Photo by Wanda Hanson
Photo by Wanda Hanson
Art Brown and his son Gary first opened their shop in January 1986 in South Rushford. Prior to that they had run their shop in Arendahl for a few years. At first Brown’s Tire was a farm tire shop. They did oil changes and brake work: one employee worked alongside Art and Gary.
The shop grew over the next 40 years. Today Brown’s Tire has six fulltime employees, a parttime high school age worker and two secretaries. They sell thousands of tires each year from little lawnmower tires to huge pay loader tires. A farm service truck travels to farms within a 40-mile radius to replace tires on location.
Brown’s now does brake alignments, transmission, engine repair and electrical repair as well as DOT inspections. They can fix or replace car computers and TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) sensors.
Gary has a new partner now; his son Josh is now a part owner of the business. When asked what his goals were for the business, Josh responded with a chuckle, “That’s a good question!” before adding that his goal was to have continued growth and serve the community as best they can. Gary noted that he and Josh work well together.
People are important to both Josh and Gary. Josh likes to be able to help people. Gary went further to share that the long-term relationships built through the years were unbelievable. “So many customers come in and simply trust you to do what’s needed on their vehicles,” he commented.
Lately some of the challenges for Browns have been the fact that Motor Parts recently closed. Now they need to travel to Winona for parts. Brown’s and Anderson Auto help each other out with supplies and parts when they are able.
Another challenge is the fact that cars are so electronically advanced now. Gary shared that big dealerships are hesitant to share technology and keep it to themselves instead. He feels big dealerships sometimes take advantage of people as a result.
Prices of almost everything have increased due to the current tariffs; unfortunately, Brown’s has to pass those increases along to their customers.
Suppliers have changed over the past 40 years. Gary shared that when he and his dad started the business, they dealt with 15 to 20 tire suppliers; now there are about four that Brown’s deals with.
During the current challenging economy, more customers are bringing in their older cars to be fixed. Brown’s does its best to get those cars roadworthy; sometimes Gary feels he needs to tell a customer they just can’t drive a vehicle away without repairing it.
What sets Brown’s apart from other businesses? The quick and confident answer from the Browns was, “Service! We sell service!” Brown’s continues to pick up and return vehicles during the day to service them and return them while people are at work.
Gary Brown mentioned that Brown’s has several long-time employees; three of which are Travis Eide, Nick Smith and Nate Christensen. “Without our employees, we have nothing!” Gary exclaimed.
Although Gary would like to take some more time off, he hasn’t made any concrete plans to retire yet. When asked if he had any advice for people wanting to start a similar business, Gary responded, “Good luck!” He continued, “ I don’t know how anybody could start a business today by themselves with all the tens of thousands of dollars of equipment and tools that would have to be purchased!”
Gary and Josh’s final comments were, “Thank you for all your support! We have a very good client base! We owe it all to our employees and customers!”
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