2
Business View Magazine
Big O Tires – The Team You Trust
Fifty-year-old company is america’s largest franchiser of tire retailers
Tires may go on cars - but it’s the owners of those cars
who buy them. So in order to get a healthy share of the
$37.3 billion that Americans spend on replacement
tires each and every year, customer service must be
paramount. And treating the customer right is one key
element that has contributed to the ongoing success
of Big O Tires over the last fifty plus years. By first gain-
ing, and then retaining, the loyalty of its customers, Big
O has earned the slogan, “The Team You Trust.”
Today, Big O Tires, headquartered in Palm Beach Gar-
dens, Florida, is one of North America’s largest tire re-
tailer franchisors. The company has a long and storied
history in the annals of American motoring. Big O was
founded in 1962 by a group of former dealers of OK
Tire and Rubber Welders, a business created in the
1930s by Nebraskan, Harold V. James. James was an
inventor who developed an electric machine designed
to repair tires without the “bump” that had always ac-
companied tire repairs in the past. During World War
II, when rubber was being rationed, he invented anoth-
er machine, the “rubber welder,” that helped salvage
and retread used tires, thus saving precious rubber
and keeping older cars on the road.
