GO THE EXTRA MILE | Brothers Mark and David in their repair shop. Photo by Paul Chin, Jr.
By T.J. Prieur
Mark Hornsby, co-owner of Hornsby Tire and Service Center in Newport News, was almost born into the tire business, he says.
Hornsby Tire has been serving the Tidewater region of eastern Virginia since 1935. The independent, family-owned tire dealership and automobile service center was started by Hornsby’s great uncle, purchased by his father, Bob, in 1960, and turned over to Mark, himself and his brother, David, in 1985.
Mark Hornsby spent his summer breaks during high school and college working at the family business, like his father before him. Taking it over had always seemed like his destiny, he says.
“I went to college knowing I was going to come back down here,” Mark says. “That was my goal.”
He attended Radford University intending to graduate with a degree in business management. It would be something to fall back on, if Hornsby Tire went sour.
That has yet to happen.
“In 25 years of business,” Mark says of the time he’s co-owned the company, “we’ve never gone backwards. Never.”
Revenue growth has been solid year after year. Today, he says, “We’re swamped. I don’t know why we’re so blessed.”
Somehow, with the economy tanking these last three years and taking a number of companies with it, business has been booming at Hornsby Tire.
“Is there a secret to it?” Mark asks. “I don’t know, except for maybe people are hurtin’ more, so they want more trust. They want more out of it.”
Trust and fairness is at the hub of the Hornsby family business.
“What my dad used to tell us all the time,” Mark explains, “was care about other people, treat them like you want to be treated and go that extra mile to help. In return, you’ll gain a faithful customer for life.
“That was the only philosophy he had. There was nothing else.”
Because Hornsby Tire can’t compete price-wise with big-box stores and national chains that buy in bulk and sell with markdowns, they emphasize the importance of customer service and loyalty, especially when it comes to marketing.
While they do some advertising, word of mouth brings in most of their business.
“If there’s a problem with a customer, we want to take care of it,” he explains. “We don’t want that customer to go badmouthing us for any reason whatsoever. And there are situations where there are problems — anytime you have a business, there’s problems — but we try to adjust to it and we try to take care of it, because the last thing I want is somebody that’s just like a disease, spreading the word out there that [we’ve done something wrong].”
Their reputation for quality work affects more than just their retail business. Half of Hornsby Tire’s business is commercial. While he admits that price is importance to their commercial accounts, Mark says that companies can’t micromanage the work being done on a 50-vehicle fleet.
The bottom line? “If they can’t trust you, they’re not coming back,” he says.
The model seems to be working.
“We’re liable to have our best month ever in sales, and the economy stinks right now,” he says.
Mark, who handles the books and number crunching while his brother takes care of the majority of front-end service and sales, will be celebrating his 50th birthday this summer as Hornsby Tire adopts a new name — Hornsby Tire and Service Center — and a larger location.
The expansion, he adds, isn’t a competitive effort, but rather an investment in his family’s future.
“I just want to be comfortable with life,” Mark says of his ambitions. “I don’t need to be the king of the tire business, that’s not for me. But I want to make it work.”
The move has been three years in the making. After the official grand opening on August 20, Mark hopes that he and his brother will be able to slow down and enjoy some free time. Both are avid sportsmen — David played professional baseball after college — with wives and children.
Will the business stay in the family after the brothers retire? Mark laughs as he contemplates the future.
If any of the children were to come back full circle, Mark points to David’s son, but he’s quick to offer a disclaimer:
“I’m not saying that’s what he wants to do. If he heard me say that, he’d probably say, ‘No! I ain’t gonna do it!’ But he would be the one that I could see comin’ back and doing it.”
