Business Profile: Yorktown Tire Auto Care
Photo credit: Neal Rentz
Yorktown Tire Auto Care has been a family owned institution in Yorktown since 1969.
The business was opened on Commerce Street by Robert Froats and it is now being owned and operated by his son, Bob, who spoke about it last week. His wife, Mary, is a teacher at Yorktown High School.
The Froats family previously lived in Yorktown for decades and decided to choose to open on Commerce Street because there was a building adjacent to the current location which featured a garage, where the family rented space. During the period of Urban Renewal, the current location was built and opened in 1977 after they tore down the garage where the space was rented, Froats noted.
Yorktown Tire Auto Care now also has a second location on Front Street
Froats did not originally devote his career to the family business, though he worked part-time at is as a college student in the summer months. After graduating from college, Froats worked as a computer programmer at Reader’s Digest in Pleasantville, though he thought he would come back to Yorktown Tire in the future.
“I always thought that I’d want to come back to the business and buy the business from him at some point in time,” Froats said. “He sold to me in 1984.”
Yorktown Tire Auto Center offers a variety of brands of tires for many types of vehicles, but not large trucks.
Most of Froats’ business is devoted to vehicle repairs. Close to 80 percent of his business is vehicle repairs, Froats said. “We are more repair than we are tires,” he said.
Most of the business’ customers come from Yorktown, Peekskill, Somers and Katonah, Froats said.
The business has gone through many changes over the years, Froats said. “The good thing for consumers is that the cars are so much better today than they had been in the past,” he said. ”So less things go .”
Why has the business thrived for decades? “To be honest with you, it’s just perseverance and liking what you do and liking the people that you see come through all the time and being closely knit to the town,” Froats said.
Yorktown Tire Auto Care is located at 1909 Commerce St. and 1787 Front St. For more information, call 914-962-2223 or visit YorkTownTire.com.
