Clemens struggled with balancing the pressure to perpetuate the
family company against the decision to liquidate. "It wasn’t easy. It took many
years for us to come to this conclusion," he explains. "You put your whole life
into it, it’s emotional. Actually, if your name’s not on the buildings anymore,
that’s really tough to see."Looking back, however, he feels vindicated by discussions with
his uncle just before he died. "He would say, ‘I can’t believe this is still
going. You’re doing a great job. It’s way beyond what we ever expected it to
be,’" he recalls. "To hear that from your founder, you know you’re doing a good
job, but yet he’s saying, ‘You know you don’t need to keep it
going.’"
Briggs and Sons Tire
Bob Briggs was working for a
Lincoln-Mercury dealer in Clinton, N.C., in 1972 when the gas station down the
street came up for sale. He’d been performing auto work since the age of 15, so
he and his wife, Barbara, decided to launch a new venture. "We decided to go
into the gas station business, against the advice of our banker," says Barbara,
64, who became the company’s president. Her husband took the vice president’s
role.  | SONS AND daughters-in-law worked for Barbara and Bob Briggs’ tire
business before the couple sold it to a family-run competitor. |
Bob and Barbara agreed to purchase the station for $1,000 cash,
but the owner reneged at the 11th hour—and instead asked them to make him a
partner. They agreed. One year later, Bob realized he no longer needed a partner
and moved to buy out the former proprietor. By then, the business had grown and
the buyout price ballooned to $13,000 (roughly $58,000 in current dollars).The couple gritted their teeth and bought him out. They foresaw
better margins in auto work than pumping gas, so they invested more capital into
the business. Within a few years, they purchased a bigger building and
affiliated with Goodyear. Over 30 years, the business grew to include 11
locations and a retread plant near Fayetteville, N.C. Their five-figure stake
had grown into one of the 100 best-performing independent tire dealerships in
the country, with more than 100 employees and annual revenues of $15 million.
They also brought two of their three children into the business, now known as
Briggs and Sons Tire.  Their three sons, now 42, 40 and 32, grew up with the business.
"They pumped gas, they swept the floors, they did everything," Barbara says. The
older sons stayed in the business, working all aspects of it. Barbara and Bob’s
daughters-in-law also worked for the company.
When Barbara and Bob began nearing retirement age, they
considered extracting liquidity from the company. They didn’t think of hiring an
investment bank or broker to find a match, nor did their children have the
capital to buy them out. But they found a logical suitor in Black’s Tire &
Auto Service, another family-run business, with more than two-dozen locations in
the Carolinas. "We had contact with them all through the years, and they’ve been
rather aggressive over the years in acquiring different locations," Barbara
explains. "We had casual conversations here and there and then it was, ‘OK,
let’s sit down and talk.’"
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