After failed attempts in the last two years to buy the town’s existing tyre stores, Mr Jeffery decided to establish his own store and began operations last month.
Mr Jeffery has worked in the tyre industry for 21 years, starting as an 18-year-old at the Firestone outlet in St Andrew St in Dunedin. He had been assistant manager and then manager at the Mosgiel Bridgestone outlet for several years and later felt the time was right to take the step up to ownership.
Mr Jeffery admitted it was daunting to open a business with no client base, but said his longevity in the industry had served him well.
Mr Jeffery said his location in Gladstone Rd South was perfect.
"This industrial area — East Taieri, Gladstone Rd and Wingatui — is very under-serviced. There are five or six mechanical workshops nearby and convenience is a big attraction. To get into town you have to go through traffic lights and over rail lines,"
"If people don’t have to, they would rather not travel too far," he said.
The tyre industry has changed over the years. Manufacturers were building bigger cars with larger wheels and retread tyres were no longer seen on passenger vehicles.
"Twenty years ago, there were about 20 tyre sizes. Now there are 120.
"Retreads are illegal for passenger vehicles now. They’re still used on the rear wheels of trucks and trailers, but there is a more robust manufacturing process. The retreading industry is only for commercial vehicles," Mr Jeffery said.
The used tyres from the Mosgiel Tyre Centre were sent to Tyre Collections in Rolleston and then shipped to Vietnam to be made into bitumen, playground mats and insulation. Mr Jeffery was pleased to hear an Auckland tyre recycling company was soon to begin operations.
Mr Jeffery’s 12 to 18-month outlook is to employ one or two staff. Mosgiel’s population of just over 14,000 is now larger than that of Oamaru "and there are six tyre stores there".
Also on the horizon is the establishment of a mobile callout service for farms on the Taieri Plain and up to Middlemarch.
"That’s another under-serviced area. The majority of that work is done out of Dunedin, so there is definitely potential," he said.
