Horton new owner of Willard’s EZ Tire business

By: 
Steve Chapman

Bruce Horton is the new owner of EZ Tire in Willard.

Previous, longtime owner Erwin looks to slow down, by drag racing more
 
EZ Tire in Willard has a new owner. Don Erwin, who built the automotive repair business in 2010, sold it to Bruce Horton in July of this year.
EZ Tire was the latest business which Erwin owned. He built a carwash in Willard in 1990 and Willard Fast Lube in 1992. Interestingly enough, he sold those businesses and built EZ Tire because he wanted to take it a little easier.
“I wanted to slow down some, so I built EZ Tire in 2010,” he said.
Erwin said he decided to sell because he felt it was time for him to retire. He said he chose to sell the business to Horton because he felt that he could trust Horton to run the business with the same values that he (Erwin) did.
“I’m 67,” he said, “and I decided it was time to slow down. I talked to Bruce, and he's a good Christian person, and I'm sure he'll do well there, so I was glad to sell it to him.”
It actually wasn’t the first time that Erwin tried to sell EZ Tire to Horton; he tried it once before in 2019. However, Horton, who had just made a large investment in the trucking company he owned at the time declined, as he felt purchasing the business would overextend him.
“We had just bought all new trucks, so I didn't have the capital to do it,” Horton said.
In the time since then, however, Horton decided to get out of the trucking business, due to a rise in costs and liability, so when Erwin this year renewed his offer to sell, Horton took him up on it.
Horton said he is offering a wide range of services at EZ Tire.
“Right now” he said, “we're doing new tires, brakes, running alignments, (and) inspections. We carry used tires, (and) we do shocks, front end repairs, stuff like that.”
Also, he added, he is also running the business almost the same way that Erwin did.
“The only difference is that we're … doing more front-end stuff. As far as the alignments, you know, bad parts and stuff, instead of send them out to get them fixed, we're just fixing them ourselves.”
However, Horton said, he is purposely not going to work on engines.
“We are not going to do engine diagnostics, and we are not going to do engine work,” he said. “My friend, Glenn, down here at Glenn’s Automotive, he does all that stuff, and we're going to stay off each other’s (territory).”
As a Christian, Horton said, he plans to run his business according to his values, and that means offering quality service at a price that is reasonable.
“The number one thing in a business is, you’ve got to offer a superior product at a fair price,” he said, “and that's what we're going to do. I'm not here to make a million dollars off of you. I'm here to make sure your car is in good shape, that it’s, safe. And you know, basically, at the end of the month, if we can pay the employees and pay the bills and insurance, we're good.”
As for Erwin, he said that he won’t be idle in his retirement.
“I've got race cars, and I've got a small farm; I have lots of things to do,” he said. I've also signed up to take lessons to play golf; I'd like to do that, and I’m riding my bicycle a lot more and doing a lot more drag racing.”

Category:

Lawrence County Record

312 S. Hickory St.
Mt. Vernon, MO, 65712
www.lawrencecountyrecord.com

Facebook

Please Login for Premium Content