Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | automotive, retail |
Predecessor | OK Rubber Welders |
Founded | 1952 |
Headquarters | Bend, Oregon, U.S. |
Number of locations | 478 (2015) |
Key people | Jack Cuniff, CEO |
Products | tires, brakes, shocks, alignments |
Owner | Meritage Group LP |
Number of employees | 10,000 (2019) |
Website | lesschwab.com |
Footnotes /references data [1] |
Les Schwab Tire Centers is a tire retail chain operating in the western United States. Founded in 1952, the company is named for founder Les Schwab and is headquartered in the Central Oregon city of Bend. The private company employs over 7,000 people in nine western states.
Les Schwab founded the company with a single store in Prineville, Oregon, when he bought OK Rubber Welders in 1952. Corporate headquarters were moved from Prineville to Bend in 2008. [2] From 1964 until 2011, the firm offered an innovative February "Free-Beef" promotion, [3] [4] to boost sales during slow late-winter months.
The company was sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2006 over allegations of gender-based job discrimination. [5] The EEOC suit claimed the company denied women top management positions in the company and noted that at the time of the filing there was but a single female assistant store manager. [5] They were also sued by former employees over the same allegations in a class action lawsuit filed the same year. [5] The federal case was settled in 2010.
On December 12, 2006, Dick Borgman became CEO of the company. [6] That year the company ranked as the 318th largest private company according to Forbes . [7] As of 2007, the chain operates more than 410 stores [8] in Alaska, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. [8] The company does more than $1.6 billion in sales each year, [8] and is the second largest independent tire retailer in the United States. [5] Founder Les Schwab died in May 2007, with ownership remaining within the family, [2] then chairman Phil Wick died in 2010. [9] Les Schwab Tires entered the Denver metropolitan area with five stores in October 2012, the first in Colorado, bringing the total number of company owned stores to 374. [10] In September 2020, CEO Jack Cuniff announced that the company would be sold to a San Francisco investment fund. [11] [12] The sale, to Meritage Group LP, was finalized in November 2020. [13]
As of 2024, the chain is constructing a location in Williston, North Dakota - which will be their first in the state.
In addition to tires, the company sells a variety of other auto parts and auto-related services, including brakes and shocks. In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Les Schwab as the 324th largest privately held company in the country. [1] Modern Tire Dealer has called Les Schwab "arguably the most respected independent tire store chain in the United States." [8] The company closes all of its stores on Sundays, and employees were formerly known for running to customer vehicles when they pull in to park. [8]
Prineville is a city in and the seat of Crook County, Oregon, United States. It was named for the first merchant to establish businesses in the present location, Barney Prine. The population was 10,429 at the 2020 census.
Silicon Forest is a nickname for the Washington County cluster of high-tech companies located in the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon, and most frequently refers to the industrial corridor between Beaverton and Hillsboro in northwest Oregon.
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Leslie Bishop Schwab was an American businessman from Oregon. He was the founder of Les Schwab Tire Centers, a company which Modern Tire Dealer called "arguably the most respected independent tire store chain in the United States." A native of Oregon, he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II before starting his business in 1952.
Emporium, more formally known as Troutman's Emporium, was a chain of department stores founded in 1955 by Dallas Troutman in North Bend, Oregon. After 1977, Emporium's headquarters was located in Eugene, Oregon. At its peak, Emporium operated at least 34 stores, in Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, California and Washington. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002 and liquidated. The last stores closed in 2003.
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Brian McMenamin is an American businessman in the state of Oregon. A native of the state, he and his older brother Mike McMenamin founded the McMenamins restaurant and brewpub chain in 1983. He serves as general manager and vice-president of the company which operates more than 50 locations that include music venues such as the Crystal Ballroom, movie theaters such as the Bagdad Theatre, historic buildings converted to brewpubs like the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse, and several hotels.
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