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By Derek Craddock

TIRE SALES

Local tire shops feeling impact of price increases, inventory shortages

Aug 13, 2022 | 9:00 AM

Local tire and automotive shops are feeling the effects of inflation and supply chain issues but as one shop owner explains, it’s nothing new.

Brent Hoiness is one of the owners of Market Tire in Prince Albert. He said they’ve dealt with many issues from inventory shortages to price increases.

However, he mentions, that this all started when the COVID-19 pandemic began, as businesses were forced to close.

“When COVID really started to ramp up, there were production issues originally and then that started off a chain of events. When they started to ramp up production again, then it was too much at once and the supply chain broke down. The manufacturing facilities got so far behind that when they did catch up then the transportation companies couldn’t catch up. It was quite a snowball effect and it’s still affecting us today.”

He said the biggest issue for them now is dealing with price increases on tire products.

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“We deal with a handful of different manufacturers that have had different price increases in total but they’ve all had several price increases per year since this all started,” he said.

Hoiness added there are many factors that lead to price increases from rises in transportation rates to shipping yard fees.

Many of the largest tire companies in the world, including Michelin, Bridgestone and Goodyear, raised their prices earlier this year anywhere from 10 to 12 per cent.

While business has been getting better for them, Hoiness acknowledges they’re still feeling the effects of high inflation and supply chain issues.

“It has gotten a bit better. The manufacturers that we deal with, for the most part, have gotten things ironed out.”

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derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @princealbertNOW