foreign welcome to talk and tires the podcast that delves deep into the world of tires join us as we explore everything from the science behind the manufacturing to the latest Innovations in the tire recycling our aim is to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of tires including how they work how to maintain them and how to dispose of them responsively whether you’re a seasoned mechanic curious car Enthusiast or an avid recycler talking tires is the perfect podcast for anyone who wants to learn about the essential component of the modern vehicle and heavy equipment so buckle up and join us for an informative and engaging journey in the world of tires all right welcome back to another episode of talking tires I’m Craig Hunter your host from Tire reclaim and I brought with me today a special gentleman Jesse wickle he is uh the owner and operator of wicker wickle Tire Pros out of Burley Idaho and now Jerome Idaho but I was just telling Jesse getting settled in here that we’ve had a manufacturer owner of tires on the show we’ve had crumb rubber uh manufacturers for Chrome rubber facilities on the show and

now we get to have a up and coming a tire man or operator that’s selling tires retail I heard AG is really big so I say I heard because I’ve heard his story from others around the community and that’s really why we wanted to have Jesse here was to talk about Whipple tires and the story I know there’s a farm involved you have a family farm if I’m not mistaken so correct um if that’s if that’s uh what we’re going to talk about next would be the Family Farm then I’ll let you take over and tell us how you kind of got started in the tire business to begin with uh so no probably 2015 2016 we started looking for other businesses to diversify into and as a farmer we use a lot of tires so the tire deal kind of came up and one of my friends mentioned there was some action on some local tire stores possibly getting ready to sell so we started talking to some of them and and eventually ended up buying Bowers Tire and Wheel out down the road and and that’s how we got started they were

just a little retail store that did like truck passenger oil changes brakes stuff like that didn’t have much didn’t have any AG involved in that business and uh within probably six months we bought a couple service trucks and started into the AG end of it and then it just continually Grew From there so so I’m guessing word of mouth was probably big right then because you had a name in the AG Community would you say that you just built onto that retail that was there with the AG and kind of bolstered the whole thing all together I noticed we’re in a big new building yeah this wasn’t part of that purchase I presume no it wasn’t part of the purchase or the plan originally uh the original plan was a tire store would run itself and I’d still be farming but uh we we grew fast enough and got big enough we needed a bigger location so we bought this old grocery store and remodeled it and added onto it and turned it into a tire store and this was a grocery store yeah this was Stokes oh okay I did not know that

I bet Carson probably knew that being from the area but yeah we didn’t uh I didn’t I wasn’t aware of that awesome so um the service trucks seemed to be a big part of the business too you’ve got quite a few of those moving around yeah we’ve got several I don’t know 35 somewhere in there yeah service trucks and that wherever the farmers are we we have to go to them so so where are you getting this the Manpower uh I’ve heard tell that there’s a lot of experience in your company for being a new company I’ve heard there’s a lot of 20. yeah 25-year vets in your company where’d you find them and how did you get the local competitor uh was a locally owned company sold out to corporate uh change pay structure for their employees when they bought it employees didn’t like that so they came down here and asked me if I’d hire them and buy trucks and so we bought every truck we could find and rebuild it at our farm and actually build a bunch of our own trucks and and hired everybody that wanted to move

down here so these wrap trucks rolling around here you’ve built a lot of those it’s not order them with everything on them or yeah we’re just starting uh it’s pretty tough to go buy a new trucks so yeah we uh found trucks and beds and Booms and and just build them ourselves and so I noticed the Tire Pros uh with the wickle there so that’s a franchise is it not because I see Rogers Tire Pros and Caldwell I’ve seen other Tire Pros around Idaho yeah so how did you find them and where did that work so our plan our main supplier is American Tire Distributors and uh so we they they own Tire Pros so it’s a it’s a franchise for independently owned tire stores that can belong to something bigger offer a better warranty offered other locations for their customers when they’re traveling or have kids that go to college somewhere else or whatever in case right or a national account that maybe you need to get to other areas is that something too yeah awesome so then what would you say is I don’t know some of your biggest successes thus far

has it been bringing on that AG business definitely okay definitely yeah it’s it’s been a learning experience from the get-go because not only do we need the trucks we needed inventory and the the American Tire Distributors isn’t big in ag so they have some but not a lot so we’ve had to Branch out and figure out ways to supply the AG tires and actually became direct with Titan Goodyear AG about a year ago yeah and so we started our wholesale company so we can sell to other tire stores and that helps us have the inventory we need here to take care of our farmers beautiful when they need it so so that’s ATVs working with you on that no that’s we’re direct with ourselves with oh okay exciting Good Year so oh awesome yeah so early on you mentioned that um you wanted to diversify so was that your driving force for the entire Pros yeah that was pretty well art yeah and we weren’t real picky on what we were getting you know tires wasn’t the first on our list but it just fit yeah the farming good one year and bad

for ten so uh yeah well maybe something else will diversify and come in and help us out through those other 10 years and right and so that was kind of the point to diversifying and you and you already you look at your tire Bill probably right so you do tires will spend a lot on tires you’re not going to get in the oil business yeah right exactly you start looking at different things we’re not going to start Machining Our Own Parts yeah but we might be able to change our own tires yeah I like that mentality what is is there anything else that you did there diversification wise in that same time frame or no was that pretty much it you just did yeah yeah in 2012 we sold we had a pretty good sized Farm out north and and we sold that opportunity was there and then we went just had our farm and Deco and so from that point forward we’re very well looking for the next thing whether it be more ground over there or just something else and this is what we kind of fell into so well and it

seems really great for the entrepreneur type in my mind because I noticed you know as you’re building your business and marketing and I know you’re saying the word of mouth is probably a lot of your marketing you’ve always told me that but yeah um you’re also expanding your footprint I noticed for storage you’re over here kind of by the river yeah you’ve got a big storage facility there storage across the street right yeah are you on this whole entire block here is this is this your building here yeah so there’s more storage more storage right now yeah I’ve wondered if that would ever you know be part of the business or but you have this working as a store so I guess maybe just knock it down and yeah basically more valuable to you as flat dirt right now probably wouldn’t it yeah but it’s pretty nice to have our inventory just right across the parking lot right rather than having to go across the street every time we got to get truck tires or whatever you know and yeah it takes a lot of room to store tires which has been a learning

experience for sure yeah having room around you is is vital we’re learning that as well an entire replaying you know getting into Recycling and tires we’re noticing there’s a lot of more equipment to park here or there um so I I understand the footprint and the challenges that come with that yeah um how about your community you obviously you have a lot of people employed here yeah that’s families that’s little kids yeah you know little mountains you’re feeding yeah I know it’s stressful too right yeah a lot of families to think about but are there some Community things you’re excited about or that yeah you got a softball team or anything like that our Jerome store has a has a softball team that a bunch of them belong to we’ve never done that here in Burley um that’s cool we try to participate in the 4-H auctions at the fairs I think that’s a good good program for the kids that want to do something maybe learn how to work before they get there you know right and then they see the money on the end you know Mom will suspended on college

but still yeah they see that at the end and go okay I can see this yeah maybe I do want to do something right put in work you get something at the end yeah exactly yeah nice yeah and plus the rest of us get some nice beef that’s right yeah right on well how about um you mentioned Tim and Chris are there other guys in the in the shop here that you wanted to single out there’s something yeah we’ve we’ve got uh James I mean I know you could list them all probably yeah yeah they’re all very vital I feel like you know and we’ve got Shane and Tyson and Quade Kino Kevin and Bell fried Brock on the service trucks you know we got great totally down in Jerome and yeah all our service truck guys are amazing right um our counter crew here in burley’s amazing Jamie Moon and Josh Hauser Josh Farrell candy uh I’m gonna get you in trouble for anybody anybody I forget for putting him on the spot yeah yeah but uh and also obviously all of our boss at home I’m sure you have a lovely wife

there yeah she’s wondering where you’re at all the time and yeah she’s probably gonna be jealous of me because I got you to talk so much that’s right I get home and I don’t want to talk yeah yeah she’s gonna be like you talked all the time for him yeah no kidding yeah yeah my wife’s been great she’s questioned my decision for five years but she’s she’s stayed there and supported me so well like I think you said in the beginning the tires was supposed to be something that you got going yeah and then this is going to be better our life’s gonna get better right she’s like wait a minute you’re never home what’s what’s the deal this isn’t getting better right yeah well it’ll come right yeah yeah more than you think it’s going to be when you do it you know yeah yeah if you don’t put the work in nothing comes out so right so we talked about successes was there any any challenges in this time that uh building this out that oh yeah you had to learn from it I had a guy Buck Hill if you could

go back and listen to one of our podcasts uh the owners setco tires they make solid tires uh one thing he talked about that I loved was uh even you know most innovators when you’re doing something different or you’re going to have some failures and he talked about because they were all pilots and they would go back like a like a wreck or like a plane crash and say okay what’d we do right what’d we do wrong leading up to that you know when we made the decision and how we acted you know so I I’m sure you’ve gone over some things decisions you’ve made and you’ll do it different can you talk about any of those maybe help some of the listeners and oh and a lot of it’s been product based you know what what products we bring in and you you try to get the best product you can for the best value so you can pass that on to your customers you know and we’ve found that some of it is really just cheap junk and so we’ve learned that some of the ways that everybody that’s came to work

here has always done things as far as putting tires together and doing things it maybe there’s a million ways to skin a cat you know and we’ve found kind of the right way to do it and that’s how we try to do it every time that way we can stand behind our work um yeah we’ve learned and you really you’re up against some some big Powers Yeah Yeah an entire you know maybe I tell the guy the other day it’d be like going to opening a business or a pizza shop in Chicago yeah I mean you get into the tire business you better be ready to fight yeah and they got major buyer powering we’re talking like Walmart buying power which is also a competitor of yours yeah yeah Walmart’s Costco those are like some of the biggest names on the planet yeah are your competitors so um I’m sure buying practices has been a big part of that but then customer service I’m guessing yeah so that smiling face and yeah just hometown yeah we want we try to treat everybody how we’d want to be treated and and and for our AG

customers it’s all about getting there you know they you have a one tractor go down on a potato operation you’re shutting down 30 guys that’s costing that guy a lot of money over one tire we got to get there and get it fixed and get him going that’s that’s our goal that’s why we have so many service trucks and and so much inventories to try to take care of that kind of stuff yeah you got Dairy you got sugar beets you got potatoes you got corn you got everything around you and all those are vital but somebody would call uh what do they try to label us um efficient no um where you’re needed in your position during covet they told us they’re oh yeah yeah what did they call us non help us out what was when when during covert if essential essential yeah yeah so you’re out there changing tires a lot of times I think when you’re you know you look at the guy on the side of the freeway yeah right and he’s broke down first of all that driver’s trying to get home you know he wants to see

his wife and kids he’s got a load of who knows what might be vital you know to somebody somewhere yeah and then now your guys out there standing in 80 mile an hour traffic trying to get him back running down the road yeah and to me that’s extremely vital yeah you know extremely yeah yeah and essential if you will yeah yeah so I I don’t know I guess how did kova treat you guys that I seem to bring it up every time but it was a big part of business um did did you see a big influx in um semi and slowed down on passenger or vice versa on the the first two weeks I think were the hardest for us we I mean we just went to almost nothing nobody was coming in the shop nobody was getting anything done we were doing this remodel right right then this one oh God it was it was oh scary how’d you sleep at night no you had this big thing you’re launching it I don’t sleep much all the business just stopped yes and we didn’t know whether it was coming back yeah we

have to remind ourselves of that time honestly I reached for a to-go cup for my drink the other day and thought you know I thought a to-go lid was gonna kill me yeah a few years ago they told me I better be gloved up and maxed up to just to touch something that other people might have touched yeah but you know we forget those little nuances but yeah they were real at the time and you’re looking around you got this shot you know yeah so how’d that go I mean obviously we figured out you know here’s what we got to do we got it we got a mask up when we’re getting in customers vehicles and and maybe go pick their car up at their house so they don’t have to come out this and take it back to them and and that’s you know our Lube still does that goes picks up cars and so that’s something that’s stuck yeah it’s stuck yeah um the text to pay became huge right then so we had to switch credit card companies to uh so we could process and just text them they

didn’t have to walk into the showroom to pay a lot of things like that the AG Community I think everybody just said well we got to go we don’t have a choice and so that that’s going to get much more essential than that yeah that side we just went and figured figured hopefully nobody shows up and shuts us down because we feel like we’re essential so we’re going so yeah nobody ever showed up so well the ambulances have tires and yeah these cars have tires yeah yeah you probably could have worked your way through that one yeah yeah so I don’t know covet was a big impact on all businesses but yeah I think we’ve pushed through it now hopefully we won’t see anything come up in the future but it sounds like a few good things Shake shook out of it yeah all right well what’s uh what’s next on the list for you guys do you have any more stores coming up any future plans or don’t have any plans yet but I can’t say that I’ve ever planned anything I get that well I I appreciate you coming on it’s um

it’s been fun learning a little bit and here straight from the horse’s mouth yeah rather than uh than other people talking about why you got into it so yeah I was glad to hear about it and um I hope everything’s going good with your entire collection and oh yeah Recycling and we’re excited to bring a lot of new things for that and uh to be you know Shameless plug with our tire reclaiming picking up tires for you um I’ve noticed there’s quite a bit of room back here in the back in the area so it looks like we’re getting you cleaned out yeah it’s pretty good and keeping that better yeah it is better yeah well I’m glad to hear that so we got that on camera and uh I do appreciate your time thank you have a good rest of your day man thanks you too all right