo., in 1967. As a district manager in 1971, he handled both independent and company-owned stores. “They
had a series of jobs you went through. It was great experience
and great training.”
And a lot of traveling. Morgan moved seven times in seven
years, from coast to coast. “In those days, if they told you to
move, you did it.”
While working his way up Firestone’s ladder, Morgan had
brushes with former political leaders. At his Ind., Mo., store
from 1966-67, Harry Truman’s valet brought Truman’s car in
for maintenance. And in Topeka, Kan., Alf Landon, GOP
candidate for president in 1936, would come into the store
wearing his riding boots.
A man’s got to know his limitations
”My business philosophy is to surround myself with great
people, treat them the way I want to be treated and encourage
them to do the same. What I do today is not quite as hard as it
used to be thanks to the company’s
qualified people. I don’t micro-manage nearly as much as I used to five
years ago. I’m still very much aware
of what is going on in the stores, and I still spend a lot of time
in them. I travel a lot.”
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In 1995, Larry (pictured with, from left to right, his
wife, Peggy, and twins Lauren and Brett) was the proprietor of “Larry’s Best Burgers” at a gathering of Don
Olson Firestone executives and associates.
Morgan settled down when he joined Merchant’s in 1972.
The nine-store chain expanded to 137 stores in the next 18
years. “I built it and I ran it like it was my own,” he says.
“We had a five-year plan that I shared with employees. It
defined goals for both new stores and acquisitions, much like
I do here. It was a trial run for what I did for myself.”
Morgan says parting ways with Merchant’s led him to buying his own dealership. “It was the greatest thing that ever
happened to me.” He closed the deal with Don Olson in
early 1991. “I literally looked at dozens of opportunities. I
knew I was going to own my own business, and the reasons I
chose Olson were first, he was instrumental in hiring me out
of college, and he and I had remained friends and shared
ideas. Also, I thought Florida was a good place to be.
“I would have had a hard time going from a $200 million
organization to running two or three stores. Olson Tire was
big enough to keep me challenged. For all the right reasons it
worked. I spent the first one-and-a-half years getting what I
bought running the way I wanted it, putting the finishing
touches on getting it ready for growth.”
Prior to 2000, 1998 was Morgan’s big year for acquisitions:
He picked up Hibdon Tire in Oklahoma, Michel Tire in Ohio
and Avellino’s Tire & Auto Service Centers in Pennsylvania.
Wheel Works in California and American Discount Tire in
Georgia followed (see time line, pages 32-33).
But the biggest acquisition was yet to come.
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Team Tires Plus
”When I went to Germany last year to
speak at the European tire conference, I
said to my wife, ‘Let’s just go off somewhere.’ So we went off to France and
stayed in this 11th century castle and we
were h a v i n g a great time — and it
was right in the midst of my negotiations with the Tires Plus deal! So I’m sitting there in this round, beautiful castle
in France, and I’m getting up at two in
the morning to negotiate with Tires
Plus. And that’s the way it is.”
Morgan is almost always on the job.
When he jogs in the morning, he carries a tape recorder with him. “I use
my tape recorder constantly. If I’ve got
some issues on my mind, I record
them. Sometimes I dictate letters.
“When I go on vacation I take my
cell phone, I take my lap top. I’m into
it all the time. I couldn’t just leave it.”
In 2000, Morgan brought Team Tires
Plus into the fold. The acquisition of
the 82-store chain made Morgan Tire
the second largest independent tire
dealer in North America. It also gave
him a ready-made, 60-store franchise
program, and a name with which to
unify his stores nationwide.
Team Tires Plus owner and “Head
Coach” Tom Gegax (MTD’s Tire
Dealer of the Year in 1998) was named
chairman of Morgan Tire. He has since
semi-retired, with the title “chairman
emeritus,” according to Morgan.
“I think Tom is enjoying the good
life. He basically is there as my advisor
and consultant if I need him. He participates in our executive staff meetings if
he is not traveling or doing something
else. He has been a good sounding
board. He’s a good friend. He has certainly done an admirable job in deliv-
ering his company to us the way they
proposed that they’d do it.”
State of Emergency Fund
”Every year at the annual meeting, I
will read a couple of ‘thank you’ letters
without disclosing names and I will
look out there and there are people with
lumps in their throats and tears running
down their faces.”
One of the programs of which Morgan is most proud is his “Emergency
Fund,” something he was unable to implement at Merchant’s.
It works like this: If company associates have financial needs, they can contact the program’s “communicator” or
administrator. They must outline what
their needs are, the circumstances surrounding them, and how much they
need. Only the program administrator
knows who makes the requests.
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MTD Dealer Profile: Larry Morgan
Full name: Larry C. Morgan
If I could change one thing about myself I: would be more
patient.
Nickname:: Larry
My friends like me because: I am loyal.
Age: 57
Hobbies: golf and boating
My goals in life are: to earn the respect of others by being
honorable and trustworthy and to provide love and comfort for my family.
I’m most proud of: my children
Favorite childhood memory: hunting with my father and
fishing with my entire family
Biggest regret: being so immersed with my career that I
could not spend more time with my parents as they grew
older (although I talked to my mother EVERY DAY for the
last six years she was alive).
Favorite book: “Ronald Reagan” by Dinesh D’Souza
Favorite movie: anything with Clint Eastwood
Favorite television show: most anything on The History
Channel
A perfect evening for me is: a good Scotch and good
friends in a relaxed atmosphere.
Nobody knows that I: am very compassionate for those
needing help.
The smartest thing I’ve ever done: going into business for
myself
Best advice your parents gave you: Work hard and be financially conservative (although they thought I was nuts
when I continually stretched myself to grow our business).
Your advice to children: Get a great education, follow your
parent’s advice and know the Lord.
Favorite actor, actress: Clint Eastwood & Sophia Loren
Your most humbling experience: Army basic training
Favorite athlete: Walter Payton
Favorite sport: college basketball
Favorite politician: Ronald Reagan
Favorite food: stone crabs
The great thing about tire dealers today is: their entrepreneurial instincts and tenacity.
Your advice to a tire dealer just starting out: Be aligned
with a winning marketing group and have enough capital
to hang on through the tough times. And put your emphasis and money on quality people.
Are you a morning or a night person? morning
30
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Circle 109 on card
Career time line:
1943
1965
1970 1971 1972
1943
Larry Morgan is born in Labelle, Mo., on Nov. 17
1970
Division store supervisor
1989
Built Merchant’s’ first training center.
1965
• Graduated from University of Missouri with a BS
degree in Business Administration and Economics
• Joined Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. as trainee;
hired by Don Olson.
1971
District manager
1990
Left Merchant’s, now 137 stores.
1972
Joined Merchant’s Inc., an eight-store chain based
in Manassas, Va.
1991
Purchased Don Olson Tire & Auto Centers in Clearwater, Fla., 33 store chain
1987
Six distributor/shareholders form American Car Care
Centers. ACCC is the brainchild of Morgan.
1993
Founding member of TAG (Tire Alliance Groupe)
1967
Store manager
1968
Store supervisor
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The requests are then sent to a committee for review, according to Morgan. “No one knows who the committee members are, and they do not
know the name of the person who is
applying — they only know the circumstances... they are empowered either to
give money, loan money, or say no.”
Morgan says he has never been a
committee member. “I do keep pretty
conservative people on that committee,
people with sound judgment who
aren’t totally going to give away everything, but at the same time are compassionate.”
Decisions are often swift. “Typically,
You can’t fool mom when it comes to service
My mom, Alice Ulrich, goes to the Don Olson Total Car Care store at 1000 East
Bay Drive in Largo, Fla. It’s only three blocks from where she lives, which is why
she went there in the first place. But she continues to go there because of its
service.
She once had a flat front tire and had
the car towed to the store. She was prepared to buy two new tires, but “they
suggested one tire, a little cheaper so it
matched the tread on the other tires.
Now, I think that’s being pretty fair,
don’t you?”
They once invited her into the bay to
show her a problem they discovered.
She said no. “I don’t have to go back,”
she told the manager. “If I didn’t trust
you, I wouldn’t be here in the first
place.”
Chairman and CEO Larry Morganrecently sent a letter to my mom: “I know
you have been a customer of ours for
some time and we really appreciate your
business. I would like for you to have
this discount card to use whenever you
need tires or service.... If you ever need
any additional assistance or consultaN o , t h i s i s n o t m y m o m . B u t tion, please call me personally....
Bruce Lupinacci (pictured repair - Thanks again for your business.”
ing an H-rated tire) is a general
My mom says she will continue to go
s e r v i c e a s s o c i a t e a t t h e d e a l e r - back.
ship my mom frequents.
— Bob Ulrich
32
1967 1968
most of these requests are real, true
emergencies. People need it now —
maybe their mother just passed away
in Seattle and they do not have enough
money to get there, or they have been
evicted from their home and tomorrow
the sheriff is coming. It is serious
stuff.”
The company raises money for the
fund from an annual charity golf tournament and associate donations. Suppliers are asked to help out at the tournament as well. “People can make
payroll deductions,” he says. “We have
people taking 50 cents a week out, a
dollar, whatever they think they can afford.”
Last year, the fund doled out some
$300,000, including Christmas gift certificates for needy families in the organization.
“There is never a week goes by that I
don’t get an e-mail or voice mail from
someone we have helped. Sometimes I
get voice mails and people are just sobbing on the phone, not from sorrow
but from joy.
“Sometimes we will get hooked. We
will do something to help a person like
loan them $2,500 and the day after they
get the money they will quit and never
pay us back. We see the dark side of people, too. But for the most part, it is just a
fabulous deal.”
Competitive pricing
”We had some price wars with Tire
Kingdom that when I write my book I
am going to have to talk about.”
Morgan says Tire Kingdom is his
biggest competitor, at least in the
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1987
1989 1990 1991
1997
Purchased Automotive Industries, 22 stores based in
Jacksonville, Fla.
1999
Acquired assets of American Discount Tire, 8 stores
based in Atlanta market, in October.
1998
• Purchased Hibdon Tire Centers, 15 stores based in
Oklahoma City, Okla.
• Purchased Michel Tire, 57 stores based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• Purchased Avellino’s, 24 stores serving Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
• Purchased Wheel Works, 23 stores based in San
Jose, Calif.
2000
• Purchased H&R Auto Care, seven stores in Warner
Robins/Macon, Ga., area.
• Purchased Performance Discount Tire, 13 stores
in Washington, D.C., area.
• Purchased CSK stores, 27 with primary presence
in San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland, Calif.
Florida market. Sam’s Club, WalMart, Pep Boys and Midas shops
also provide varying degrees of
competition in Florida. NTW
does not, having left the market
within the last couple of years.
Occasionally, Morgan has to
compete based on price. He remembers one battle in particular. “We sold Firestone
1997 1998 1999 2000
2003
market in May.
2000
Purchased Tires Plus, an 82-store chain based in
Burnsville, Minn., in June.
2001
Vice president of TANA
2003
Will serve as President of the Tire Association of
North America
2000
Purchased four Tires Plus stores in Oklahoma City
Supremes back in the early
’90s, when that tire was Firestone’s premium tire. Tire
Kingdom went out and
bought a bunch of them from a
Firestone dealer. Our cost was
around $35 a tire, and we were
(forced to) sell them for around
$17 to compete. A Firestone
Supreme, say 195/14... at 50% of
cost! We would normally sell them for
$55.
“I just felt that I was the Firestone
retailer in the state and it was important to me to meet the price. I don’t
know, it could have been an ego thing.
But I didn’t want them to take our
business. I knew for every tire they
sold they were losing money, too. And
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MTD SEPTEMBER 2001
Circle 110 on card
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Goaloriented
Morgan reaches
for the stars
In 1997, Larry Morgan
listed his five main
goals for Morgan Tire &
Auto Inc. They are lofty
and elaborate goals,
sometimes abbreviated,
that he keeps handy in
order to stay focused.
Here is an abridged version of those goals.
be consistently monitored and maintained.
Add new high-tech displays to all profit centers. Review and correct
any deficiencies due to
painting, landscaping,
signage and overall appearance. Insist that all
business partners wear
approved uniforms,
maintain personal appearance per company
policy and conduct
themselves as ladies
and gentlemen at all
times.
4. Outpace industry
performance through
innovation and execution. Improve tire unit
sales (same store) 4.5%
by changing media mix,
outside solicitation,
phone work, and adding
additional inventory,
and emphasizing high
performance tire sales
training. New stores sell
7,200 units per year.
Find specific ways to
differentiate us from
competition in all three
sales divisions. Promptly and thoroughly execute all plans.
5. Create and cultivate plan for personal
growth for all associates through goal
process. See that corporate staff and supervisory business partners
check and promote the
goal process daily
everywhere we go. No
exceptions. See that
corporate staff, department heads, regional
vice presidents, store
directors, group managers and profit center
managers have a specific plan to transfer responsibility and aut h o r i t y (along with
instruction, assistance
and follow up) to a deserving, promotable
person in the organization structure.
5
1. Keep our company
financially strong and
healthy. Aggressively
promote sales, improve
GP and control expenses. Allow no one to
do otherwise. Deploy
more commercial and
wholesale salespeople.
Increase retail sales aggressiveness through
outside solicitation,
phone selling, increased
utilization of business
hours, and diversifying
advertising media. Insist that we sell at approved selling prices
while decreasing cost of
goods sold, and continue the daily review of
expenses. Make a pretax profit of 6% sales.
Continue debt reduction, maintain seven inventory turns, keep
capital expenditures in
line with depreciation.
Always keep customers
and business partners
number one.
2. Make our company
a desirable place to
work. Attract and retain
the very, very best people in the industry. Improve communications
to all utilizing the goal
process; employee evaluations; company meetings; increase training
and education. Increase
34
and properly conduct
regular profit center and
department meetings,
and increase executive
staff visits throughout
the company. Increase
compensation and benefits commensurate
with profit results. Provide career growth opportunities, consider increased vacation time,
upgrade work environment by remodeling and
expanding corporate office and selected profit
centers. Add and replace equipment, improve amount and quality of business partner
recognition and appreciation. Promote female
and other minority employment throughout
the company and totally
forbid any type of discrimination or harassment throughout the
company.
3. Flawless image in
eyes and minds of customers — service
through trust, integrity,
product quality, value,
physical appearance
(personal and facilities).
Establish and monitor
specific goal for reduction of customer complaints by profit centers
and business partners.
Obtain factual feedback
and data on customer
service perception by
interviewing customers.
Profit centers to randomly contact customers and record
feedback. Deploy undercover car on regular
schedule. Maximize
sales efforts commensurate with customer
expectations and comfort. Contact each Department of Consumer
Affairs two times per
year. Never allow a customer complaint go unresolved overnight.
Profit center image to
it would be a matter of who was the
best.”
Morgan describes Pep Boys as a
“low-end leader” without major brand
support. “They get probably a higher
than normal percentage of low-cost
buyers. There is no question that the
Sam’s Clubs and Wal-Marts are competition.
“Probably on the service side it’s the
car dealerships and Firestone,” says
Morgan. “Company-owned stores always have been and, to most of my
people, always will be competition. We
always have reciprocated and helped
each other when we needed tires for
one another. That’s one thing we do
now, so that won’t change.
“What probably won’t happen in this
new arrangement is we won’t be stealing each other’s people anymore. I
think that would be considered unpopular.”
Auto dealerships have not been
competitive on the retail tire side, according to Morgan. “I don’t think we
have felt them as tire competition. We
are obviously aware they are trying to
monopolize and probably doing a
pretty good job on the recall business.
Do I think they will become the next
big marketer of replacement tires? No.
“We have three stores in our company that do nothing but sell to car
dealers. That is their primary focus.
But that business has been affected
somewhat as the result of the car dealers having a direct purchase relationship with the manufacturers.
“It has always amazed me how so
many people think selling tires is so
profitable. To me, there has to be
something Sam’s can sell on a square
footage basis that brings a higher return.
“I just can’t fathom they sell everything else at the ridiculously low margins that they obviously make on
tires.”
As might be expected, economies of
scale play an important part in Morgan
Tire’s pricing philosophies. Store managers do have a say in determining
prices, however.
“Occasionally, someone will start a
little price war, and we’ll sell tires at a
loss. I have a marketing group that
makes pricing decisions. The marketwww.mtdealer.com
ing people place the ads and adjust the
computers. Our store managers have
flexibility to meet market conditions,
but they don’t actually set the prices either in ads or in any other fashion.
“We have a system in which our regional people can adjust prices based
on competitive conditions. They have
that authority. The ad’s look and all
that is done by somebody else, but they
can actually change pricing based on
what the competition is doing... they
can actually e-mail the prices right into
the ads.”
Before BFS became a majority
owner, however, the fate of the still expanding company was not preordained.
Morgan says venture capitalists, among
others, were offering him “a bunch of
money” to grow the company even
more.
“All this sounds intriguing and exciting, but then you realize you’ve just
sold your company to somebody (to
whom) dollars and cents are most important. And a lot of the things I
worked hard to accomplish, and some
of my goals and objectives, wouldn’t be
in my hands anymore.
“Quite frankly, I had another tire
company knocking on my door. BFS
found out about it. I was their largest
customer and they didn’t want to lose
the market share. So they started talking to me about what ifs and that’s really how it took place.
“My kids are independent and have
their own goals and objectives, which is
great and I respect that. I want them to
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The makings of a sale
“I’m very much a detail person for financial issues. Even to this day, although not as much as I used to, I analyze P&L’s even at the store level,
(especially) problem stores and good
stores, to stay on top of what’s happening in the real world. By doing this, I
was able to impress the bankers to the
point they would loan me money to
grow the company. The last few years
my bankers have actually wanted me to
grow the company, and faster, because
they felt comfortable with us and trust
me, and that’s rewarding.”
According to the agreement between
Bridgestone/Firestone and Morgan,
BFS owns 52% of Morgan Tire. Over
the next several years BFS will end up
buying out Morgan completely.
“The deal was actually struck back in
1998,” says Morgan. “I was the majority stockholder until recently... I was a
private company and I just kept it to
myself.” (His three Bandag retread
shops were a different story. Until he
sold them to BFS on Sept. 1, Morgan
owned 100% of them.)
MTD SEPTEMBER 2001
ongratulations to Larry Morgan, “Tire Dealer of the Year”.
This award is a tribute to your commitment to family, customers,
and community. Myers Tire Supply is honored to be one of
your valued suppliers.
“Your Tool, Supply
& Equipment Headquarters”
1-800-998-9897 • www.myerstiresupply.com
#301246 ©2001 Myers Tire Supply/Myers Industries, Inc.
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Circle 111 on card
35
The first Don Olson Firestone store opened in 1972 in Clearwater, Fla. It’s still in business, under the direction of
Store Manager Mike Leonard (left) and Service Manager C.D. “Cosmo” Maiolo (right).
Continued from page 35...
Sporting news
Morgan knows how to play the game (of golf)
One of Larry’s favorite hobbies is playing golf. He has broken 90 on some of
the most famous golf courses in the world: Inverness in Toledo, Ohio; Augusta
National in Augusta, Ga. (five times); Pebble Beach in Pebble
Beach, Calif.; and St. Andrews in Scotland.
As a customer of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. and
then Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., he played in the World
Series of Golf Pro-Am at Firestone Country Club in
Akron, Ohio, with pros such as Davis Love III, Paul
Azinger, Jose Maria Olazabal, Tommy Armour and
Scott Simpson.
His handicap is 14, and has been as low as
nine. “I would like to have the time to work on
my game for a short time to see if I could get
to the 70s regularly.”
He says he has been playing the game
for only 25 years. “Growing up, if you
didn’t box or play football, you were
supposed to be a girl.”
Morgan used to walk 20 miles a
week, but a recurring sciatic
nerve problem in his back has
curtailed that. But not his golf.
Morgan’s best round as a member of
Old Memorial Country Club in Tampa, Fla.,
36
live their own lives. I’ve seen family
businesses that have tried to force their
kids into doing things that really
weren’t their motivation.
“BFS is a strategic partner. They’re
in the same business we are, and I’ve
got a lot of people in my company who
really mean a lot to me. They think like
I do, and they want to continue to grow
and make this company prosper. It’s an
opportunity for me to plan my transition out of the company... and still be
able to work for a whole bunch of
years and do what I love to do. And all
my folks stay in place.
“Of course, we’ll continue with the
roll-out of the Tires Plus name nationwide. We’ll have no affiliation with
(Firestone Tire and Service Centers).
Down the road, we will hopefully share
some best practices and learn from one
another. If we can combine purchasing
synergies and things like that, great.
“And we’ll continue to be multibrand. That’s always been very imporwww.mtdealer.com
tant to me. The same ones we sell
today. Those suppliers are aware of it.
And there’s not a problem with that.”
In addition to Firestone, Tires Plus
outlets will offer Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear, Continental, General,
Uniroyal, Dunlop, BFGoodrich, Dayton, Pirelli, Road King, Gilette, Falken
and Yokohama. BFS tire brands make
up 75% of Morgan’s tire mix.
”If you’re doing your job at any company, you don’t have anything to worry
about.” Curt Rhyne, district manager,
following Bridgestone/Firestone’s purchase of majority interest in Morgan
Tire & Auto.
People person
”I just conduct the orchestra, I’m not
a one-man band.”
When Morgan talks about his 6,302
MTD SEPTEMBER 2001
associates, his passion borders on obsession: “Having a people problem is
the only thing that keeps me awake at
night, and I have tried to instill that
passion for people in my key people.”
His ultimate business goal is to create
the perfect business model, able to sustain itself endlessly. In its simplest
form, it goes something like this:
1. Associates take care of the customer.
2. Customer comes back and
spends money.
3. Employees are compensated/rewarded and they stay.
4. Customers build relationships and come back over and
over.
He tries to teach his associates
to take care of each other. If store
managers can properly train, motivate
and direct the people under them, and
provide them with the necessary tools
to succeed, they can all concentrate on
trying to turn “guests” into longtime
customers. Larry considers this a sim-
Circle 112 on card
ple, workable concept.
“I never had an employee tell me I
mislead them or lied to them. That’s a
reputation that I want to take to the
great tire store in the sky, so to speak.”
Family matters
”One year at Merchant’s, we gave
away 5,000 tickets to inner-city kids for
(a Baltimore) Orioles baseball game.
As a result of that, I went on the field
and they had me on the big screen. I
took Lauren and Brett
and they got to
spend 30 minutes
in the dugout before the game.
The kids still remember
how
nice Cal Ripken
and some of the
other players were.
”When we came to
Florida, we sponsored the
Clearwater Phillies, a Single-A team, and
we had a big sign in the outfield. As the
result of that, the general manager of
Continued on page 38...
37
Continued from page 37...
the Clearwater Phillies and I would use
Brett as the batboy for some spring
training games. We would pick anytime
the Orioles would play. The players
recognized him every year because it
was the same kid.”
“Having a people prob lem is the only thing that
keeps me awake at night,
a n d I h a v e t r i e d t o i n s ti l l
that passion for people in
my key people.”
38
Larry and his wife, Peggy, have been
married 26 years. They have 21-year-old
twins, son Brett and daughter Lauren.
Lauren, a former homecoming
queen, was commencement speaker at
her College of William and Mary graduation. She is a first-year student at the
University of Richmond law school.
Brett will graduate from the University of Richmond in December.
“Someday I would like to do something entrepreneurial with my son,”
says Larry. “My daughter’s going to be
a lawyer, so that’s a little out of my
range right now. We don’t know what
we want to do, yet. He has one more
semester of college. He’s getting a
marketing degree.”
Brett also is an award-winning Web
page designer, says his father. “He
might spend a few years getting some
good, old, practical work experience
somewhere. He loves doing work in
our company. He started out working
in the warehouse when the tires
weighed more than he did. He worked
his way through all the positions to be
in sales and he really liked it. He may
still decide to do that.”
Larry plans to donate at least some
of MTD’s monetary award to fighting
multiple sclerosis. His wife was diagnosed with the disease seven years ago.
Until recently, she suffered only occasional numbness and fatigue. But a
few months ago, she suffered a major
attack.
“It was really scary for me, but it had
to be scarier for her, to go from relatively healthy to a wheelchair in three
weeks.”
Although there is no cure for MS,
she has gained some strength back and
“can walk a little bit... after being in a
wheelchair for three months, it’s a
major cause for excitement,” says
Larry. Visits to the Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, Minn., and Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville,
Tenn., have helped. The Mayo Clinic
also has a branch in Jacksonville, Fla.
www.mtdealer.com
“There’s a lot about MS they don’t
know,” he says. “Her attack shouldn’t
have been as severe as it was.... Our
goals are to do the things that can reduce
the chance of her having another attack:
drugs, exercise, reduce stress, trying to
keep her from having other illnesses.”
Larry says his greatest joy is to be
with his wife and kids. When reminded
he had earlier said “a good scotch and
good friends in a relaxed atmosphere”
was his perfect evening, and asked to
choose between these two seemingly
contradictory answers, he didn’t flinch:
“I try and do it all. I can’t afford to give
up either.”
holding the ball. Whether he decides to
downplay the Firestone brand because
of the recall controversy (“I think it’s
unjust what happened, but life’s not always just”) or build more stores
(“We’ve still got about 50 to 60 stores
under development that will be built
from scratch”), Morgan says he is calling the shots.
“I can still plan the future growth of
the company and I can still provide career opportunities to people, all the
things I’ve worked to achieve,” he says.
“I feel like I have had a very successful
career in the industry, and I certainly
want to go out a winner. So I want to
continue to work hard, be successful
and do good things. Those are really
my goals.
“I love what I do. Don’t get me
wrong, there are days that things don’t
always go my way, of course, but I
never get up in the morning and say,
‘Oh God, I hate to get up this morning
and go to work.’ I’ve never felt that
way.” ■
Unfinished business
”I live in Philadelphia but I travel about
35 miles each way to your Avellino’s
Malvern (Pa.) facility because of how
well they take care of my ’95 Crown Victoria LX and my dad’s ’78 Datsun 510
Wagon,” said a customer in a 1999 letter
sent directly to Clearwater, Fla. Morgan
passed the letter along to the store’s employees with the following note: “Great
job. We are proud of you guys. LCM.”
After his contract runs out in 2008,
Morgan says he will either run the
company another five years or be a
consultant, per his agreement with
BFS. Until then, life, and the welfare
of Tires Plus, goes on.
“We make out a five-year plan every
year, and we still have things to accomplish, like a certain number of stores,
sales volume and things of that nature,” he says.
“We’ve opened so many stores and
grown so fast that, admittedly, our
game plan is to concentrate the next
couple of years on just spending more
time running what we have and improving our performance. We’re just
kind of taking a big, deep breath and
building our people-quality back up.
When you grow so fast, that always becomes an issue.”
Morgan says he did not grow too fast.
“No, I had planned this all along. I knew
what I was doing. The bankers were very
much involved in all of this, and were obviously sitting there supporting me, providing me with the money.”
Now the ball appears to be in Bridgestone/Firestone’s court, with Morgan
MTD SEPTEMBER 2001
Congratulations
to Larry Morgan
for leading the way.
Morgan Tire & Auto Inc.,
Tire Dealer of the Year.
©2001 Tenneco Automotive
Circle 113 on card
39