{"id":24385,"date":"2024-12-16T18:36:09","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T01:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/les-schwab-buys-four-states-tires-starts-operations-in-cortez\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:52:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:52:31","slug":"les-schwab-buys-four-states-tires-starts-operations-in-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/les-schwab-buys-four-states-tires-starts-operations-in-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"Les Schwab buys Four States Tires, starts operations in Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Les
Les Schwab Tire Centers bought Four States Tire & Service and opened operations on Monday. From left to right: Les Schwab\u2019s area manager, Shane Doughten, Les Schwab\u2019s Cortez location manager Antonio Diaz, Four States Tire & Service\u2019s general manager Matt Messier, and Four States President Robby Wright. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

On Monday, Dec. 16, a new tire company officially began operations in what had been Four States Tire & Service since 1985.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s strange,\u201d said Four States Tire & Service\u2019s President Robby Wright, of the change.<\/p>\n

He remembered having a summer job there growing up, and working in the office over from his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many memories here, under this roof,\u201d said Wright. \u201cDon\u2019t make me cry.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Les Schwab Tire Centers, the company that bought it, has \u201cunlimited\u201d resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can offer our employees pay and benefits that I can\u2019t match,\u201d said Wright. \u201cIt\u2019s in better hands. They\u2019ll take this to a much higher level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though there were a few staff changes, Wright said he made sure employees who wanted to stay and were qualified to stay, could. Les Schwab also is welcoming new people to apply.<\/p>\n

Les Schwab purchased all four Four States locations \u2013 in Cortez, Durango, Pagosa Springs and Farmington. The Farmington acquisition \u201cmarks the company\u2019s entry into New Mexico,\u201d a news release said.<\/p>\n

Now, in 14 states across America, Les Schwab Tire Centers employs more than 8,600 people at 550 locations, and \u201cmore growth is planned for 2025,\u201d according to a news release.<\/p>\n

Though those numbers are large-scale, the company\u2019s area manager, Shane Doughten, said customer service is paramount, and he underscored its humble beginnings.<\/p>\n

\u201cLes Schwab Tires started in a small town in 1952, and rural communities are in our DNA,\u201d said Doughten in a news release. \u201cOur excellence in customer service is based on \u2026 honesty, integrity and commitment to the places where we live and work.\u201d<\/p>\n

And apart from contractual changes, the transition is relatively seamless.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going great. We\u2019re busy,\u201d said Antonio Diaz, the new manager at Les Schwab\u2019s Cortez location. \u201cAside from the name, the services we provide are pretty much the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Cortez location the afternoon of Dec. 16, cars were up on lifts, and workers in Les Schwab shirts attended to them, wrenching off lug nuts and scooping new tires onto wheels. One worker looked out at the busy garage and called it \u201cmanaged chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Wright was there, working in the office upstairs, tying up loose ends before the year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat an opportunity it\u2019s been to have my wife and three daughters in a family-owned business in a small community,\u201d said Wright. \u201cThe rewards are hard to describe. There were so many good days and bad days, but to get up and repeat it day after day for 40 years pays great dividends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tire Centers recently purchased all four locations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78512,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24385\/revisions\/78512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24385"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}