Tires Unlimited to open second shop in Grafton

Port Washington’s Tires Unlimited will soon have a second location near Grafton’s east-side commercial district off I-43.

The under-construction building on Port Washington Road between highways V and 60 will be similar to the Port location with 10 car bays to Port’s nine, owner Steve Jones said.

Jones said the Grafton location will replace the car-repair business of Grafton Mobil, which he purchased from his father 14 years ago.

The three car bays at the Mobil station will become a part of the store, he said, and its mechanics and technicians will move to the Port Washington Road location.

Jones said he thought about opening a larger location for many years, as the small size of Grafton Mobil, which opened in 1980, left him unable to keep up with demand.

“I’ve been maxed out at Grafton for years,” he said, noting the relative lack of large car repair shops in the area.

Building the new shop just north of Grafton’s east-side commercial district that houses Target, Meijer and Costco will hopefully capture highway-bound traffic while also benefiting from Grafton’s continued development, Jones said.

In 2017, Jones purchased Tires Unlimited, which he said has grown steadily since then.

Deciding on branding for the new location was difficult, he said.

“People know Tires Unlimited and they know Grafton Mobil,” he said. Ultimately, he decided to establish a cohesive Tires Unlimited brand across the shops.

Jones has been co-owner of Good Hope Service in Milwaukee since 2012.

“Grafton Mobil is three bays, and the place in Milwaukee is six bays. Port is nine bays,” he said. “I kind of went bigger each time, building to the capacity of the building and then finding a good manager to run it.”

Owning several car repair shops gives him advantages, such as more leverage in negotiating part orders with distributors, sharing marketing costs and allowing shops to share employees, Jones said.

Jones said he already has four or five mechanics who will move to the new location, but he hopes to get about 10.

As with other industries, hiring can be challenge, he said.  Retention, however, is usually not an issue.

“Everyone struggles with hiring today, but I typically hold onto people for a long time. I try to give good benefits, and I pay well,” he said.

Jones said he generally looks for hires with “pretty substantial experience,” but does tries to have one or two apprentices.

“It takes years to grow (apprentices),” he said, adding mechanics usually go through two years of trade school.

Car repair has become more sophisticated since he started nearly two decades ago, Jones said, especially with increasingly integrated computer systems and electric cars becoming more mainstream.

But the change hasn’t upended the industry because electric cars only make up a minority of cars on the road and still require basic maintenance such as tire changes and rotations.

Jones said he enrolls his technicians in online classes and offers them other resources on ever-evolving car systems.

“We put a lot of effort into training and keeping up with things,” he said. “We also stay in our lane and only work on things we know.”

Jones added Tires Unlimited is equipped to program most American car computer systems easily, only requiring outside help occasionally for some European systems.

Jones lives in Oostburg with his wife and two children. For a couple of years, he worked in Minnesota as an automotive and small engines teacher.

After his father offered to sell him the Mobil location, Jones said, he moved back to Wisconsin and took over the shop.

While going from teaching to owning a business was a jump in skill sets, Jones said, his experience around the industry since he was a child helped him.

The new location is tentatively set to open in December, Jones said.