When Tommy Servine recently mentioned to an acquaintance that he makes his living selling tires for mining equipment, the acquaintance replied in a sympathetic tone, Things will turn around for you.


Servines answer to that is an emphatic, I sure hope they dont.


Servine and business partner Rick Pettit founded TRC Tires Sales LLC here in 2006 on the premise that mining and oil-and-gas concerns needed a vendor that could track down the specialty, sometimes massive tires they need and that are increasingly hard to find.


Last year, the young ventures first full year in business, it posted $25 million in sales. As of late May, the company already had tallied $17 million in sales, Servine says, adding, Anything less than $30 million this year will be a disappointment.


Most of the tires TRC sells go on huge loaders, scrapers, and haul trucks that weigh up to 240 tons and are used in open-pit mining and earthmoving operations. The largest tires it sells stand 13 feet tall, and each weighs as much as four Chevy Suburbans, Servine says. They cost up to $160,000 per tirewhen you can find them, he adds.


Servine was in the tire business with another company for four years when he realized there was a shortage in the industry of the huge tires needed by mining companies. Few manufacturers make such big tires, and demand for them has been growing markedly as mining companies have expanded their operations in response to surging prices for metals and growing demand for fossil fuels.


Servine came up with the idea of using his connections with manufacturers to act as an intermediary between them and the hungry market.


I pitched the idea to a few people, and Ricky was the only one to take me seriously, Servine says.


Though Pettit, whose background is in the logging industry, barely knew Servine at the time, he was struck by the business idea and wanted in on the ground floor.


I woke up out of a dead sleep, Pettit says. I knew I had to meet with (Servine) for lunch.


The venture was profitable from the start, Pettit says.


It was crazy, he says. We made $40,000 to $100,000 profit on our transactions right away.


Servine adds, It was reassuring to know we had business when we opened up, but it wasnt easy. From the start, most of Servine and Pettits dealings with mining companies have been cold calls, and thats still true today, Servine says.


J.P. Dowling, a former bartender at Jack & Dans Bar & Grill, in Spokane, whom Servine knew from high school, was brought on as a sales representative within 40 days of the launch of the business. They later hired another sales representative to be based in Seattle, and two more new sales representatives in Spokane earlier this month. All told, the company now has six employees, including Servine and Pettit.


TRCs office, located on the seventh floor of Crescent Court, at 707 W. Main downtown, certainly doesnt resemble a tire store. Most of its 1,700 square feet of floor space is empty, and the office work is done in cubicles lined up against a back wall, each furnished with a desk, a computer, and a phone. Except for the companys logo and a few framed photos of heavy mining equipment posted on the walls, theres not much of a visual clue there of what the company does.


We dont have much inventory, Servine says, adding that the company typically has the tires it sells shipped directly from the manufacturer to the end user.


TRC does, on rare occasions, buy tires that it keeps in inventory. Recently, the company was storing eight such tires at a logging company owned by Pettits father, in Priest River, Idaho.


TRC hasnt made any local sales, Servine says.


We didnt do much sales in the U.S. last year, he says. We buy and send tires overseas.


Selling internationally calls for the Spokane company sometimes to keep strange hours, since customers can be in any time zone around the world.


Australia calls us here at 9 p.m., Dowling says. They really arent willing to get up early to work with us.


Dowling says hes come into the office at 1 or 2 a.m. to contact customers in South Africa. TRC also has customers in Canada, Germany, Mexico, and Peru.


TRC buys and sells 20 to 70 tires a month, which is however many we can find, he says.


Dowling says he expects TRC to continue growing because the company has only contacted 20 percent of the potential market for big, specialty tires.


We dont have to worry about jurisdiction, he says. Our territory is anywhere that has dirt.


Servine says TRCs biggest challenge is cash flow.


We have to pay for the tires when the manufacturer ships them, he says. But we dont get paid until the customer receives them.


For most transactions, TRC borrows money from a variety of lenders, ranging from banks to private individuals.


When youre talking about prices of up to $160,000 a tire, it sounds like we should have a lot of money, but our margin isnt that big, he says.


Servine also expects to see sales growth from repeat customers. As big as the tires are, they dont last forever, he says, adding, These tires last eight to 16 months.


Servine knows of one instance in which an overloaded haul truck was driven faster than it was supposed to go, and the tires lasted only 60 hours. If heat builds up and the tread separates, theyre done, he says.


Servine says some brand new mining equipment is sitting on blocks for lack of tires.


We have open orders with some customers, he says. If we find two tires for them, we buy them. If we find 12, we buy all 12, because we know we already have the customers.


Servine says he loves coming in to work every day.


Its fun being part of something nobody else does, he asserts.


Pettit says he takes pride in being part of something real, because everybody needs what these mines are producing.


Dowling says every day is exciting.


Were talking to Fortune 500 companies all day long, and all of us are under 30 years old, he says.


Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at [email protected].