distribution founded 1953 vernon british columbia canada headquarters vernon british columbia canada number of locations 250 as of september 2015 key people thomas j. foord obc co founder robert foord president products tires and automotive parts sales and service number of employees 4 000 as of july 2010 website www.kaltire.com kal tire is a wholly owned canadian company based in vernon british columbia where it was originally founded in 1953 by thomas j. foord obc and jim lochhead . its business comprises retail tire sales for passenger and light truck vehicles mechanical services for passenger and light trucks commercial truck tires mining and off road sales and service and retreading of both commercial and off road tires . contents 1 history 2 marketing 3 services 3.1 retail 3.2 commercial and industrial 3.3 otr and mining 4 references 5 external links history edit kal tire was started in 1953 by thomas j. foord and jim lochhead with the initial goal of servicing the commercial logging operations that operated in the okanagan valley around vernon british columbia and nakusp british columbia by building customers trust . 1 kal tire was named after kalamalka lake the prominent lake of many colours landmark in vernon . the company is still based in its birthplace of vernon . since 1953 kal tire has expanded steadily . 2 kal tire comprises 165 company owned branches 49 independent associate dealers 11 mining industrial commercial locations 10 retread facilities one otr plant and four distribution warehouses . the business covers a market that includes british columbia alberta yukon northwest territories saskatchewan manitoba northern ontario parts of southern ontario and quebec as well as mining operations in mexico argentina chile south america the united kingdom ghana and australia . marketing edit kal tire started with the motto of if we sell it we guarantee it which is still used by the company today . that was followed by the slogan of you ll like us for more than our tires . this campaign proved very successful for the company but was then replaced by service stories . kal tire currently uses the brand position of true service . 3 participation in industry trade shows and participation in organizations is a key part of the marketing strategy of kal tire . some of the organizations that kal tire is associated with include western canada tire dealers association tire industry association and bc roadbuilders association . services edit retail edit kal tire sells and services many name brand manufacturers including bridgestone firestone michelin bfgoodrich yokohama nokian nitto and multi mile products . kal tire also recently expanded its service offering to include mechanical work ranging from shocks and struts to brakes and oil service but it is not provided at all locations . mechanical part suppliers include raybestos friction parts truxxx lift and leveling kits moog steering parts trico wiper blades and pennzoil lubrication products . batteries are also sold for cars trucks and marine vehicles using the diehard line of batteries . commercial and industrial edit kal tire carries a full range of commercial truck tires and is also the largest retreader 4 of commercial tires in canada with ten retread facilities across canada that use the bandag process . kal tire also carries and services industrial use tires for equipment such as forklifts excavators and tracked vehicles . otr and mining edit otr or off the road tires are generally larger for use on heavy equipment that would not normally operate on paved roads . on july 31 2012 kal tire partnered 5 with otr tyres in the uk to create a global earthmover tire sales and service company . references edit tire business magazine t.j. foord ; business foundation built on a simple word trust . report on business how kal tire is making tracks . marketing magazine kal tire rolls with roadies . tire business tire distributor rankings 2009 . tyre press news kal tire and otr tyres partnership . external links edit kal tire official website commitment to safety work safe bc otr tyres official website western canada tire dealers association tire industry association bc roadbuilders association retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title kal tire & oldid 703500028 categories tiresautomotive repair shopsautomobile maintenancecompanies based in vernon british columbia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 5 february 2016 at 22 10 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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