Ep. 669 - Why Tires Might Be Your Dealership’s Most Overlooked Goldmine, with David Pulla
In this episode, my guest is David Pulla, President of Dynamic Tire, one of Canada’s largest tire distributors. We dive into a part of the business that most dealers overlook—tires—and explore how they’re not just rubber on a rim, but one of the most practical tools for increasing retention, profitability, and service traffic.
We talk about how dealers can rethink their parts and service strategy, use data to move inventory smarter, and turn something as simple as a tire rotation into a reason customers come back again and again. David also shares what the rise of EVs means for the tire industry and the surprising ways innovation is showing up in a category that most of us don’t give a second thought to.
If you’ve ever said “tires aren’t my thing” or “it’s not worth the time,” this episode might just change your mind.
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Episode Transcript
MC: 0:00
(Episode Sponsor)This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer.
Hey auto industry, welcome to this episode of the Dealer Playbook. Sitting down with David Pula, the president of Dynamic Tire, we're going to be talking about innovation in the tire industry. Let's go. Hey, David, thanks so much for joining me on the dealer playbook happy to be here.
David: 0:29
Thank you for having I've followed you for a long time. Linkedin followed the boss. An absolute pleasure to be here.
MC: 0:36
So thank you, awesome man. I appreciate the support. No pressure, right? I want to ask you you're going to be the first person I think I've ever talked to in the auto industry, in the tire industry. I'm looking at your LinkedIn. Usually it's some sort of pathway through a car dealership or something like that, yours, I mean. You did work at a dealership, yeah, a couple of years through co-op, and then you, you went to my favorite guys I don't know if it can get more Canadian than this my favorite store in the entire world. You went to Canadian tire and then shopping cart. Yeah, I was going to ask, like, how does one get into the tire industry, cause? Then you went on to Yoko, yokohama and Salemire and I don't know if I said that right Now you're the president of Dynamic Tire. What is your journey in the tire industry? Look like, how did you even get into that?
David: 1:31
Yeah. So I stumbled across tires in my path. Born and raised by a civil engineer, so concrete and construction was the childhood, and I quickly determined that wasn't for me. Nonetheless, I started changing tires at a young age at an independent retailer here in Ontario and fell in love with it immediately. Once I finished high school I was able to find the automotive business program at Georgian College, so I studied in the diploma program, took the bridge into the degree program.
David: 2:04
Nothing but high end praise for Georgian and the automotive business program that they put on. But in that timeframe it's about a four-year period you have four different co-op courses. So that's actually where my dealership experience comes from. I was able to spend some time in sales parts service advising, but was actually reached out to by a recruiter once I graduated for canadian tire corp. So spent just over a year there with them was managing catalog content in terms of product assortment within their offering. Few different areas that I covered, but the majority of which was tires and wheels were my passion. Life, and then again same thing with yokohama.
MC: 2:41
So I think one of the things, that one of the reasons I love Canadian Tire so much and I know this is not about Canadian Tire transition, I promise, but you remember in the 90s dude, everybody nicknamed Canadian Tire, Canadian trash.
David: 2:56
Yeah, or it was intro word.
MC: 2:59
Canadian trash, you know, because everything seemed to fall apart. And I think, as a marketer, one of the things that I love so much about this brand is somehow someone, somewhere maybe it was you, david was like hey, let's write the ship. And now the brand presence. There's a flagship store in Edmonton two stories, beautiful, state of the art, this and that I want to move into that store. The sheer turnaround of the brand is nothing short of spectacular, which I think is so interesting. I recently brought our CRO to Toronto and I'm like he said what do we got to do in Canada? And I said you have to walk into a Canadian tire. I can't explain it to you. Where else can you buy potato chips, a coffee filter and new tires?
David: 3:47
And new tires. Again, your tires change and they're Canadian at heart and do an amazing job. Truly, canadian Tire was the first organization that I worked at in a corporate environment, so having the experience with them in terms of forward thinking and common business practices, operational efficiencies and just truly departmental flow because of how large they are and how many different departments they have Tailored to even just automotive is extremely impressive. So they are forward thinkers at the box, absolutely. But, like you said, how many places can you go that you're dropping your car off to get an oil change, change your tires, and in the meantime you're picking up some groceries or, you know, grabbing some pots and pans, household goods, so forth. Right, truly a.
MC: 4:34
Canadian staple. Absolutely Every ornament on my Christmas tree I think is from Canada. Yeah, the Americans listening right now, dude are thinking what is this place? You just have to go experience it.
David: 4:45
Yeah, you know what? This time of year is probably the worst timing for me to enter there where it's. You know all of the tools and you can have some pretty good fun in there.
MC: 4:57
So I'm curious about this, because I know you're an individual that's big into leadership and personal growth and development. You mentioned that your time there, you learned a lot about operational efficiency. What's an example that you're now taking into your role as president of Dynamic Tire?
David: 5:14
I would say because of the size of that organization, especially when I was there, going on close to probably 12 years ago now, give or take. But their reporting in automation infrastructure was well ahead of the norm in the industry. So there's a lot of redundant flows that you find in common businesses that you can expedite through automated reporting, scheduled calls, things of that nature. So here at Dynamic T dynamic tire, we're really focused on improving our efficiencies. We're in because we sell passenger car tires, yes, but we sell nine other categories of product off the road mining, agricultural, so forth.
David: 5:56
So in order to be efficient in our day, like we, we simply don't have enough manpower to truly execute without automation and having those efficiencies right. So ensuring our sales team has the necessary sales and product information at their disposal on a regular basis is crucial. But more importantly I would say the efficiencies comes on the supply chain side. Providing visibility into lead times, back order, fail rates, production capacity of the factory right. Using AI and technology nowadays makes that a more seamless process right, Especially as we kind of exited out of COVID here. Right. For the last three years, especially during COVID, everyone you know, the most common question in the industry was where are my tires or where are my parts? Where are my cars? So that's a big focus of ours right now.
MC: 6:51
I imagine, and then you have something that's perishable, you have a consumable vehicle product in a tire that people it's funny Like. First of of all, how big the opportunity in automotive consumables are. I don't have a better way, there's probably a better term for it, but I think, well, a tire is definitely one of those elements of a vehicle, of a tractor, of a airplane, of a mining vehicle that has to be swapped out regularly. But you're talking about supply chain and all of those sorts of things and I'm wondering also the impact or how you're looking at how do I make sure that my product is not also sitting on the shelf and dying or becoming obsolete?
David: 7:36
Yeah, From an inventory position, from a retail perspective or even a wholesaler at that, it's having visibility into the granular data. So, for example, here at Dynamic with our inventory, we're able to segregate our inventory in six-month cycles so we know the timestamp that the products come in and we know how long it's been here. So we're regularly monitoring that. That goes back to the automated reporting where, whether it's a biweekly or a monthly cadence that we have this report being spit out to our product team to view, we're able to take action on some of the slower movers when they're visible right.
David: 8:13
Without that sort of analytics and that data insight, you'll never know and oftentimes, especially even in my retail days, I recall you're searching through inventory to find a set of tires. Meanwhile you find something else that you weren't looking for. That's been there. You know, almost a museum artifact right that we like to joke around with, but it's truly the visibility to it and what that does. It allows you to take action Whether you need to liquidate because it's simply too long in your stock or if it's not moving as fast as you had projected. It allows you to put the effective marketing solutions in place to drive awareness to that product.
MC: 8:50
Interesting. I mean you really. It's funny to me I'm going to sound like the dumb guy here, because I'm just so fascinated by the scope of everything that goes into our industry, of everything that goes into our industry, and I think oftentimes I'll speak from a dealer's perspective. A car dealer does not put enough attention on, I think, their parts department as a whole, realizing how big of a business just something like tires is I mean, they're the only thing that keep the driver separated from the road realizing how big of a business just something like tires is, absolutely.
David: 9:25
I mean, they're the only thing that keep the driver separated from the road and in control on the road, right? So it should be a pretty big focus point. But when you also look at the revenue that it can generate by changing the tires right, you know, change that alignment, you're pulling the tires and the wheels off the car full brakes, suspension checks, so forth. So there's opportunity to service and add value to your customer. And it may not mean you're necessarily changing the brakes or the suspension at the same time you're changing the tire. But you're allowed to have that visibility to the customer. So isn't thicker shock in the future, you know? Hey, your breaks are, you know, 30% remaining. So just an FYI on your next oil change, you may need to look at replacing those type of deal, right, being a little bit more proactive.
MC: 10:14
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You talked about efficiency and operational efficiency, which is a topic I love, and now I'm, as I'm writing notes here and listening to you, I'm realizing well, there's a huge inefficiency right now in businesses especially.
MC: 11:00
I was just having this conversation this week with my buddy, kyle and Paul my buddies Kyle and Paul about how something as I don't want to say off the radar, I think every buddy knows they're selling tires, but not the top of their priority list, how big of a retention place, something as there I say, as simple as tires can be for a business.
MC: 11:25
Like, and I'm starting to think about hey, come in, we will repair your tires for free, or, you know, we will fix the flat for free, or we will rotate them for free, like. These are all mechanisms, using the tire as the vehicle no pun intended to bring people back to the business regularly and give you that leg up and that opportunity to build rapport. So I'm thinking about that. What's your view on how you think about that? I mean, you said I love the way you said this, so I'm going to go out on a limb here with an assumption. The fact that you said, david with a smile on your face, by the way, I don't know if you know you said well, tires, the passion. Tires are the only thing that separates you from the road and keeps you on the road safely. I thought, okay, here's a man that's passionate about tires.
David: 12:13
That's real. That's real which.
MC: 12:15
I mean, I never. Now I can say I know somebody that's passionate about tires. That's fascinating in and of itself, but that tells me that you're thinking about the position of what you do for a living in the broader ecosystem in a much more broad way than I think most people are thinking about it. Thank you.
David: 12:32
So, circling back into your retention portion, speaking on behalf of the Canadian market at least, I think we're starting to see more of it now in the automotive dealership world. I think the distributor business has changed that mindset, or is starting to. In the past, when distributors weren't necessarily around and you're focused with your supplies coming more from our regional partner as opposed to national, national conglomerates, dealerships were forced to keep higher inventory levels of products, which raises your operational expenses. Right, cash flow so wasn't necessarily, and then at times you're not turning that product fast but convert it to cap. So I think there was a negative law there. Nowadays we call it pizza delivery. You can get tires delivered to your store, sometimes within an hour, if not multiple times a day, right. So, depending on where you're at, if you're buying product from us, you can see multiple deliveries a day, or sometimes the next day or a few days later, again, depending on your location.
David: 13:46
Winter tire mounted programs nowadays that's not just a fall selling feature or addition to buying a vehicle in September, october, november, right, if I'm selling you a vehicle today, I'm encouraging that winter package and guess what? We'll keep them here for you, we'll store them and when you're ready to come back in September, we'll do your bolt on for free. Right Encourage. I was kind of raised with the mindset someone in my early dealership days giving me some advice that every time that person walks out the door they're less inclined to return. But give them a reason to return. So by providing incentives like such where hey, we'll store your tires here, tell you what it's your first set, we'll cover that cost. Come back in September, we'll bolt up your winter tires. You're then automatically allowing yourself to potentially have an oil change, do the brake inspection before the winter, where safety is a higher priority in terms of the consumer, and then you're also leading them down the path to potentially store their all season or summer products as well, which again continued that retention cycle.
MC: 14:46
I don't think people understand, generally speaking, the power of the statement you just made. Give them a reason. Now I know people listening and watching are like well, duh, you got to give them a reason. No, peel back the onion layers because, yeah, it's one thing to hear that and be like we hear that, I get it, duh, okay. Then the question becomes well then, what is the reason you're giving people? As we peel back the onion layers and try and discover well what separates thriving organizations from those that perpetually struggle, and try and discover well what separates thriving organizations from those that perpetually struggle, those that are struggling here, give them a reason and go. Duh David, thanks, duh Michael. Why are you making such a big deal out of this? I'll tell you why Because you are not yet giving people a reason.
David: 15:34
Yeah, exactly what's your value add right.
MC: 15:37
What's your value?
David: 15:38
add If you're selling that oil change because of price or if you're selling those tires strictly due to price, it's not a sustainable business practice. All it takes is one person that's $5 cheaper than you to lose that sale. Maybe a five dollar gap between you and you know the independent retailer down the street, for example. They'd be more inclined if they see the value in that service. Right, hey, we're not just changing your tires like that tire shop, here at this dealership, we're full mechanical. That's where we're going to provide you a brake inspection, provide you an alignment screen right top of your washer. X, y, Z. Little value adds that all. Yes, they do raise the cost thing that you're charging, but again, it's peace of mind for the consumer right.
MC: 16:30
Right, and I'm thinking about it in conjunction with this, I think and I know you see this all the time, I see it all the time which is businesses are simply just not giving themselves enough at bats. They are expecting the customer to do so much, and maybe the internet has made us believe that the customer is doing so much more work than they actually are. But to your point about give them a reason, provide and build a process around the value add. In so doing, like you've brought up, rotation you brought out breaks, oil changes, storage. All these examples are providing your business one more at bat to delight the customer, to deepen the relationship, to make it more meaningful and to push out, like you said, I love it because you're right $5 and I'm choosing somebody else if I don't have those things. But each one of these things you brought up create a compelling story for me as the consumer, about why I would never want to think of or choose another dealer.
MC: 17:36
I want to ask you this, though as we start to wind down, people think of tires, and I would venture to say that majority of people, myself included, go. Tires are rubber. Why is David so excited about rubber? You know what I mean? Well, tires. But being in it the way that you are, you're seeing considerable innovation inside of this industry. What's an example of what does that even look like? Because for a guy that goes, tires are rubber and they're round. What are you seeing from an innovation perspective? What's the tire industry doing that you're really interested in, that you're saying, oh, that's going to be something that materializes in a big way.
David: 18:17
Absolutely. I think before I get there on that, the guy that's saying tires are only rubber and they're rubber yeah, I would want to ask him that question when he's going 120 on the freeway and then see what he has to think about his tires. But, jokes aside, I think there's a few different avenues I could go down in terms of that question EVs, top of mind the day, no matter what category of tires you're talking, whether it's for transport trucks or consumer cars, agricultural construction everything nowadays is getting bigger, heavier, faster, while looking to be more fuel efficient. So typically in the tire world, what we call the magic triangle, where you're looking for longevity, traction and then durability. So in order to have additional traction, you need to sacrifice longevity typically, and if you're sacrificing to make something more durable, it's going to be a harder tire, harder rubber. So again, you are sacrificing your traction because you need a softer compound for traction. So I think it's pretty cool where our organization we're part of a global group, ceylon Tire, number 10 in the world Our group has what we call EcoPoint 3.
David: 19:42
So essentially, you've taken all the dry ingredients and components that go into a tire, so your silica, your carbon black, so forth. So when you disperse all of those into the tires themselves, they're being dispersed evenly, but at a microscopic level, not truly even. As opposed to a liquid phase mixing, which is what the Eagle 3 technology is Best way to look at. It is like chocolate milk, right? You can have two different forms of chocolate milk. You can have the powdered substance and you put a scoop of your chocolate powder into milk, you stir it, you're still going to get chocolate milk. You're going to get a little bit of clumping at the bottom, a little bit of clumping at the top. Or you have, like your N, liquid form, where it disperses much more evenly across, which is a more consistent blend. So, long story short, with that is and technology like eco, point three allows manufacturers to pull different levers and expand that triangle where you're able to have a more durable tire that lasts longer, that's more fuel efficient.
MC: 20:45
Which is interesting. You brought up EVs because I can see. Now I'm taking all these notes because I feel like I'm in school a little bit. I'm like I don't know. I'm like I've never had so much fun learning everything I don't know about tires, tyres absolutely EVs.
David: 21:01
It's, you know, heavier vehicle, high torque, heavy weight. Right, it's a recipe to cook tires, naturally.
MC: 21:09
Right, and are we seeing I'm picturing people in lab coats somewhere playing around with all sorts of different compounds to say, well, how can we, with all of those known factors like you talked about, where the vehicle is getting heavier and faster and more torque and all these sorts of things, do you think we'll see in the near term a tire that can last more than a year or two on an EV?
David: 21:33
Absolutely. I mean, it comes down to so many different factors, right Air pressures, the environment that's being driven in, the person behind the wheel driving it, right. So. But at the end of the day, I absolutely think there are a ton of focus points on that, and it goes back to like being able to build a reinforced sidewall in order to handle the weight right and then combining that structure with a contact patch that has to handle the instant torque that comes from an EV. Right, I think that's the tough part in terms of having the magic recipe. I do think there are a lot of brands out there that have accomplished a lot of great things. The R&D never stops, though, right. The R&D never stops, though right, and we've gotten to a point where there are tires performing well on EVs, where they're seeing their second season and you know potentially entering into their third, but I think there's still a long way to go.
David: 22:31
Especially as EVs really in the whole light truck segment. Right Like we're just starting to see the Ford Lightnings out there and the Tesla Cybertruck, yes, right Like that's a whole new avenue, that in Ninja Tires.
MC: 22:42
It's. You know, it's interesting to me because I mean, I've been doing this show for so long and there are. You know, just when you think, man, I think I've got my head wrapped around this. A guy like David Pula comes on the show and says, but you didn't think about it from this angle, and so here we are. This has been a delight, man. I'm just thinking about all of the implications on that and just the connectivity between the plans that an OEM has to develop a new vehicle like a Cybertruck or a Ford Lightning or the new Sierra or the Hummer EV, and how that could potentially set out a trigger effect of oh crap, well, there's now right back to R and D. We go because we got to figure something out on the tire side, and what does that mean for road production and what does that mean for steel production and what there's? Just there is no two ways to dice it. This industry is so connected on so many levels for those that are listening and watching. How can they get in touch with you?
David: 23:41
You can find me on LinkedIn, David Pula, or you can visit us at dynamic tirecom.
MC: 23:46
I love it, man. Dynamic tirecom. We're going to link to it all in the show notes. David Pula, thanks so much for joining me on the dealer playbook podcast Amazing, thank you so much for having me.
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