Brisbane’s tyre king marks 60 years in business

Brisbane’s tyre king Vince Vitanza has survived 60 years in the cutthroat automotive business by following a surprising motto: ‘treat customers like your first girlfriend.’

Brisbane’s tyre king Vince Vitanza has a simple motto: “always treat your customers like your first girlfriend.” It’s a belief that obviously worked for Vitanza who earlier this month celebrated 60 years in the competitive tyre and automotive business.

Vitanza tells City Beat that people initially thought he was crazy when he gave up a comfortable job as an accountant with an oil company to buy a service station in Clayfield in 1963. “The oil companies were rolling out service stations across the city and offering incentives like six months free rent,” Vitanza, 84, recalls.

But razor-thin margins in the fuel business meant Vitanza soon looked for other opportunities, finally settling on a tyre business in Fortitude Valley. Vitanza, who was soon dubbed the “discount tyre king”, says he never looked back.

At one stage Vitanza Tyre and Mechanical spanned across 17 locations - peaking at 10 sites during the 1990s. Vitanza’s wife Lyn, who has been constantly by his side since the couple married in 1966, recalls the Valley being a rough and tumble neighbourhood in the 1960s. “There would be prostitutes working on the street corner near our shop and then fighting would spill out from the hotel across the road,” recalls Lyn.

“Vince was teaching me to drive once but he started getting mad with me when I stalled the car in front of the pub. I’d had enough and jumped out leaving Vince stranded so he had to go around and jump in the driver’s side. All the blokes in the pub were cheering.”

In 1991, Vitanza solidified his relationship with Bridgestone by officially becoming a Bridgestone Tyre Centre, and later converting to a Bridgestone Select franchise model.

Vitanza, the son of Italian immigrants who farmed cane in North Queensland, is particularly proud that his entire family now works in the business.

Vince Vitanza

His eldest son Anthony joined the firm in 1987 as a 19-year-old followed by son Michael in 2003 and daughters Melissa and Venetia in 2011.

Today, the business comprises Bridgestone Select Fortitude Valley run by Anthony and Bridgestone Select Coorparoo managed by Michael.

In the early days when his family was young, Vitanza recalls it was just himself and Lyn running the show. “When we ran the service station Lyn and I would collect the coins from the fuel pumps on the weekend,” he recalls. “In those days changing a tyre involved using a tyre iron and rubber mallet. One Saturday I changed and balanced a record 21 sets of tyres. Now it is all machines and pushing buttons.”

Bridgestone Australia and New Zealand managing director Heath Barclay says Vitanza is a stalwart of the company’s retail network and a much loved business associate.

“His contribution and commitment to the industry over six decades has been massive,” Barclay says. These days Vitanza is not in the best of health but still makes time to look at the accounts of the business every morning from his high-rise apartment overlooking the Brisbane River. “Sometimes I wake up and think is it really 60 years since I started?” he says. “So much has changed in our industry over six decades. When we first opened our store, everything was done manually. Now we have machines, computers, the internet, online booking systems and Google. The one thing that remains the same is our focus on providing a great customer service.” As for treating customers like your first girlfriend, Lyn is on board with that as long as it applied “to first wives.”