GERALD's TIRES & BRAKES

Before giving a history, let me say that there are a lot of people in this world that are a lot smarter than we are that haven't made it. When we at Gerald's think of this, it humbles us and causes us to look to our God with thanks. We have been truly blessed. You have to find God on your own timetable, but when you do, he can and will make a big difference in your life.

Howard W. Watts opened a retread plant called Recaps Inc. in 1964 off Azalea Drive in North Charleston's Stark Industrial Park. Production of retreads reached a high of 1500 units per day and were marketed through independent route salesman who would purchase and resell to various retailers throughout the Southeast. One of these route salesmen purchased approximately 1000 tires a week.

A dispute concerning protected sales territories arose causing a parting of the ways between this particular route salesman and the company. This left a gaping hole in sales of approximately 13 percent. Howard and a friend John Sullivan, had been discussing the possibility of opening a "retread only" tire store. What better time than now to try and recoup the aforementioned lost tire sales.

Hence, Gerald's Recaps in the bright Orange building was born. The first store, located on Savannah Hwy. and Magnolia Rd. opened in 1974. It had been an old two bay Texaco gas station that closed due to the oil shortage in the seventies. Remember the gas lines?

A gentleman named Gerald Davis worked for Howard at the recap plant as a company delivery man. He was given the opportunity to run this prototype store. Initially, all the equipment was manual. A four way lug wrench was used to remove lug nuts and a manual tire machine was used to change tires. The tires were then balanced on a bubble balancer before placing them on the car.

Gerald's name was placed on the building to add a little motivation to the man who was doing the manual work. The idea worked and sales grew rapidly. Gerald and John became partners and opened an additional four stores in the Charleston area. Howard took the concept outside of Charleston and before it was over the number grew to 27 orange tire stores throughout the Southeast; Johnny's Recaps in Augusta, Ga., Dee's Recaps in Columbia, SC, Robert's Recaps in Jacksonville, Fl etc. Each was named after the manager. Some folks in Charleston still remember the old "$9.95 does it all" advertising of Gerald's Recaps.

In the early 80's, the prices of radial tires started dropping. The closer the price got to retreads, the fewer retreads were sold. Sales continued to decline until Gerald reached a point of no profit and he sold out.

Bill Watts, who was Howard's son and had managed the retread plant for several years, decided to purchase the stores from Gerald. Bill, with the help of a great management team, made up of David Ard, his brother-in-law, and others who had been associated with Howard, and a quality crew already existing in the stores, began to restructure from the "retread only" to the present day new tire and auto service stores.

Bill and his staff have always tried to treat patrons of their establishments with honesty, integrity, and courtesy.

We look to our customers as our friends. You do have a friend at Gerald's.

Bill Watts - Chief Executive Officer

David Ard - VP and General Manager