“People have a tendency to buy stocks when they’re going up, but really you should be buying when they’re going down.” So if you have a few dollars to expand, it makes sense,” Kevin says. “Sometimes you just have to take an opportunity and when it comes to the availability of locations and getting a good deal on a lease rate, the opportunities are better in hard times versus when everything is successful. Kevin says they’re investing “quite a bit of money to bring all the shops to the next level.” It could be seen as a big risk or as finding an opportunity amid a crisis. The original Quadra location is also being totally revamped, from the ground up. “That gives us 15 hoists and parking for almost 50 cars.” “That will give us three locations within a block downtown,” Kevin explains. The Johnson Street location across the road, which was being used as a mechanical repair facility, is also being expanded and will be used as a speed lane for fast flat repairs and quick winter tire changeovers. To better meet the demand, Big O Tires is expanding to a Pandora and Quadra location, which will mean six more hoists and an additional 20 parking spaces. “We’ve been doing 60 or 70 cars a day, which is incredible, working six days a week and 12 hours a day. “We had six record months of almost double the volume,” says Kevin. We were lucky they designated auto repair as an essential.”īy last June, business was booming again-and revving to record growth for the second half of the year. If they shut down the whole country, there’s not a lot you can do if people are staying home and not driving to work. “COVID-19 was an obstacle you can’t really hurdle. “It was probably the only time that I felt helpless and had no control over the future of my business,” Kevin admits. That all but dried up overnight in the early days of the crisis. Before the pandemic, Kevin’s team was servicing about 40 cars a day. This past year, with the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been new challenges to overcome-from too much business to too little.
There’s a shortage of over 500 Red Seal mechanics in British Columbia right now.” Right now, I’d say half the people who used to be open six days a week in automotive are now only open five days a week because they don’t have staff to keep open. “We spend a lot of money just making sure we’re fully staffed. “With hard work and perseverance and a little bit of luck and a great location and great landlords, we ended up being the biggest store in our franchise group and we’ve kept that level up until today.”įor Kevin, who’s vigilant about training and quality workmanship, the biggest challenge with running the business-especially in the last few years-has been finding experienced employees. “They gave us our million-dollar rings,” says Kevin, who is the current vice-president of Big O Tires Canada and a past president. It went from zero business to $1 million in revenue in three years-becoming the first outlet in British Columbia to reach the $1-million milestone. In just three years, Kevin’s burgeoning business would become the most successful Big O Tires franchise in the entire province. It’s a destination and we were looking for a destination area close to where people lived and worked.” “I literally drove up and down every street looking for a location, and this was the only location that would have worked. “When I moved here, I didn’t know Victoria at all,” he says. Kevin opened his own Big O Tires franchise in downtown Victoria 27 years ago, after driving around the city scouting for the best spot. “I worked there for 10 years, working my way up to manager, and I saved to buy my own location.” I saw how successful some of the franchise owners were and I realized it was a good opportunity,” recounts Kevin. “I got a job at Big O Tires in Kitsilano when I was 20. He started working in the auto repair industry when he was a 16-year-old high school student in Edmonton, and a job just a few years later in Vancouver would change the trajectory of his life. Story by Tess van Straaten Photography by Don DentonĬars have been Kevin Jensen’s passion for almost half a century.
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