JEFF & STEVE GROVER

WRITER: GARY CORSAIR

Most of the Irmo High School Class of 1972 balanced school work with social life and part-time jobs as graduation approached, but not Jeff Grover. He balanced whitewalls and steel-belted radials.

“Jeff was running dad’s tire store in Columbia, S.C. when he was 18,” says Jeff’s brother, Steve, who is a year-and-ahalf younger than his ambitious sibling.

Eighteen years old with three years experience, that is.

“I started when I was 15,” Jeff recalls. “I just got my learner’s permit and I was driving around town picking up and delivering tires.”

You can probably guess who got the call to run things when Wally Grover moved to Florida in 1975 and bought a tire store in Leesburg. That’s right, his 21-year-old son, Jeff.

By then, Steve was well on his way to learning the family business. He was 14 when he joined Jeff and Wally. The handoff of the Leesburg tire store was as smooth as a 45-second tire change when Jeff decided to buy land in sleepy Lady Lake and open a second Tire Round-Up in June 1989.

“We always worked well together. A lot of families can’t say that,” Steve says.

Steve was more than ready to step in and run the original Tire Round-Up. And Jeff was determined to succeed in the

Brothers pump each other up to keep Tire Round-Up rolling

north end of the county.

“When we bought the property here in ’89, we had no hint The Villages would become what it is,” Jeff says.

Before long, both stores were prospering. The reason: two brothers, one philosophy.

“Our formula for success is putting the customer first,” Steve says. “We work harder trying to save people money than most tire stores work trying to get customers to spend more money.”

That’s only part of the equation.

“There’s no pressure. I’ve heard stories of pressure tactics you wouldn’t believe,” Steve says. “We will never do that. We’re committed to helping people.”

“We pride ourselves on being honest,” Jeff adds. “We really want to help people.”

The formula obviously works.

“We’re blessed to be as busy as we are,” Steve says. “Some tire stores give away their tires so they can get you with under-the-car care, but we tell you what you need and when you need to do it.”

More than a dozen competitors have opened in the tri-county area in the past 30 years, but both Tire Round-Up stores have never been busier.

“At least 50 to 55 percent of our business is repeat customers,” Steve says. “We get guys coming in who were babies in their father’s arms the first time we saw them.”

And speaking of families, Jeff’s son Justin and Steve’s son Chris are working with their dads on the floor while Jeff’s wife Tracy and daughter Michele and Steve’s wife Mary handle bookkeeping for their respective stores.

That makes for plenty of family interaction. And that’s the way the brothers want it.

“We run separate businesses, but we work a lot together,” Jeff says. “We talk back and forth every day.”

Business has been so good the brothers considered expanding, but only briefly.

“We’ve thought about adding stores, but then you get away from the personal touch. Right now, customers know me, and they know Steve,” Jeff says. “Anytime we go out in public, out to eat or something, people know us. We don’t want to lose that.”

Jeff and Steve agree there’s no one they’d rather work with. And no other business they want to try.

“I’ve never had another job,” Jeff says.