By Giorgio AndonianPublished On: May 27, 2025

MTD’s 2025 Tire Dealer Survival Guide is Here

Stay tuned to www.moderntiredealer.com for excerpts from MTD’s 2025 Tire Dealer Survival Guide.

In this year’s edition of MTD’s Tire Dealer Survival Guide, mergers and acquisition expert Cole Strandberg, also a managing director with FOCUS Investment Banking’s automotive aftermarket team, explains why the ability to scale is vital for dealers who want to expand through acquisitions.

You’ve heard of artificial intelligence. How can you, as an independent tire dealer, effectively harness this developing technology to improve your systems and processes? Dennis McCarron, a partner at Cardinal Brokers, provides some thought-provoking ideas.

Is everyone on your team aligned and rowing in the right direction? If not, you may have a quiet quitter somewhere within your organization. Mike Townsend, retail tire sales coach and owner of Townsend Strategies, teaches you how to identify and rehabilitate quiet quitters before they do more damage to your business.

Customer retention is an evergreen concern for many dealers. J. Mark Jackson, a founding partner of Guidon LLC, a leadership and resilience training/consulting organization, details the three levels of customer commitment and how you can convince clients to stick with you.

And Randy O’Connor, owner of D2D Development Group (Dealer to Dealer Development Group), discusses how to understand the purchase path of today’s customer by identifying — and locking in — segments, touchpoints, time frames and more.

Previously published on MTD.

Giorgio Andonian is a Managing Director at FOCUS with a proven track record of success in orchestrating strategic direction for mergers and acquisitions in the Consumer and Automotive Aftermarket industries. Mr. Andonian joined FOCUS in 2019 to work on sell-side, buy-side, recapitalizations and capital raises for middle market businesses within his respective industries. As a leader, Mr. Andonian has a wide lens of leadership from his 15+ years of operational experience. Prior to joining FOCUS, Mr. Andonian was vice president of a regional tire chain in Southern California overseeing all aspects of the operation, including sales, marketing, finance and human resources growing the business and preparing for an eventual exit to a private equity platform. Before that he worked at another Southern California tire chain, where he held a variety of positions, including finance, business analysis, operations and supply chain management. Mr. Andonian earned a Master of Business Administration, with an emphasis in finance, from Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management. He also has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with an emphasis in finance and supply chain management, from the University of San Diego. He holds several licenses and certifications, including Series 79, Series 82, Series 63, and a California Real Estate License.