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First U.S. Dunlop Tire Dealer Celebrates 75th Anniversary
LOUISVILLE, KY., Nov. 18, 2004 — Dunlop Tires today is celebrating 75 years of service with Southern Tire Service, the brand's oldest independent tire dealership in the United States.
Dunlop officials from Akron, Ohio are attending the festivities at the landmark East Market Street store. Brothers Herbert Feige III and Fred Feige run the tire retailer along with Herbert's children, Dustin and Brittnie Feige.
Brent Strandberg, channel marketing manager for Dunlop consumer tires, said, "Loyalty, honesty and perseverance are the trademarks of Dunlop's relationship with Southern Tire. It's exciting to see four generations of the Feige family keeping the dream alive."
Although the tire industry has changed dramatically in 75 years, "the Feiges still treat their customers with respect. They develop personal relationships and rely on word of mouth to keep their business growing," Strandberg said.
Herbert Feige said Dunlop has been a loyal supplier. "We've viewed Dunlop tires as something our competitors didn't offer. For so long, we've had the market cornered with Dunlop."
Feige's grandfather, Herb Feige Sr., and his Southern Tire Service have been a fixture on East Market Street here. Feige Sr. lived on the street when horses and buggies, ice wagons and coal vans vied for space with cattle being driven to market.
His brother-in-law, Herbert Funk, started Southern Tire Service in June 1920 - the early days of the automobile. The store sold tires, tubes, gasoline, oil and batteries. Ford Model T trucks performed roadside service, and gasoline pumps were located at the curb.
Funk was a member of the first Dunlop dealer committee, which met at the Brown Hotel in Louisville on Jan. 29, 1929. Southern Tire became an exclusive supplier of Dunlop tires that year.
A year later, the business moved one block to the corner of Hancock and Market streets, because a new law banned gas pumps at the curb. In 1956, Funk sold the store to Herb Feige Sr. and salesman Julius O'Koon.
The pair razed the building two years later and built a 10,000-square-foot facility at the site.
O'Koon died in 1973, and Feige Sr. became sole owner. According to press reports, he came to work every day until his death in 1996. Herbert Feige Jr. took over and ran the business with the same work ethic as his father.
And again, the company advertised little. "Word of mouth is what we depend on more than anything else," he said, in a newspaper article. Feige Jr. died April 9, 2004.
Not much has changed. The Feige family is heavily involved in growing the store's business. And it still uses the same cash register installed when the company started.
Dunlop, too, has a rich history. In 1888, John Boyd Dunlop, a Scottish veterinary surgeon living in Belfast, Ireland, invented the modern pneumatic - inflatable - tire. A year later, he founded the Dunlop Rubber Co. Today, Dunlop is a global tire brand with an excellent reputation among performance car enthusiasts.
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