Miller Bros. Giant Tire Service Inc. in Orlando, Fla., recently announced a change in ownership, and relocation of its headquarters to Brooksville, Fla. Long-term stock holders John Downer, Joe Miller, Rick Williams and Tom Faudel recently purchased the remaining shares of the Florida company from Rick and Y.M Miller the founders.
The Millers founded the company in 1984 in Columbia, S.C. In 1986 the company expanded to Jacksonville, Fla., and in 1988 opened in Orlando, Fla. The company went through a major expansion in 1994 when a number of employees from another tire company joined Miller Bros. Giant Tire Service. Downer and Miller both received shares of the company when they joined; Faudel and Williams bought in when they joined in 2002.
Each of the owners has taken the title of vice president.
“We keep it a team effort,” said Miller, “with no one boss, but four vice presidents.”
“We all have our specialties but each of us will do all of the jobs if necessary,” said Williams. “John is in charge of operations and I will handle sales in the mining industry. Joe will handle construction sales, and Tom will be in charge of the financial responsibilities.”
The company has a total of 48 employees including sales, field service and office personnel. Positions of the staff include a safety director, a certified MSHA trainer and multiple tire tracking and cost control specialists to ensure comprehensive and cost effective tire management.
The company has a fleet of service trucks that can handle all off-road tire changes. Field service team members consist of 24 service technicians. Miller Bros. Giant Tire Service techs are certified in MSHA, IMSA, Florida Phosphate and TIA and have more than 400 years of combined experience and knowledge.
“Most of the employees have been with us a long time and have an abundance of knowledge,” said Williams.
“Because of all the knowledge our employees have we can provide a lot of additional services,” said Downer. “In addition, because of our knowledge, we can get our customers extra support from tire manufacturers, even those we don’t represent.”
The biggest strength of the company according to the new owners is their people, service and customer relations.
“Our biggest strength is that we focus on the total cost of tire ownership, not just the cost of individual tires,” said Miller. “By representing multiple manufactures of tires we can match the product to the tire so that the customer gets the very best tire for his operation. We can help him control his costs through the initial purchase and then by monitoring each tire he uses. We can now do this electronically by getting continuous readings on tire air pressure and temperature. This allows us to let the customer know if he is having tire problems long before they do serious damage to the tire. Over 90 percent of the tires we sell we install and monitor for the customer.”
The company maintains an extensive database of customer tires. Miller Bros. Giant Tire Service can provide customers a print out of the history of each tire including what machine it is on, the tire’s location on the machine, and all maintenance costs. This helps the customer control tire costs and see where there might be problems.
In addition to working with contractors and mining companies, Miller Bros. Giant Tire Service works with rental companies to help to control tire costs. This includes damage reports that might be related to a rental.
Additionally, the company helps the customer with retreads.
“We don’t do retreads ourselves, but we have a long-term relationship with a retread company that handles all of our retread work,” said Downer.
The company maintains a large inventory of off-road truck tires based on customers needs. This inventory includes Bridgestone, Firestone, Michelin, Yokohama, Titan International-Goodyear, Continental-General, Toyo, Hercules, Double Coin and Alliance. In addition Miller Bros. Giant Tire Service will stock additional inventory for customers if necessary.
Miller Bros. Giant Tire Service headquarters has now relocated to 10340 Camp Mine Road, Brooksville, Fla.
For more information, call 866/888-6871 or visit www.MBGTS.net
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