GreatWater acquires Tire Tracks as part of buying spree

HUDSONVILLE, Mich. — Dytech Auto Group Inc., d.b.a. GreatWater 360 Auto Care, has been on an acquisition spree the previous couple of many years, using around approximately 90 independent auto service destinations in the Midwest.

You almost certainly have not recognized the names changing on individuals acquired outlets in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. That is mainly because, unlike numerous main merger/acquisition gamers, GreatWater stated it helps make a stage of retaining the particular person businesses’ identities — and their legacies.

The company has been attaining one- and multi-site corporations in a assortment of markets. The company’s most significant acquisition so much, by keep rely, happened in December when it purchased Tire Tracks United states, a Bradley, Unwell.-centered dealership with 14 suppliers and a warehouse in northern Illinois.

The dealership signage is nonetheless emblazoned with the Tire Tracks identify but will increase, in more compact print, “a GreatWater garage.”

“Our purpose and our prepare is to by no means transform the identify,” GreatWater COO Scott Kear explained to Tire Small business.

“We never ever go into an acquisition with the intention of transforming the name. That’s the last point we want to do. We’re obtaining these stores due to the fact they’re of course very well-run shops. They are in neighborhoods we enjoy to be in. They have a powerful track record. Why would we want to acquire that absent?”

Since February 2021, GreatWater has developed to 96 destinations just after starting off with seven Dykstra Automobile stores in the Grand Rapids, Mich., industry.

In 2003, GreatWater CEO and majority owner Jim Dykstra purchased the vehicle support dealership his father Richard had launched in 1984. Immediately after growing the dealership, he established Dytech to obtain other auto provider enterprises wherever the entrepreneurs didn’t have a succession or exit approach.

The acquisitions went complete throttle in 2021, when Dytech purchased 50 locations, which include Rockford, Sick.-based Butitta Brothers Automotive with 14 areas in 2022 it obtained a different 44 retailers.

So much this calendar year, Dytech has included two additional: Trans Functions Transmissions L.L.C. in Portage, Wis., and Farnsworth Automobile Plus in Aurora, Ill.

About 6 months back, Dytech determined to marketplace alone as GreatWater 360 Auto Care to much better resonate with customers on what the enterprise does, Kear stated.

“As we buy all these retailers, we have to affiliate them someway. And naturally that GreatWater symbol we hope is likely to help.”

GreatWater plans to go on obtaining stores this calendar year but has no distinct concentrate on amount or markets, Kear mentioned.

“We’re not concentrating on demographic spots, we are targeting solid legacy neighborhood outlets that want an exit method. We want to obtain at the ideal speed where by we can continue to be effective and continue on to provide those people communities the right way. Is that 30 stores this year? I do not know. Is it 60 shops? I don’t know, since we never know what the yr retains. …We want to do it the ideal way, not the rapid way,” Kear explained.

He reported the organization has the money for all these acquisitions thanks to the assist of investors and the reality it is obtaining thriving companies.

“At stop of working day we are shopping for quite worthwhile shops. We come in and hope to make them more profitable.”

Two yrs back, the corporation was undertaking all the pursuing of potential retailers to obtain.

“As we’ve developed from seven shops to 96 in essentially 24 months, the word gets out there. So we’re starting off to see much more and extra persons tactic us,” Kear claimed, noting that several of the homeowners who offered their firms are now referring GreatWater to other store proprietors.