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| 'It's about building people.' |
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| Crook County tire giant Les Schwab celebrates 50 years of business |
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 | | CHAD RICHINS/CENTRAL OREGONIAN | | Les Schwab stands next to stacks of tires at his Prineville warehouse. |
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By Chad Richins
Les Schwab Tires is celebrating their 50th anniversary, a major milestone for Prineville's largest employer.
From one 24' x 60' shack that opened in Prineville on January 2, 1952, the Les Schwab company has gone on to become one of the most recognizable and successful businesses in the country.
Topping $1 billion in annual sales in the year 2000, Les Schwab has expanded to more than 330 locations, most recently in Salt Lake City and Sacramento, Calif.
In an era when corporations like Enron have tarnished the image of business, the Schwab company is a model of customer service, employee appreciation and transparent bookkeeping.
Les Schwab's retail employees share in over half the profits from each store through a program of retirement trust funds, bonuses and dividends that has been in effect since the beginning. Schwab's warehouse and manufacturing employees also share in the company's profits.
Customers of Les Schwab have always been held in high regard in the company philosophy and programs like the free beef in February promotion now cost the company more than $1 million per year. Free flat tire repairs have also been a keystone program in Schwab's service policy.
The open-book policy on accounting assures that anyone can find out how the company is doing at any time. The company's Portland stores also sponsor the Les Schwab Bowl, a 4-A high school all-star football game, and the Les Schwab Invitational, a basketball tournament that brings together the best high school teams in Oregon and teams from all over the country.
Les Schwab, the man himself, still keeps office hours at the main office in Prineville. At 84, Schwab still keeps up on the tire business and says that the future holds more growth for Les Schwab Tires.
"We have to keep growing," Schwab said, "all the boys that work for me want to be store managers." To sum up his management style, Schwab said, "It's about building people. As a store manager, if you have twenty employees who are all successful, you're going to be successful." Schwab also runs a working ranch that currently has over 4,000 cattle, and still sports his signature Resistol hat most people would recognize from television commercials.
From the humblest of beginnings, Les Schwab Tires now sells over 6 million tires per year. The warehouses that anchor Prineville's industrial park by the airport have almost 1 million square feet of storage space and 20,000 tires a day are shipped from that location. Ninety semi trucks deliver tires to his many retail outlets and the retread plant in Prineville reconditions over 1000 large truck tires per day.
Les Schwab tires became the largest independent tire dealer in the country in 2000 and was named Dealer of the Year by industry magazine Modern Tire Dealer the same year.
According to Phil Wick, President of Les Schwab Tires, the future holds more growth for the company, using the same philosophy that got them this far. "Les and Dorothy created quite a company 50 years ago." Wick said that making customers and employees happy is what the company will still focus on. "Without them," Wick said, "you don't do much."
Wick, who lives in Prineville, started with Les Schwab as a sales/service associate, eventually became a store manager and now directs the entire company, emphasizing the Schwab philosophy of promoting from within.
The Schwab company is currently constructing a new Prineville retail building and plans to tear down most of the old store, leaving only the current alignment shop for storage. The new building should be completed by late September or early October, according to Brian Capp, Marketing Manager for Les Schwab.
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