Business Started

Dad was always about business and being the best.  So here we are for our regular meetings

On the side, back in the late 1970’s I started and Squash Racquets sales company and I imported the rackets from Pakistan where I have a great friend Arshad Malik. I sold the racquets wholesale to country club and directly to squash professionals.  I later shut it down as dealing with the United States Government with shipping rules was a pain and receivables were not always paid 

Also, Tom and I started BT Tire Sales in high school in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s selling tires to friends and teachers and we delivered them to your home.  The tires were stored in the cabins in our back yard. 


Then later started a company called Tire Warehouse and incorporated it and we would warehouse and sell the tires wholesale to gas stations, small tire dealers and large corporations like Genstar.

Tire warehouse leased about 3,000 square feet of space and employed about 7-8 employees:  Mike, Mark, Rob, Bill, Bill Jr., Marie, Tom and Myself.  Eventually when Schenuit sold the tire division we bought the Schenuit franchise for Maryland and parts of Pennsylvania.

The wholesale business became very competitive so we then went into the retail business and that helped the bottom line but Tire Warehouse was marginally successful from a profit standpoint of view, so we decided to  sell it to Dean’s.  With the sale,  Tom bought Wilson with my father and then Tom spun off a portion solely owned and managed by himself and called it Wilson Heritage.  and Joan my sister ended up buying Wilson Lighting by herself.  I then went back to school to finish my undergraduate in Economics with a minor in finance and was president of the Economic club. Then went to back to school for my masters in economic and then with only two classes left and a 3.75 average, I rode my bike around the world for one year with Arden my wife and on my return I went to work at Morgan Stanley where I am currently employed. I earned some accolades there where I am a Vice President of Sales 

Below is the history of the Tire Company 

The Tires were made early on at Schenuit and later at Dayton Tire so this is the story
These photos I found in the company’s files = awesome: My grandfather,   Frank G. Schenuit started the Schenuit Tire company.

And when they started to make tires they imported rubber form overseas from Indochina . The tire process started in Indochina on rubber Plantations (Please watch Indochine” the movie with Catherine Denouvre)

and the sap the rubber tree was used (harvested ) to make the tire.  They would slice the trees and make the sap run 

I remember bales of rubber coming into the plant on the railroad car . For those bales, 3 by 3 by4 foot, they would make it into runner for cars by crushing the rubber in huge rollers 

Then they would form it into a round product and place nylon and later steel threads 

Then they would place them in molds below

and after heating the tire it would come out 

and then be shipped to dealers 

So Schenuit was the 7th largest in the United States

 tom and I bought the franchise after Schenuit Tire was sold and then we sold it later and then later Dayton Tire stopped producing the tires for us