Les Schwab Tires opened a new store at 1500 McCray St. in Hollister on Aug. 24 with two managers and 10 recently hired employees for sales and service. Manager Alan McNamee says the majority of his new team is from Hollister with the rest coming from Gilroy, Salinas and other surrounding communities.
Les Schwab is a full-service business selling and repairing tires, brakes, batteries and shocks. McNamee says the stores does tire alignments and, “we can change any kind of tire from farm tractor tires to heavy duty trucks and equipment like bobcats or forklifts.”
According to McNamee, Les Schwab employees do not work on commission and are expected to represent the privately-owned company’s values of “honesty, fairness, loyalty and integrity.”
The original Les Schwab Tire Store opened in 1952 in Prineville, Oregon. Although Les is no longer alive, his wife Dorothy is and it is still a family-owned business.
According to McNamee, the 12 new Hollister employees are working full time with full medical coverage and a retirement program. He says that Les Schwab has a 50 percent profit-sharing plan with employees. At the end of each year, half of the revenue is divided equally among all the employees, regardless of their position.
Schwab managers say there were more than 100 candidates for the 10 open positions. Hiring managers used Craigslist, Spanish and Western music radio stations and posted signs outside the new store location in Hollister saying, “We’re Hiring.”
In 1986, Les Schwab wrote a book, Pride in Performance…Keep It Going!, which is on display at the store. According to the book, Schwab built a business from a single tire store to a company with “over 7,000 dedicated Les Schwab employees committed to providing you a great experience with a job done right.”