Tire Rack: Distribution center key to growth of direct-response firm

The Tire Rack Inc. doesn't expect to add employment directly as the result of its move to a new facility east of Sparks next summer.

But the company that sells tires via the Internet and telephone sales says the new 310,000-square-foot facility at Tahoe Reno Industrial Center is likely to help leverage higher sales volumes that will translate into more employment.

Tire Rack currently employs about 30 people at a warehouse in Sparks.

Matt Edmonds, the company's marketing vice president, said the new distribution center at TRIC will be far more sophisticated than the existing warehouse, which stacks inventory on its floor.

The efficiencies of a new distribution center as well as the ability of the company to quickly reach consumers in the West from a northern Nevada location provide a competitive advantage, Edmonds said.

"We are essentially a direct-response business," he said. "The key for anyone in that business becomes logistics."

Based at South Bend, Ind., the family-owned company also operates distribution facilities in Indiana, Georgia and Louisiana.

Edmonds said the company expects to begin shipments from the new center in August.

Trammell Crow Co. is developing the building.