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WILKES-BARRE — John McCarthy Jr., president of McCarthy Tire Service Co. Inc., has been named the recipient of Modern Tire Dealer magazine’s 2019 Tire Dealer of the Year award.
It’s the top award presented to any tire dealer in the country. There are more than 29,000 independent tire dealers in the United States eligible for the honor.
The magazine and McCarthy Tire Service’s suppliers made a $13,000 donation in John McCarthy’s name. And McCarthy decided to split the money between two charities of his choice — Volunteers in Medicine Wilkes-Barre Clinic and CASA of Luzerne County will each receive $6,500.
McCarthy said he was “very honored and humbled” at being named Tire Dealer of the Year by Modern Tire Dealer magazine.
“This award is as much about our great team as it is about me,” McCarthy said. “From our managers and sales representatives, to our service techs and retread plant personnel, we have remarkable associates. Our success at McCarthy Tire Service is due to their hard work and dedication.”
McCarthy is a third-generation tire dealer and since 1997 he’s served as president of the company his grandfather started in 1926 in Wilkes-Barre. McCarthy grew up in the business, serving as a gas pump attendant and janitor.
As a young boy he remembers Sunday trips to the store with his father where he had two jobs — first was to crawl into a shoot of the furnace to shovel coal, and second was to empty garbage cans of ash.
When he joined the company full time in 1986, three weeks after earning his college degree, McCarthy started in commercial tire sales.
McCarthy Tire Service remains a family-led organization. McCarthy and his sister, Katie McCarthy Lambert, the chief financial officer, have worked side by side for more than 30 years. Up until their father John McCarthy Sr.’s death in 2015, he worked with them. And now the fourth generation of McCarthys are at work in the business.
Under McCarthy’s leadership, McCarthy Tire Service has grown into one of the largest commercial tire dealerships in the country.
The year before he joined the company full time, McCarthy Tire Service had five stores which rung up $11 million in sales with 104 employees on the $1.4 million payroll.
The company now has 65 service locations and 10 retread shops along the East Coast, from New York to South Carolina and Georgia.
This summer it completed the largest acquisition in its history — the purchase of 16 GCR Tires & Service locations, which were owned by Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations LLC. With that acquisition, McCarthy Tire Service’s sales surpass $400 million and the company employs more than 1,300 people. In 2018 payroll was just shy of $60 million.
Since its start McCarthy Tire Service has offered tires and mechanical services for both consumers and commercial customers, but it has grown into a commercial powerhouse. More than 95% of its business is tied to truck, off-the-road and industrial tire customers.
McCarthy has found ways to expand the company’s offerings beyond tires. On top of emergency roadside service, McCarthy Tire Service offers diesel engine repairs, alignments, front-end work and brakes, plus trailer services. It has a fleet of 20 mobile service trucks, too.
Greg Smith, publisher of Modern Tire Dealer, says McCarthy “has taken his family’s focus on serving the customer to the highest level, and all the while led McCarthy Tire Service on an incredible growth trajectory. That’s the sign of a true leader.”
McCarthy was featured in the cover story of Modern Tire Dealer’s September issue.
As Modern Tire Dealer celebrates its 100th year in publishing, this is the 27th year the magazine has presented the Tire Dealer of the Year Award. John McCarthy joins a list of tire industry trailblazers who have received the award.
Nominees are evaluated on their business success, marketing and management skills, industry knowledge and community involvement by an independent panel of industry judges.