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Episode 198

Phillip Kane

Turbo Wholesale Tires

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Phillip Kane is the CEO of Turbo Wholesale Tires, home to brands like Lexani, Lionheart, and Rolling Big Power. With decades of experience at companies such as Snap-on, NAPA, Goodyear, and Pirelli, Phillip blends a lifetime in the automotive industry with a genuine passion for cars and tires. Today, he leads Turbo Wholesale Tires with a focus on helping independent dealers succeed through innovative tire industry growth strategies and strong distributor partnerships.

In this episode…

Growing a tire brand from Tier 4 to Tier 2 has historically taken 20–25 years. But what if that journey could be accelerated? In this conversation, Phillip Kane shares how Turbo Wholesale Tires challenges convention by applying tire industry growth strategies that shorten the path while giving dealers more opportunities to win.

Phillip’s career has shaped his unique perspective on brand positioning, dealer relationships, and market differentiation from his family roots in the automotive industry to leading roles at global tire companies. At Turbo Wholesale Tires, he emphasizes building semi-exclusive distributor partnerships that create value on both sides while keeping brand share, not distribution share, at the center of the company’s growth.

Beyond business, Phillip also shares his leadership philosophy. He talks about why “life is a choice,” why kindness should be part of every decision, and how personal values guide long-term success in the tire industry. It’s refreshing to see how character and strategy intersect in the journey to scale a tire brand.

On this episode of Gain Traction, Mike Edge welcomes Phillip Kane for a conversation about the fastest path from Tier 4 to Tier 2. They discuss what it takes to grow a tire brand, why distributor relationships matter, and how leadership rooted in values can shape the industry’s future.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[01:26] Phillip Kane’s background and family roots in the automotive industry
[05:53] Early career lessons from Snap-on, NAPA, Goodyear, and Pirelli
[09:41] The story behind Turbo Wholesale Tires and its proprietary brands
[11:10] Why Phillip believes the Tier 4 to Tier 2 journey can be accelerated
[13:10] Distribution strategies that help dealers succeed
[14:23] The personal mantra that guides Phillip’s life and leadership
[16:25] Why To Kill a Mockingbird is his favorite book and its lesson of kindness
[19:01] How Turbo Wholesale Tires is focusing on brand share, not distribution share

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

“Life is a beautiful, wonderful choice.”
“Kindness shouldn’t stop at personal convenience. It’s something we should do all the time, regardless of cost.”
“We’re not interested in distribution share, we’re focused on growing brand share.”
“If you do nothing else throughout the day, at least you made your bed.”
“Independent tire dealers win when we help them sell more tires to more people for more money.”

Action Steps:

Evaluate your brand growth timeline: Learn from companies that took decades and explore ways to accelerate.
Focus on brand share, not just distribution share: Build relationships that allow both you and your distributors to succeed.
Adopt a positive start to each day: The first few thoughts you have in the morning set the tone for success.
Make kindness a business strategy: Prioritize it even when it’s inconvenient, it builds trust that lasts.
Stay connected with your dealers: Prioritize partnerships, communication, and shared opportunities for growth.

Transcript

00:00
I looked at some of the brands that are now referred to as tier two brands in our industry. And you know, well, Mike, the brands like Toyo and Yoke and Hankook and all those brands kind of started where we started as tier four tire brands in the industry and they’re now tier two brands. And it took them all 20 to 25 years to make that trek from tier four to tier two. And I had this notion that they you can do that faster.

00:31
Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, the official podcast for tire business. I am Mike Edge, your host and I have the privilege of interviewing the tire dealers, shop owners, counter sales reps, technicians, industry executives and other thought leaders of our industry. This episode is brought to you by Tread Partners. Tread Partners is the leading digital marketing agency that specializes in digital marketing for multi location tire and auto repair shops. Tread Partners works with clients that have hundreds of locations down to five locations. Get a professional, unbiased opinion and let Tread Partners review what you doing. It starts with a simple conversation. To contact tread partners, visit treadpartners.com so let’s get started. Hey folks, welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, the official podcast for tire business. We have Philip Kane, the CEO of Turbo Tires, as our guest today.

01:20
Philip, welcome to the Gain Traction podcast.

01:23
Thank you. Hey, Mike, how you doing today?

01:25
Fantastic. I’m glad you joined us. I think you guys have a really cool story. But before we get into Turbo Tires and letting the audience know who the company is, tell us a little bit about Phil Kane.

01:38
Well, I’ll go back to the beginning and before you say, holy cow, Bill, we only got 30 minutes. I’ll do it quickly, I promise. But I’ve been in the automotive business my whole life. My grandfather was an International Harvester truck dealer, so that’s how I grew up climbing around those things. And my dad was a truck dealer also, so. And he had a rule that, hey, you can work here, but you got to go work somewhere else first. And so I went out in the world and had so much fun doing it, I never went back. And I worked at places like Snap on and Genuine Parts, who y’ all would know better as Napa.

02:13
And then I went from there to Goodyear and then Pirelli and then went out in the world of private equity where I am now running a business called Turbo Tires. And so I guess you could best describe me as a car guy or a tire guy. I love, I love cars that are loud and fast and I truly love tires. So that’s the short story about me. I’m sure we’ll get into a little more, but that’s. That’s a little bit about who I am and what I’ve done.

02:43
You need to meet one of my previous guests, Mike Spagnola. He’s the CEO, President of sema. I don’t know if you ever met him.

02:50
Yeah, I know. I know. Mike.

02:51
Yeah, he’s a car guy, too, so he likes fast cars, too, so I grew up similar.

02:56
You.

02:57
You’re in an international dealer. Did you guys. Were you ever familiar with the International Scout?

03:04
Yeah, in fact, I was talking to somebody yesterday about that. My. My father had one when I was a boy, and we would. We’d go up to central Michigan, up to. My grandfather had a cabin up on a lake up there. And we would go up there in the summertime, and you always knew it was summer because my father would take the top off the Scout when we’d head up to the lake. And that was always summertime for me as a kid was rolling up the lake in the Scout with top off of it.

03:34
My dad had a 1963 Scout. And we always thought it. My brothers and I always thought it was just the toughest, coolest truck in the world. And then he sold it right before. Two years before I turned 16. And I thought that was going to be my vehicle or something. And they never aged in a way that people weren’t, you know, like a kid. I wouldn’t have been ashamed to drive an older vehicle like that. Even though I was in the 80s and that vehicle was in the 60s. It wouldn’t have mattered. It was just too cool, you know, And I really wish I would have had that one. Yeah.

04:07
Yeah, they were fantastic. And still, even today, that if you were to. To drive one around, it wouldn’t feel old. It would just feel cool.

04:17
I don’t know if you’ve ever gone on, like, auto trade or anything, but there’s like a cult with those things. Like the refurbished ones. I mean, they’re exp. Now.

04:25
Yeah, yeah. The original Scouts, the original Broncos, the original Cherokees. I had a Grand Cherokee that. That I kind of did over when I was in. In college and drove around. We called the Urban Assault Vehicle. But those are the same. Those. Those original.

04:42
Yeah.

04:42
Kind of big body SUVs. Or. They’re just still so cool.

04:47
They are, they are. And the people that fix them up, they make them look, I mean, really cool for today. And, you know, they got some modern amenities with radio, etc. Inside it, but. Yeah, And I guess you can see some of those things that seem I have before. So did. Where did you go to school? I think I know, but I’m not positive.

05:09
University of Tennessee.

05:10
All right. So you know, I’m a Kentucky fan, so there’s a little rivalry there. But my son in law, he’s a big UT fan and it’s, it’s so funny because they put my first grandchild, my granddaughter, she’s like, I have this multiple personalities. She’s got UK gear and UT gear because my daughter went to uk. So it’s, the kid’s gonna, it’s, she’s always in conflict. It’s, it’s crazy. They have orange and blue in the.

05:42
House, so that’s awesome.

05:45
Yeah. So after college, did you, did you, is that when you went to like the snap on and Napa route?

05:54
No, actually I’ll tell you one funny story. I’ve got a couple of those, but so I already told you that my father had a rule, same as his dad. You work here, but you got to go work somewhere else first. And I grew up wanting to be my dad. You know, everybody wants to be doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs. I wanted to be my dad, but he had this rule. And, and so I had it all figured out. I was going to go work for my dad’s brother in San Antonio, Texas. And so I went out there and I worked for my uncle for two years and come home and reported for duty. And my father said, that doesn’t count. And I said, what do you mean that doesn’t count?

06:40
And he said, you got to go work for somebody whose last name isn’t Cain. And I said, I wish you’d have told me that. And he said, I wish you’d asked. So that was my first lesson in getting an upfront contract because I had spent two years out working for my uncle thinking that satisfied the guy to go work somewhere else first world. But it didn’t.

07:01
Oh my gosh. I love it though. Your dad was really teaching you the hard way, right?

07:06
Yeah, he was. So, yeah. Most of the lessons I’ve learned in my life have been the hard way. I’m a rockhead. So yeah, so I had to leave from there. And I went first to the Reynolds company. They were one of the two leading providers of in house computing systems, car dealers. So I went out in the world. Selling computer systems to car dealers was the very first job I had that wasn’t working for my dad.

07:34
Very cool. Where’d you do that?

07:36
Knoxville.

07:37
Okay. That’s a cool town, isn’t it?

07:40
Yeah. Yeah, I love Knoxville. I could have stayed there for the rest of my life.

07:45
It’s. Wow, that place is booming now. I mean, like, well, all of Tennessee is, but I have to drive through Nashville, Knoxville to get to North Carolina, and man, it’s just. They’re. They’re literally choke points now on the highway. I mean, it’s really. You really got to plan around the traffic jams.

08:05
Yeah, yeah. That’s like, often if you’re driving through Texas the same way.

08:09
Yeah. So where are you located now, just for our audience’s sake?

08:13
I’m. I’m in Michigan now. I had been out in Southern California and as, as our business grew, most of the folks that work on the. Our brands we had been populating them in Detroit. So I made a decision in May to move here to Detroit to be closer to them because I had. I’d found that I’d been flying here so often, but it just. I found it easier to. To be here. I was born in Detroit, so it was kind of like coming home.

08:44
Yeah.

08:44
To be here. So. So I’m now living in Detroit.

08:48
I have. I know two kids that my son played football with. They’re actually playing for Hillsdale, which is not too far from there now.

08:55
Yeah.

08:56
So that’s great school.

08:57
Yeah, it is Hillsdale.

09:01
I got to see the campus once. I was amazed. And it’s hidden, it’s a little jam out in the middle of nowhere, but it’s just. But it’s beautiful place, beautiful program. But they picked up two really good kids that my son played with and just rock solid, smart kids, but they’re rock solid football players. So. Yeah, it’s going to be fun to see what they do. But they’re both a freshman and a sophomore, but they got both brothers over the course of the last two years, which is kind of cool.

09:28
That’s great.

09:29
But let’s talk about. Let’s talk about Turbo Tire. What is the. What? Just tell us a little bit about what the motive of turbotari is.

09:41
All right, well, our primary business is. Is the. Well, I’ll say the manufacturer. We, we contract manufacture them, but the manufacturer of. Of three proprietary brands of tires, Lexani, Lionheart and Rolling Big Power Tires that we sell primarily through regional distributors here in the States. We, we purchased the business from the Supesian family coming up on three years ago to be three years at SEMA that we purchased the business and were intent on growing these brands and we’ve done that to a fairly well mostly by adding new sizes and types to the brands to give our dealer customers more opportunities to as I say, sell more tires to more people for more money. And, and we’ve been on a significant growth trend since we bought the company, which has been great for us and great for our customers.

10:46
So that’s really what we’re about is growing these three proprietary brands again to give the independent tire dealer an opportunity to make additional margin when they sell tires to their end user customers.

11:02
That’s awesome. So Philip, where do you guys see yourself going in the next 1, 3, 5 years?

11:11
Just on a continuation of the path that we’re on. To give you a little insight into how we think about life around here is I looked at some of the brands that are now referred to as tier two brands in our industry. And you know, well Mike, the brands like Toyo and Yoke and Hankook and all those brands kind of started where we started as tier four tire brands in the industry and they’re now tier two brands. And, and it took them all 20 to 25 years to make that trek from tier four to tier two. And, and I had this notion that you could do that faster.

11:53
And so I looked at their history and I also looked at what are the things that the industry says that are requisite to be a higher tier brand because no one ever comes along and says, hey industry, hi, I’m a tier this brand or I’m a tier that brand. The industry tells you where you live. But what we’ve been about doing is doing the things that are required to be regarded by the industry as a higher tier brand, but doing it much faster than the 20 to 25 years that other brands took to do that.

12:33
And so to succinctly answer your question, that’s what we’re going to continue to do is accelerate that timeline to move our brands up the tier ladder so that our independent tire dealer customers are able to collect more for the tires that we provide and that they in turn sell. That’s really what we’re about doing and we’re going to continue to do that over the course of the next couple years.

12:59
So how do you guys go to market again? As it through what? Distribute selected distributors, exclusive distributors and then if a dealer wanted to be in touch with you, how would they reach out to you? Today.

13:13
We sell mostly through what we would probably refer to them as semi exclusive distributors. Certainly you’ll find cases where there’s some overlap because it’s almost impossible not to have overlap just because of the way the typical distributor goes to market. But what we try to do is not have people piled on top of each other like most other tire brands do. And so, because that’s part of our value proposition, is that we enable our distributor partners to do well with our brand because they don’t come around the corner on themselves all the time with our brand. And if someone wants to learn more about us, they can Simply go to turbotires.com to learn more about our value proposition and what it takes to become part of the family.

14:11
That’s awesome. Very good. Is there a. You know, I always like to ask this question, but it gives kind of an insight to who Philip Kane is. Is there a mantra, a quote, I don’t know, a motto that you live by? Think about.

14:27
Yeah. What I say all the time and until my kids is life is choice. Life is a beautiful, wonderful choice. And it starts when the alarm clock goes off in the morning, that the first four or five thoughts that go through your mind are positive ones. That chances are you’re gonna have a pretty good day. I mean, I can’t guarantee that, but probably if first four or five thoughts go through your head are negative ones, you’re probably gonna have a bad day. And however you confront things that happen to you throughout the day are. They’re a choice.

15:05
That’s interesting. I like that.

15:07
So that’s.

15:08
I read somewhere this St. Jose Maria Scriva, he had this quote, he called it the miracle minute. When the alarm clock goes off, get up. Then don’t hit, snooze, don’t drag, because you want to beat that minute. That first minute is important. And if you get going right then, then you’ve already conquered the first minute. And I always, I find a lot of truth in that.

15:33
I would agree with that. And make your bed.

15:36
Oh, yeah. Have you ever seen that? Oh, who was it? The Admiral, I think that came back and talked to the Longhorns.

15:44
Yeah, I’ve seen snippets of the speech and that. That’s his, his deal. I haven’t, I haven’t read his book or anything like that, but I wholeheartedly agree with that. Make your bed. I mean, it’s. And if, because if you do nothing else throughout the day, you’ll have accomplished that.

16:03
Yeah. And the way he says it goes and Then you get to go to bed that night and your bed’s made up nice even, no matter how bad your day was.

16:10
That’s exactly.

16:13
I thought that was funny, too. You know, you told me, and I asked you this. What’s your favorite book? I always like asking people personal questions, but I liked your answer to this one.

16:26
My favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird.

16:29
And tell the audience why.

16:32
Because it’s a book that’s deeply rooted in theme of human kindness, and that’s the way I try to live my life.

16:45
And it’s a great movie, too. I’ve watched it probably a couple of times when I was growing up. But Gregory Peck stars in it. He’s the main lawyer, if I remember correctly.

16:54
Yeah, he is. And in the story, he made a decision essentially to be kind to another human being at great cost himself personally. And it’s an example for all of us to follow that kindness shouldn’t stop at. At our own personal convenience. And kindness is something that we should do all the time, regardless of cost or convenience.

17:29
Amen to that. I’m a football fan, and I really admire great coaches and what made them great or what got them motivated or how they did things or do things, etc. But Paul bear Bryant had a famous. He has a little speech he’s given before, and I think you could find it on YouTube, but it’s be. Be nice, like your mama taught you. And he said, I’ve always lived by that. That mantra. And. And that was nice. And he goes through this very compelling story about recruiting, and 10 years later, he ends up getting this kid all because he was nice to someone 10 years before, and it had to do with a family member. And the kid was originally going to go to Auburn, and this guy’s granddad stepped in and said, no, you’re going to go play for this guy.

18:21
He goes, what if I don’t want to? He goes, you don’t have a choice. And he goes, because he was nice, basically because Paul Lebrant was nice to him 10 years before that, or 15, whatever it was, and he remembered it. And he goes. So he says humorously at the end of his speech, he says, so be nice. It pays off.

18:39
Exactly.

18:40
And, you know, it doesn’t necessarily pay off. Sometimes in the beginning it’s like, you know, I hear some friends will say, you know how it goes. No good deed goes unpunished or whatever. But, yeah, it might feel like that, but in the long run, you. You come out a winner. I think.

18:55
Yeah, I Couldn’t agree more.

18:58
I’m just curious, how many employees are you guys up to right now at Turbo Tires?

19:02
We have around 150. We, we had kind of going on twice that before we had a large operation in Michigan here that we sold to one of our distributor companies just a few months ago in May of this year. And that kind of connects up to a big theme that we have as a company. When we bought the company, were kind of a curiosity to the rest of the industry because our name was in the way that were incorporated was Turbo Wholesale Tires. We kind of go by Turbo Tires now. And so a lot of folks were curious about what were all about. They said, great, here comes another wholesale roll up. But that’s not what we’re about. We made it clear up front that we’re not interested in distribution share, we’re interested in brand share.

20:06
And so what we wanted to make clear to our distributor customers is that we have no interest in competing with you. And when we acquired the TWI business here in the Midwest, there was certainly some concern from our distributor customers that, wow, it looks like you’re competing with us. And it wasn’t that at all. What were interested in doing was taking a bunch of business that the TWI had that wasn’t our brands and turning it into share for us, which we did. And then it became attractive to K and M Tire, who then acquired the business.

20:44
And, and it’s working out exactly the way that we want it to because what it gave us an opportunity to do was turn a bunch of market share that we didn’t have in the Midwest into a market share for us and then turn that over to one of our customers. So that’s what we’re all about, is growing brand share, not distribution share.

21:06
That’s awesome. Yeah. Now, well, I, I gotta tell you, Philip, I’m glad that our people and your people connected and I really appreciate you taking the opportunity to do a, a podcast interview with Gain Traction.

21:19
Well, likewise. Thank you, Mike. I really enjoyed the time I had to spend with you and visit with you.

21:25
I’m just curious, do you ever get down to my area of the world? Kentucky or Tennessee?

21:31
Yeah, I do from time to time. I try to get out and about. I, I don’t do well just sitting in the office. I, I travel an awful lot. I spend usually 100, 120 nights a year in hotels. So you can judge by that, that I’m not a, a button seat CEO. I’m an out and about CEO. So, yeah, I do get down your way.

21:58
If you do look me up, we’ll go out to lunch or something.

22:01
I sure will.

22:02
All right, well, thank you for being part of the podcast to our audience out there. Thank you. As usual, we appreciate you.

Contents hide

1 In this episode…

2 Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

3 Resources mentioned in this episode:

4 Quotable Moments:

5 Action Steps: