The tire industry is in Charmaine Carvalho’s blood. She has been in the business for decades, and her vast experience includes a number of years selling tires in the Middle East. In addition to her retail experience, she is thoroughly familiar with the entire supply chain. “Wholesale is my strength,” she says, “and retail is my new passion.”

One of the ways she expresses that passion is through her efforts at Elite Tire, located in Fredericton, New Brunswick. “Elite Tire started in 2008,” she recalls. “It was run by a Marcel Richard, and he was a customer of mine. I used to sell him tires. When COVID-19 started, he decided to retire, and I bought the store in 2022.”

Carvalho notes that Elite Tire is the only standalone tire store in Fredericton. All the other retailers are part of a much larger network. “This means we can carry any tire brands we want to, and that we’re not restricted to the brands that are permitted by any particular network,” she adds.

Elite Tire currently employs nine, and the three-bay store has two service advisors and one sales person on the road. Carvalho continues to sell tires at the wholesale level, which is why the location also has a 21,000 sq. ft. warehouse and two loading docks where two containers can be unloaded simultaneously.

Small-town charm

While Carvalho sells tires for commercial applications, her store only handles light-duty vehicles. “Fredericton is very small,” she adds. “We have two dealers in town who specialize in commercial tires and everyone goes to them.”

In theory, Carvalho could expand her business, add bays that can handle large trucks, and then sell and service tires for commercial vehicles, but she says that it wouldn’t make sense to do so since the city already has two dealers that handle all the commercial truck tire business.

“New Brunswick is different,” she explains. “Everyone cares and nobody thinks about stepping on another person’s toes. Since we already have two tire dealers who handle commercial trucks, no one thinks about opening another shop and trying to undercut them. It just doesn’t work that way here.”

Fredericton is a small community and price wars simply don’t happen, Carvalho explains. “Although we advertise, and we’re on social media, we don’t tell consumers to come to us instead of the competition, and we don’t try to discredit the other stores,” she adds.

Cordial customers

The cordial nature of Fredericton’s business owners must be contagious since Carvalho says that customers are equally nice to deal with. “No one at the shop is rude, no one complains, and they’re very patient,” she says. “And they don’t play the price game with you because they believe that you’re not trying to take advantage of them. There’s a level of trust there.”

Customer loyalty is huge, and Carvalho says that once a retailer earns a customer’s trust, they will remain loyal for generations. “If one family member goes to your tire store, they’ll send their friends, their parents, their siblings, their children, the entire family,” she explains.

The secret to success, Carvalho explains, especially in New Brunswick is reputation. Developing trust with customers takes effort, and Carvalho says that all her staff members are well trained, and that they understand how to treat customers. 

Unique deliveries

One of the unique things about Carvalho’s approach to business is the way she makes deliveries to her wholesale customers. While most companies would employ a truck to make deliveries throughout the day, she prefers to call the local taxi company, load up a cab with a set of tires, and have the taxi driver make the delivery.

“We did a cost analysis to see what it would cost to have our own truck,” she explains. “I would need to buy a truck, hire a driver and pay them a full-time salary. When you add all that up, it costs a lot less to hire a cab every time you need to deliver a set of tires.”

That said, she admits that not all her deliveries are made by cab, and that when she needs to make a larger delivery, she simply rents a truck and has one of her staff drive it to make the delivery.

Thinking about the future, Carvalho, like many business owners, is taking a wait-and-see approach as she ponders the effect tariffs and economic pressures will have on business. With her vast experience in this industry, however, she is sure to weather this storm, along with the rest of friendly Fredericton.