SC October2011.pdf - Parts & People

Turbo Wholesale Tires focuses on SUV, ultra high-performance applications
was a tremendous
opportunity in the ultra
high-performance (UHP)
and sport utility vehicle
(SUV) segments.
Still, business was
very difficult, he said.
“But many of the
immigrant gas station
owners referred their
friends and relatives to
me, and my business
grew.”
Sepetjian said the established
mainstream independent tire dealers in Los
Angeles didn’t know what to make of him
at first. “I decided to visit them and tell
them how I could help grow their
businesses with the rapidly emerging UHP
and SUV segments of our industry,” he
said.
Initially, he said he was met by rejection
but that eventually many of the established
independents started buying from him. “By
focusing on the ultra high-performance and
SUV niches, dealers quickly discovered I
had the proper tire they needed for their
specific application.”
TWT soon became “the source” for
UHV and SUV tires in the dynamic and
competitive Southern California tire
market, Septijian said, “and we watched
our business soar.”
After just a few years in business, TWT
had become a multimillion-dollar
company, he said. “In 2002, after opening a
larger warehouse in Irwindale, sales
surpassed $49 million. In 2010, sales grew
Continued on page 12
The Turbo Wholesale Tires management
team is composed of, from l., Sarkis
Sepetjian, president; Bill Fuqua, national
business development manager; and
Jesse Ortiz, general manager. Sepetjian
says sales will reach $200 million in 2011.
by Dick DeLoach
Irwindale, Calif. — Sarkis Sepetjian,
president of Turbo Wholesale Tires, is a man
of faith, which the Armenian Lebanese
Christian immigrant said has had a dramatic
effect on his station in life.
“My parents instilled in me the values that
I have today,” he said, “including the belief
that if something falters or fails in my life, a
new door of opportunity would open.”
That’s what Sepetjian said happened
when he traveled to Greece in 1976 and
landed a job in a shoe factory.
Sepetjian said he was doing well and soon
began exporting shoes as well as women’s
clothing from Greece to Lebanon. “The
business was very successful, so I decided to
come to the United States in 1982 and
expand my business,” he said.
When he arrived in the U.S., Sepetjian
said he had $3,000 in his pocket and the rest
of his capital tied up in women’s clothing.
“Unfortunately, I discovered very similar
styles of clothing were being imported from
China and sold in the U.S. at half the price.”
So Sepetjian said he was forced to
liquidate his inventory at a fraction of his
cost and started looking for a job. “I was
discouraged but still reliant on my faith,” he
said.
Sepetjian said that shortly thereafter, he
accepted an offer from a family friend to
“keep an honest eye on things” at his two
retail tire shops, one of them called Turbo
Tire in Los Angeles.”
Sepetjian said that by 1987, he had
become the owner of the business and
incorporated the company as Turbo
Wholesale Tires (TWT).
“At that time, gas stations had stopped
carrying their own company tires, so there
was a rare and unique opportunity for me,”
he said.
Initially, Sepetjian said, he started selling
low-cost tires but quickly realized that there
Parts & People October 2011 Page 11