Who Owns Tires Plus? | Bridgestone Or Someone Else

Tires Plus is part of Bridgestone Retail Operations, the retail arm within Bridgestone Americas.

If you’re trying to sort out who sits behind the Tires Plus name, the short version is plain: the brand sits under Bridgestone’s retail side, not an outside chain. That clears up a common mix-up, since shoppers often see Firestone, Bridgestone, and Tires Plus mentioned near each other and assume one store brand bought another.

The full ownership chain matters because it tells you who runs the stores, who sets brand standards, and why the tire lineup leans so hard toward Bridgestone and Firestone products. It also helps when you’re checking warranties, store policies, or whether a rumor about a sale is real.

Who Owns Tires Plus? The Current Parent Company

Tires Plus is owned through Bridgestone Retail Operations, often shortened to BSRO. That retail group sits within Bridgestone Americas, and Bridgestone Americas is part of Bridgestone Corporation. So if you want the cleanest answer, Tires Plus belongs to the Bridgestone family.

You can see that on the official Bridgestone Retail Operations page, which lists Tires Plus among the store brands in its company-owned retail network. That page is the clearest source for current ownership, since it comes from the company that runs the brand.

• Brand you see: Tires Plus
• Retail operator: Bridgestone Retail Operations
• Regional parent: Bridgestone Americas
• Global parent: Bridgestone Corporation

Why The Name Trips People Up

Part of the confusion comes from how big tire retail groups stack their brands. A driver may buy Bridgestone tires at a Tires Plus store, then pass a Firestone Complete Auto Care a few miles later. The store names are different, but the brands sit in the same corporate family.

That setup is normal in auto service. A parent company can keep several banners alive at once, each with its own look, local history, and customer base. The sign out front stays familiar, while the money, systems, and purchasing power sit higher up the chain.

What Firestone Means Here

Firestone is not the owner of Tires Plus as a stand-alone company. The cleaner way to say it is that both names sit under Bridgestone’s retail umbrella. That’s why you’ll see overlap in tire brands, promotions, and service categories, yet the storefront names still stay separate.

How Tires Plus Became Part Of Bridgestone

Tires Plus started in 1976, when Tom Gegax and Donald Gullet opened the business in the Burnsville, Minnesota, area. The brand grew from a small regional chain into a wider retail name with a strong foothold in tire sales and repair work.

The ownership shift came in 2001, when BSRO acquired the company. The official Tires Plus history page still states that 2001 acquisition and says the brand now has more than 5,000 teammates across 400-plus stores in 23 states. That timeline is handy because it ties the founding era, the sale, and the current retail footprint together in one place.

That deal did more than change a line on a corporate chart. It folded Tires Plus into a much larger retail operation, giving the chain a place inside a much larger retail network. Yet the Tires Plus name stayed on the doors, which is why many drivers still treat it like a separate company.

A few moments matter most in the brand’s timeline:

• 1976: Tires Plus begins in Minnesota.
• 2001: BSRO acquires the chain.
• Today: The brand operates across 400-plus stores in 23 states.

That timeline shows something useful. Tires Plus did not vanish after the sale. The brand kept its own name and still runs across a large retail footprint under the same parent family.

Tires Plus Ownership At A Glance

This table pulls the brand’s ownership picture into one place, so you can scan it in a few seconds.

Ownership Point	Current Answer	Why It Matters
Store brand	Tires Plus	This is the customer-facing name on the storefront and website.
Direct retail group	Bridgestone Retail Operations	This group runs the stores inside Bridgestone’s U.S. retail network.
Parent in the Americas	Bridgestone Americas	This connects the chain to Bridgestone’s wider North American business.
Ultimate corporate parent	Bridgestone Corporation	This is the top-level company behind the brand.
Founders	Tom Gegax and Donald Gullet	The brand began as an independent business, not as a Bridgestone launch.
Year founded	1976	Shows how long the name existed before the sale to BSRO.
Year acquired by BSRO	2001	Marks the point when Tires Plus joined the Bridgestone retail family.
Current footprint	400-plus stores in 23 states	Shows the brand still operates at scale under its current owner.

Tires Plus Ownership Today And What It Means In Store

For drivers, ownership shows up in plain ways. You walk into a Tires Plus location and still see a distinct store name, but the business behind that counter is tied to a global tire company. That can shape the tire mix, service menu, financing offers, and promotions you see in store or online.

It can also shape trust. A long-running local banner backed by a large parent company gives customers two things at once: a familiar retail name and the depth that comes with a huge supply chain. That does not guarantee every visit will feel the same from store to store, but it does explain why the brand has stayed visible for so long.

Here’s what current ownership usually means for a shopper:

• Broad access to Bridgestone and Firestone tire lines.
• Service offerings that go past tires into brakes, oil changes, batteries, and alignments.
• Brand standards that carry across many stores, even when local staff and pace differ.
• A name that has stayed active instead of being folded into a new sign.

That last point is easy to miss. Big retail owners often buy a chain and swap the sign later. Tires Plus has not gone that route. The parent company kept the brand alive under the same name, which helps explain why the banner still has reach across many states.

Brand Roles Inside The Ownership Chain

If the company names start to blur together, this second table sorts them by role.

Name	Role In The Chain	What A Driver Notices
Tires Plus	Retail brand	The storefront, booking site, and service name customers use.
Bridgestone Retail Operations	Store operator	The retail group that runs the chain.
Bridgestone Americas	Regional parent	The North American business layer above BSRO.
Bridgestone Corporation	Top-level parent	The global company at the top of the ownership stack.

Is Tires Plus The Same As Firestone Or Mavis?

Not exactly. Tires Plus and Firestone Complete Auto Care are sister brands under the Bridgestone retail side, so they share a parent family. That’s close, but it is not the same thing as saying Firestone owns Tires Plus on its own.

Mavis is a different story. Current official Tires Plus and Bridgestone pages point to Bridgestone ownership, not Mavis. So if you heard that another chain bought Tires Plus, that does not match the company pages that identify the brand today.

This is where wording matters:

• Accurate: Tires Plus is part of Bridgestone’s retail operation.
• Also fair: Tires Plus is owned by the Bridgestone family of companies.
• Less precise: Firestone owns Tires Plus.
• Wrong today: Mavis owns Tires Plus.

That difference may sound small, but it changes the answer. When people ask who owns a brand, they usually want the company that sits at the top of the chain today, not the tire badge they saw in the waiting area.

What To Tell Someone In One Sentence

If a friend asks who owns Tires Plus, you can say this: Tires Plus is a Bridgestone retail brand run through Bridgestone Retail Operations, with Bridgestone Americas and then Bridgestone Corporation sitting above it.

That answer is current, clear, and close to the way the company describes itself on its own pages. It cuts through the name clutter and gets straight to the point: Tires Plus is still under Bridgestone ownership.