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Ryan Thueson owns Clair and Dee’s Tire, a family-owned business in Rexburg, Idaho, specializing in tire services and auto repair as part of the Point S network. Clair and Dee’s Tire has expanded from one store to five locations in the past three years, showcasing its growth and dedication to customer service. Ryan, representing the third generation of ownership during the store’s 61-year history, continues to uphold the family legacy while embracing modern business strategies and multi-store ownership.
In this episode…
What does it take to maintain a successful family business for over six decades? Is it sheer determination, adaptability to changing markets, or the power to seize unexpected opportunities?
Ryan Thueson of Clair and Dee’s Tire shares how his family, through adaptability and seizing the right opportunities, has maintained Clair and Dee’s Tire for 61 years in Rexburg, Idaho. Originating from a humble potato farming background, Ryan’s father, Clair, pivoted to the tire business after recognizing an entrepreneurial opportunity. This decision led to a family legacy that spans five locations and three generations. Ryan discusses the importance of family involvement from a young age, the value of multi-store ownership, and how the family business has evolved and expanded significantly in recent years.
In this episode of Gain Traction, Mike Edge chats with Ryan about the enduring success of a family business. They explore the dynamics of maintaining and growing a multi-generational enterprise and discuss strategic decisions and the integration of the Point S brand, which allowed Ryan and his family to expand their market reach without sacrificing their local identity. Ryan delves into the nuances of balancing tradition with modernization and the significance of family ties in business operations.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [01:06] The enduring legacy of a 61-year family business
- [02:28] How Idaho farming shaped a tire industry leader
- [03:01] The entrepreneurial leap that changed the Thueson family
- [09:20] What are the benefits of Point S membership?
- [12:17] How brand identity elevates independent tire dealers
- [16:05] Why joining Point S enhances buying power
- [21:25] Wise real-world customer relationship mottos
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Quotable Moments:
- “Opportunities come your way, and you’d better take advantage of them.”
- “If you’re buying tires in southeast Idaho, you’re buying from one of my family members.”
- “Join something. Give us a name, a presence.”
- “You can be a single store owner and buy someone who has 500 stores.”
- “The ground is fertile in the owner’s shadow.”
Action Steps:
- Diversify your skills and roles: In a family-owned setting, learning to adapt to different roles within a business is crucial.
- Embrace growth and expansion opportunities. Ensure the business’s longevity and accommodate family members who may want to join it.
- Leverage co-op memberships: Joining a co-op like Point S can provide buying power and a national brand presence while maintaining local identity.
- Foster a culture of learning and mentorship: Starting from a young age and involving family members in various roles can foster a deep understanding of the business.
- Build strong industry relationships: Attending annual conferences and engaging with other members creates a supportive network within the industry.
Transcript
Announcer:
Welcome to the Gain Traction podcast, where we feature top tire and auto repair professionals, shop owners, industry executives, and thought leaders, and share their inspiring stories. Now, let’s get started with the show.
Mike:
Hello folks. Welcome to the Gain Traction podcast. I am Mike Edge, your host. I’m at this year’s Annual Point S Tire Conference in Amelia Island. My guest right now is Ryan Thueson, owner of Clair and Dee’s Tire in Rexburg, Idaho. This is a continuation of the Point S Series, but before we begin, this podcast is brought to you by Tread Partners and its educational tidbit today. When it comes to your PPC budget and ad spend, do not put all your ad spend with Google in one bucket. Divide it up for accountability and control, do some research. I think it’ll be well worth it. All right, so let’s get started. All right, Ryan Thueson, welcome to the Gain Traction podcast.
Ryan:
Mike, it’s a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.
Mike:
Hey, man. So your organization is called Clair and Dee’s Point S. You’re based out of Rexburg, Idaho. It’s been a family business for literally 61 years. That’s pretty incredible.
Ryan:
Yeah. Yeah, we’re going in our 61st year. My dad’s still around. Clair and Dee are brothers. So Clair is my dad and Dee is my uncle.
Mike:
It’s kind of like a boy named Sue, right?
Ryan:
Yeah, it is exactly right. Everybody’s like, who’s the husband and wife? And my dad’s like, “Well, I’m Clair and this is my brother Dee.” And finally when my uncle Dee passed away, oh, almost gosh, 30 years ago, 25 years ago anyway, shortly after he actually retired from the business, and him and my dad were partners for 35 years. And I remember my dad saying at his funeral, finally, everybody knows who Clair is and who Dee is, right? And so it’s kind of been one of those things and we’ve just-
Mike:
Your dad probably grew up tough then, huh? Just like the song?
Ryan:
They grew up as a young farming community and potatoes and-
Mike:
Really?
Ryan:
… cows.
Mike:
So that stereotype of Idaho is really there, huh?
Ryan:
Yeah. But potatoes back when my dad was younger, was a completely different gig than the way growing potatoes nowadays. And he found out really quick, this isn’t what I want to do. And he’s like, I don’t want to milk another cow in my life. And so that’s how he got into the tire business.
Mike:
Was it just like an opening that he did in… I mean that he found in the city or the town? He saw an entrepreneurial opportunity?
Ryan:
Found in the town, went to go work for a guy, and he worked at that tire store, which is the same tire store that later became the tire store that my uncles owned on my mom’s side. So that’s a whole other conversation. I’ve got uncles from my dad’s side, uncles from my mom’s side. So if you’re buying tires in Southeast Idaho, you’re buying from one of my family members almost literally.
Mike:
That’s pretty cool.
Ryan:
But dad went to work at that tire store for a bit, and then the owner came to me and said, “Hey, Clair, a good friend of mine owns a tire store up in Rexburg. His main service guy broke his leg. Can you go up and help him?” And my dad was like-
Mike:
Yeah, what the hell.
Ryan:
“I’m working for you. Why are you sending me up north?” It was, it’s about 10 minutes away, not too far.
And that guy, that owner looked at my dad and he said, “Clair, you never know what opportunities are going to come your way. And so you better take advantage of him.” And Mike, he went up there to that tire store, helped that owner out and that long-term service work, and that employee who was doing service work for him just said, “You know what? I’m done. I’m old. I’m ready to retire. I’m not going to come back and work after I broke my leg and after I heal up.”
Mike:
How sweet is that?
Ryan:
And so that was the opportunity my dad then got to just us buy into that tire store. That is the original Clair and Dee’s Tire store now. That guy deciding not to go, my dad following the advice of his previous boss, go take advantage of that ownership, go take advantage of that opportunity that’s going to come your way. And since they’ve done that, we’re-
Mike:
And now you guys have how many locations?
Ryan:
We have five locations, and that’s five locations that we’ve grown in the last really three years.
Mike:
Okay. So basically 58 years.
Ryan:
So 58 years was one tire store. And my dad and my uncle Dee ran it for 35 years, and then myself and my brother-in-law, Chris, we had been business partners for 18 years, and then we’ve done some changing and adapting to the markets and his children are in the business and some of my kids work in the business, but we got the third generation of ownership. And so Chris and I are partners with sons and nephews and it’s stayed a family business, but we now finally decided to grow and expand and realize that hey, we can do this multi-store ownership and that’s what we need to do. It’s kind of like family farming around we’re at. You either are going to buy more farms to keep it in the family, or you be content with what you have or you’re just going to end up selling to somebody else. And so we realized with my brother-in-law and sister, they have five boys, and my wife and I have two sons. So it’s like, well-
Mike:
The pie gets divided up pretty quick.
Ryan:
Yeah, you start slicing.
Mike:
Well, and that’s also assuming that they all want to stay in the business too.
Ryan:
Right.
Mike:
But there could be a pretty good percentage of them that want to.
Ryan:
Yeah, I mean, it’s-
Mike:
Especially if they start out like you told me where you put them in labor at about 12 years of age, sweeping out the stores, make it look like they don’t have any other chance of anything else, right?
Ryan:
Yeah. And we all started out there at some level.
Mike:
Well, that’s what I love about the guys that are second and third generation and stuff. I get a kick out of every one of them, had these hard luck stories of being in a shop at 12 years of age sweeping it out. And I’ll never forget when Dustin Dobbs at Dobbs Auto and Tire in St. Louis said, “Yeah, I thought I was making good money at 20 bucks a week with my dad.” And he goes, “Then I realized when I got to be a teenager, I’m getting hammered here.”
Ryan:
Yeah, child labor laws do not apply to family businesses when it comes to children working in there. Whether it’s the sons or whether it’s the daughters. I’ve had some daughters that have worked and helped us out in the front counter, customer service reps and selling, but family is always the worst ones to get paid and they always get paid the worst.
Mike:
And the last, right?
Ryan:
Then the last ones to get paid. And it finally, my kids still to this day talk to me about it. Like, “Yeah, dad, the five, six bucks an hour didn’t go too far as a high school kid.” And we’re talking 2022 and 2023, whatever it is. But yeah, child labor laws-
Mike:
What my dad would say to me is, “Yeah, well you learned something.”
Ryan:
Oh, I wouldn’t trade those days in at all. We had a small, still to this day, have a car wash that’s on the property that we have. And don’t ask me why we still have it. But it is just something that I don’t think we could ever get rid of.
Mike:
Yeah, because the community expects it.
Ryan:
Yeah. And it’s just a part of who we are, but I don’t know how many times I’ve sprayed down the car wash in my life, how many times we go to the sump and scoop out all the mud that settles to it and get rid of it. I really to this day, my dad is 86 years old here and he comes down and he basically beats me to the shop every morning. He’ll get there right by 7:30 and he’ll want to start spraying down the car wash, and it’s what he does. He’s loved to do that his whole life and continues to this day.
Mike:
That’s fabulous. Well, for our audience’s sake, we’re at the 2025 Point S annual conference right now and you’re a Point S member.
Ryan:
Yeah.
Mike:
Let’s talk about your membership in Point S. How long have you been a member?
Ryan:
32 years is right about where we’re thinking, and I might be off a year or two on that. We’re store number 92.
Mike:
So your dad and uncle got in there?
Ryan:
Actually, I owe a lot of that joining Point S to my business partner, Chris. My dad had a lot of opportunities as years went by to maybe join other organizations. At one point in time it was OK Tire. But we had always been a family independent ownership. And my dad is the epitome of independent tire dealer. And even when he had an opportunity to go with one of the big gorillas, he didn’t. He stayed just true to himself. I remember us having a direct account with Cooper Tire, still remember the account number, even as a kid, and how those orders would come in. And that’s just kind of what we did.
And then the opportunity came to us to join Tire Factory Point S, and my brother-in-law, Chris really took advantage of that and told Clair, he’s like, “I’m going to do this, even if it means I need to put up the money for us to go and do this, this is something we finally need to do. Join something, a group, give us a name, a presence.
Mike:
Yeah, fair.
Ryan:
And my dad was supportive of it to that extent and let him go ahead and do it. And that’s really how we kind of came about in the Point S organization. I was off to college at that time, so I wasn’t directly involved at that moment in time, but have been back into the family business since 1999.
Mike:
So do you make every annual conference?
Ryan:
Yeah, we have been to every annual conference unless there’s been a natural disaster or a death in the family or something like that. And so I don’t know as if we’ve really missed them? I sit back and I look at these annual conferences. I remember when we were in Seaside, Oregon and it was just this little hotel that you could have some conference rooms and we were all gathered in it. And now you see where we’re at in this.
Mike:
Oh yeah, it’s world-class.
Ryan:
Yeah. Big resort, and it’s full of people and members.
Mike:
And vendors.
Ryan:
And vendors like you can’t believe.
Mike:
Top vendors around the country, the world.
Ryan:
Yeah. And so it’s really fun to see how Point S has changed our life, how they’ve grown throughout the country over the years.
Mike:
Well, one thing that, I mean, you guys feel like a family, and what’s interesting about being a co-op, you know there’s other buying groups, but you guys brand yourself Point S. And it doesn’t mean that you lose necessarily your personal name on your sign, you gain a name that makes you national. Is that a good way of describing it?
Ryan:
No, I think that’s great. That’s like we call ourselves Clair and Dee’s Point S. There are some of those in our hometown that only know us by Clair and Dee’s.
Mike:
Yes.
Ryan:
Right? And there are a few old-timers that’ll still very few. “Oh, just go down to OK Tire. There is an identity that stayed with my dad and my uncle for those years too, but anymore, it’s “Oh Point S. Oh, just go down to Point S.” It’s easy to roll off the tongue to someone to say, “Oh, just go down to Point S, they’ll get you taken care of.” And so that is something that we’ve really adopted and wanted to keep into our name and have it be a big part of us. Clair and Dee’s Point S. So every one of our locations that we go to, we change back to my dad and my uncle, the family business that got us going, so it goes to Clair and Dee’s, and then we keep the Point S with it as well. So Clair and Dee’s Point S, any city that we go to.
Mike:
It’s got that national… It’s almost like I’ve seen these small town banks in my own hometown, they’ll say, “Big enough to serve you small enough to know you.”
Ryan:
Oh yeah.
Mike:
And that’s kind of what I feel like that brand Point S allows you to do. You’re big enough to serve a wide range of a clients and everything, but you’re still, “Hey, I’m just your neighbor and I’m Clair and Dee’s right here that I’ve always been.”
Ryan:
Yeah, we got a little something for everybody. We’re not perfect by any means.
Mike:
We’re not?
Ryan:
Yeah. I mean, we grow and we struggle at growth just like anybody does. And I talked to a good friend one year and we were talking about future ownership multi store. And “Oh, I need to put all these policies and procedures in place before I go get another store.” And he just said, “Hey Ryan, just stop right there. You don’t know what questions to ask yourself until you actually get into that situation. So if you’re thinking you’re going to answer and solve every question going to ever have about multi-store ownership before you ever buy that second store, you’ll never own it. So just go buy the second store-
Mike:
I love it.
Ryan:
… and you’ll start finding the questions that you need to ask and address and change and work at, and then that’ll make it easier for the third store and so on and so forth.” It’s just kind of the life and the mantra that-
Mike:
So if someone was listening out there, in a minute or less, what would you tell the one that’s on the fence? Somebody let’s say in another state, because you guys are growing like leaps and bounds, but you’re strategic about your growth. You don’t accept everybody. But if someone wanted to say, “Hey, do I fit in this organization and could I fit?” What would you tell them the big why they should join in 30, 60 seconds?
Ryan:
I think the why you should join is you can be a single store owner and buy someone who has 500 stores to their name.
Mike:
That’s as succinct as you could put it right there. Yeah. And I think it’s important to say you get a national brand along with it.
Ryan:
Yeah. And your ability to buy all the different… One, a national brand like Point S across the United States. Great. Not only that, you got platinum partners, tier one, tier two, entry level, price point tires. You’ve got all of it that can add to your business. You can fill every need that a customer potentially has in any kind of tire situation, wherever it is. That’s pretty amazing. That’s better than just saying, I got to live. Like we used to live with really-
Mike:
[inaudible 00:16:49].
Ryan:
… this kind of tire company that we were working with.
Mike:
Well, and you get a network of people to fall back on that don’t compete against you, that you get to ask questions like what to expect in certain circumstances without feeling like there’s no threat or anything like that.
Ryan:
Well, and it’s such a small… You see this, the tire community is really small. Even though we’re all across the United States, it is just a really small industry and that carbon black gets in your blood and it stays there for forever.
Mike:
It’s so funny, what’s that old saying? You’re six degrees away from Kevin Bacon and all that stuff. I believe this wholeheartedly about the tire business. You’re two degrees away from anybody in this business. You know somebody that knows somebody.
Ryan:
Yes.
Mike:
And that’s it. I mean, it’s that close I feel like.
Ryan:
Well, and we’ve been coming to these Point S vendor shows for all these years. There are some truly really good friends and you look to seeing them, and there’s so many of them that you can call up and have a conversation with. So many that have helped us through the years. They truly are on a shortlist for us and are counted as really good friends. And when that day finally comes to walk away from it, I have a small glimpse of why my dad literally almost has never even walked away. He sold a business 20 years ago, but has worked at it every day since he sold the business.
Mike:
You can’t get out.
Ryan:
You can’t get away from it. And it’s-
Mike:
Well, some people aren’t built for retirement. I mean, that’s just the fact of life. I mean, I think every man should slow down, but sometimes we’re just not built for retirement. In the concept of mankind and the history of mankind, the word retirement is relatively new. It came about in the 20th century really. Before that, everybody just worked. You just slowed down when you got older.
Ryan:
Wow.
Mike:
Culturally speaking.
Ryan:
That is my dad right then and there.
Mike:
I think it’s healthy too. Well, on a personal note, let the audience get to know you a little bit better. Is there a mantra, motto, anything you live by?
Ryan:
I’ve heard a couple of them. One that I really like, the ground is fertile in the owner’s shadow. That says a lot about owners and their tire stores and how they handle them, and how they can be really effective, great for change, profitable. And that those owners are the ones that truly really kind of push the boundaries at times within their own tire shops. I also kind of have a mantra like when someone shows you their true colors, you better believe them.
Mike:
I like that one. Yes.
Ryan:
A really good friend shared me that several, several years ago. And I’ve used that a lot. I’ve used that a lot with friends in my life with family and associates. Customers, right? You really start to see who is your customer and who is just somebody that wants something for-
Mike:
Nothing.
Ryan:
… nothing or a discounted price or wants to take advantage.
Mike:
Just use you all the time.
Ryan:
Just use you all the time. And we’ve had a motto on our business. We do business with friends and family, and that’s really who comes and does business with us.
And so everybody that you’re talking to, all of your customers, truly you’re either a friend or a family member to a certain extent. And that’s how we try to look at everybody and treat everybody. So when I sit back and I look at trust people, when they show you really who they are, when maybe you’ve made a mistake in your shop and we all make it.
Mike:
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Ryan:
We all will make them. When they really show you who they are, when you’ve made some mistake on their car, trust them and believe them. And that could be for the good or for the bad, and then it helps you just sort it out as to like, okay, I’m going to just file this away so I know exactly where you and I stand. Anyway.
Mike:
I like your advice.
Ryan:
Yeah.
Mike:
Well I got to tell you, we come up on our hard stop, but it’s been a pleasure having you on the podcast. Thanks for doing it.
Ryan:
You bet. It was my pleasure.
Mike:
To all our guests out there, thank you for listening. Thank you for tuning in as always, you make this possible. If you would like to recommend a guest to me, please email me at [email protected]. Until next time, have a great day and thanks for being part of the 2025 Point S conference.
To all our listeners, thank you for being part of the podcast. We are grateful for you. If you would like to recommend a guest to me, please email me at [email protected]. Until next time, be safe. Have a great day.
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