Tony’s Tire celebrates 60 years

Celebrating sixty years in business this week, Tony Friga, of Tony’s Tire in West Plains, is not the original Tony. He is the third generation of the Friga family to own and operate the business that has been located on Holiday Lane since 1973. To get to the original Tony, we have to start in 1966.

 

Michael “Tony” Friga opened Tony’s Tire Service in 1966 in the current location of O’Reilly’s on Porter Waggoner. The first shop sold tire and gas, and as today’s Tony put it, his grandpa, “did what he had to do,” to make a living in the beginning. 

 

In 1973, Tony’s Tire moved to its current location on Holiday Lane. 

 

“It was way out in the country then. He was told it was too far out to work,” Friga said in an interview Friday, “But he made it work.”

 

West Plains expanded around them, and the Friga family kept selling and servicing tires. By this time, the shop zeroed in on tires as a specialty. 

 

This simplicity and specialization has been key to the shop’s longevity, Friga said, but more important has been their focus on customer service. 

 

“If I can get somebody in my door one time, then I’ve usually got a long-time customer,” Friga said. 

 

The original Tony sold the business to his sons Kem and Rod Friga in 1980. In 1977, the first Tony started Friga Tire in Willow Springs. 

 

For the second generation, keeping the business going in the tough years of the 70s and 80s required long, late hours. Business was bolstered by the shop’s fifty-year relationship with what is now Leonardo DRS. 

 

The current Tony began working at the shop full time in May 1994, right out of high school. A longtime friend, Gary Brower, has been with Tony since 1994 and manages the shop today.

 

Kem Friga bought out Rod’s portion in 2002. Rod moved down the road to Friga Tire in Willow Springs, which has since been sold to his son-in-law, Brian Jens. 

 

Father and son Kem and Tony ran Tony’s Tire together until July 2013, when Tony bought out his dad. Today, Tony’s middle son Ryan has been working in the business since 2023. Four generations later, the Frigas are doing things same way, Tony said. 

 

That way must be working. Tony’s Tire Service invites the public to celebrate their 60th anniversary on Thursday, May 14 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Hamburgers and hot dogs will be served, and well-wishers may enter to win a set of tires and a cooler. Tony’s Tire is located at 2009 Holiday Lane in West Plains.