In a world where consumers can get nearly anything delivered directly to their home, David Leslie was surprised to learn there was one thing he couldn’t order to his doorstep: Tires.
The 47-year-old wanted to skip the hassle of sitting in a garage waiting room while his new tires were changed, so “I told my wife ‘I’ll just look on the Internet and find somebody to bring the tires here,’ but there was absolutely no one offering the service.”
Enter TireVan, a Sterling-based company founded by Leslie and his business partner, Pat Garvey. TireVan delivers and installs tires to a customer’s home or office for $25 per tire installation, plus the cost of the tires.
“We’ve actually changed tires for people while they were in the movies or at a business conference,” Garvey said. “All we need is minimal access to your car and about an hour’s time.”
Leslie and Garvey, also 47, launched TireVan in the summer of 2004 and since then have changed the tires on over 1,000 cars, hired 10 employees — so they no longer have to change all the tires themselves — and raised about $1 million from private investors to grow the company.
The company’s virtual roots —There is no physical store, only the online store — reflect Leslie and Garvey’s previous careers. Both come from the high-tech industry and their business formula seizes upon the growing popularity of online shopping. Last year alone, online sales topped $200 billion, according to figures from the National Retail Federation, with autos and auto parts accounting for about $16 billion of that.
A comprehensive Web site lets consumers order tires and arrange an appointment online. TireVan doesn’t keep any inventory, but instead orders tires in real time when the consumer does.
While other companies offer online tire sales, TireVan appears to be the only company that delivers and installs to a customer’s requested location. With that in mind, Leslie and Garvey are looking to expand the company beyond the Washington region. They announced the addition of a six-member board of directors, which includes former CEO of Circuit City Alan L. Wurtzel, and Phil Pifer, who was previously with Goldman Sachs and Frito-Lay, on Monday. Within the next 12 to 18 months, the company hopes to add locations in Baltimore and Richmond and move up and down the East Coast from there.
“It’s not a terribly innovative retail sector,” Leslie said. But “technology can help us reinvent a conventional retail business.”
