Bruce Halle: the accidental tyre billionaire who refused to give up
Daniel Coughlin
31 January 2018
The inspirational life and legacy of the late Bruce Halle
Bruce Halle, the Arizona billionaire who died in January, built the world's largest tyre retailer from scratch, despite a couple of disastrous false starts. We take a look at the incredible life and legacy of the late auto industry tycoon and mega-philanthropist.
Depression baby
Bruce Thomas Halle was born on 27 May 1930 in Springfield, Massachusetts to devout Catholics Fred and Molly Halle, just as the Great Depression was beginning to bite. The second of six children, Bruce (pictured top right) was far from privileged.
Tough times
Bruce's father Fred, who dreamed of being a singer and dancer on Broadway, struggled to hold down a decent permanent job and the family lived with relatives in Berlin, New Hampshire for a time while Fred worked as a firefighter.
Childhood problems
During World War II, Fred landed a job as a security guard at a Ford plant in Detroit, and moved his family to Motor City. Bruce was enrolled in the neighbourhood Catholic high school, where he battled to control a bad temper and improve his poor grades.
Resolving issues
Bruce's father organised boxing lessons for his son, and Bruce soon learned to control his tendency to lash out. At the same time, the nuns at his Catholic high school acted as mentors and helped the future billionaire do better academically.
Work ethic
Bruce soon developed a strong work ethic and helped support his family by mowing the neighbours' lawns, delivering newspapers and photos, and even digging graves at the local cemetery.
Military service
Bruce went to college in 1948 to study business administration, but dropped out after two years to join the U.S. Marine Corps and serve in Korea. The gruelling experience bolstered his sense of discipline and dogged perseverance.
First wife
During a period of leave, Bruce hitchhiked from his army base in North Carolina all the way back to Detroit to marry Gerry Konfara, his childhood sweetheart (pictured here with their son Bruce Jr.). The couple stuck together through thick and thin, and remained married until Gerry's death in 1989.
College graduate
Once his tour was over, never-give-up Bruce returned to Eastern Michigan University and changed his major to business administration. While his grades were never anything to write home about, the tenacious student managed to graduate with honours.
Business savvy
What Bruce lacked in academic prowess, he made up for in business acumen, industriousness and entrepreneurial spirit. During the final few years of college for instance, he had a lucrative side hustle selling cars.
Lucrative sideline
In his final year of college, the silver-tongued salesman earned a total of $11,600 from his sideline, which works out a very respectable $105,000 (£75.8k) in today's money, not bad at all for a part-time student job.
First big failure
After graduating in 1956, Bruce carried on selling cars, and dabbled for a time in life insurance, but failed to make the business work. Next up, Bruce decided to get into the auto industry, a very wise move on his part.
Second big failure
Yet Bruce's first foray in the auto industry was a complete failure. His wholesale vehicle parts business, which was set up in partnership with a high school buddy in Ypsilanti, Michigan, went bankrupt in 1959, leaving Bruce, who by this point had children to support, up to his eyeballs in debt.
Third time lucky
Whereas other less determined entrepreneurs would throw in the towel and get a stable job to pay the bills, Bruce had another stab at the auto industry in 1960, borrowing $400, $3,300 (£2.4k) in today's money, to open a tyre supply store in Ann Arbor, Michigan called simply Discount Tire.
Humble beginnings
Bruce started out with an inventory of just six tyres. Unable to afford to hire staff, took care of every aspect of the business in the early days, from wholesale and retail sales, to doing the accounts and cleaning the store. He even painted the sign that hung outside.
Blossoming business
Slowly but surely, the business blossomed. By 1964, Bruce had opened his second Discount Tire store. The shrewd salesman enticed customers with freebies such as complimentary snow tyre changes and flat tyre repairs, and kept their custom by offering a superior aftercare service.
Customer care
In fact, Discount Tire's focus on customer service, on top of its competitive prices, is the key to the company's success. Bruce realised early on that in order to stand out from his competitors, he'd have to beat them on the customer care front.
Happy employees
The tyre king worked out that happy staff equal happy customers, and looked after his employees from the get-go, paying higher than average wages, offering more benefits than most, and rewarding staff generously with performance bonuses, and more.
All publicity...
Bruce even benefited from bad publicity in the early days. Competitors denigrated his tyres as cheap and sub-standard, but the bad-mouthing only served to spread the word about Discount Tire and attract bargain-hunting customers to the stores.
Nationwide expansion
Thanks to his winning formula, Bruce had opened six stores in Michigan by 1970, which were grossing $1.8 million annually, and was looking to expand to another state. He settled on Arizona, mainly for the good year-round weather and growing car-driving population.
Quirky promos
Discount Tire became known for its quirky promos. During the early 1970s, Bruce dressed up as Batman and other characters in a series of newspaper ads, and the stores gave away everything from freebie watermelons to bunches of flowers.
Longest-running commercial
Business was booming by the mid-1970s. In 1975, Discount Tire launched its iconic Little Old Lady “Thank You!” TV commercial. The popular ad is still shown today and features in Guinness World Records as the longest continuously-running TV commercial of all time.
Aggressive expansion
Customers flocked to the stores, and the company expanded further during the late 1970s, counting a total of 36 outlets in several states by 1979, when the firm embarked on a more ambitious expansion programme.
Number one
Stores were opened throughout the south, southwest and the west of the country. By 1984, Discount Tire boasted 110 locations. The following year, the company opened a further 30 stores to become America's leading independent tyre retailer.
HQ move
In 1987, Bruce moved the Discount Tire HQ to Arizona, taking advantage of the generous tax breaks the state was providing, and the company's relentless expansion continued, with additional stores opening nationwide.
Household name
Discount Tire became a household name in America during the 1990s as stores cropped up in state after state. By 1999, the year Bruce married his second wife Diane Meyers, the company boasted 418 stores, a 10-figure turnover, and its founder was fast becoming a billionaire.
Strong ethics
Despite his wealth, Bruce stayed humble and gave away a significant chunk of his fortune. Growing up a devout Catholic in the Great Depression had given him a strong sense of morality and compassion, and a deep-seated desire to give back to the community.
Charitable foundation
Together with his wife Diane, Bruce founded the couple's eponymous charitable foundation in 2002, to expand their giving and reach out to the wider community. That same year, Discount Tire opened its 500th store.
Big-time giving
The Diane & Bruce Halle Foundation has since donated billions of dollars to a variety of institutions and charities, from the University of Arizona and Bruce's alma mater Eastern Michigan University, to the American Cancer Society and the National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.
Local causes
The tyre magnate was particularly generous to the people of his adoptive state, making sizeable donations to the Phoenix Children's Hospital, the Arizona Kidney Foundation, the Scottsdale Symphony, and more.
Uni scholarships
In 2004, the boss we all wish we had set up the Bruce T. Halle Scholarship Program to send his employees' kids to college. To date, the initiative has awarded over $8.5 million (£6.1m), which has paid for thousands of students' higher education.
Art collector
The tyre tycoon was far from extravagant but liked to acquire art, amassing a formidable collection of 20th- and 21st-century Latin American art, as well as the world's largest collection of vintage tyre posters.
Skyrocketing wealth
As Discount Tire continued to expand, Bruce's wealth mushroomed and he debuted on Forbes' 400 Richest Americans list in 2009, with an estimated net worth of $2 billion (£1.4bn). The following year, Forbes listed Bruce as Arizona's richest person, a position he retained until his dying day.
Further expansion
In 2011, the company celebrated the opening of the 800th Discount Tire store in Rocklin, California. A further 50 locations were added the following year, and the firm expanded into several Midwestern states in 2013. By 2015, Discount Tire, now the world's largest tyre retailer, boasted over 900 stores in 28 states.
Courting controversy
The tyre tycoon hit the headlines in 2016 for donating $1 million (£723m) in a bid to to stop cannabis legalisation in Arizona, and for expressing support for the controversial former Sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio (pictured).
Proud legacy
Bruce died on 4 January 2018, aged 87, leaving behind a thriving, world-leading multi-billion-dollar tyre business with 975+ stores in 34 states, not to mention his crowning achievement: a charitable legacy that will endure for years to come.
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