Small Business Stories - Standard Testing Labs

Ivy Hartman: Welcome to SBTV.com’s coverage of the 2007 SEMA show in Las Vegas. I’m Ivy Hartman and with me is Tim Dietz of STL which is Standard Testing Labs. Tim Dietz: Yes. Ivy Hartman: And being a company’s, it’s based at of St. Louis; STL means something different to St. Louisian’s but the Standard Testing Labs, what do you guys do? Tim Dietz: We are tire and wheel test lab. We’re the world’s largest independent test facility. We test tires and wheel and automotive components for the industry. Ivy Hartman: And so you’ve got four different components to your small business. Tim Dietz: Yeah. Ivy Hartman: And it serves all different kinds of people. Mostly we’re on the tire and wheel floor. Tim Dietz: Yes. Ivy Hartman: So, you rely to your clients are here? Tim Dietz: Absolutely, yeah we have a small booth here. It’s base of operations. We got out and it’s a lot of smiles and hand shakes with our customers. Ivy Hartman: Okay. Tim Dietz: And we’ve been a long member of SEMA. A long history and we served everyone here that’s on the floor. Ivy Hartman: Okay, you do actually testing for these wheels and tires. Tim Dietz: Yes. Ivy Hartman: Because there is a science and a technology to this round black thing as you say. Tim Dietz: Absolutely, now when you look into both of these, you’re looking at two things the wheel that separate from the tire. Each one has its own unique tire or wheel testing, along that, test standards, regulations, performance for requirements and it’s amazing to see the technology that does go behind to each one of these. Ivy Hartman: Now, beside your clients are not only that you use it for different things are like insurance agencies then you do some educational things also. Tim Dietz: Right, each year we hold tire technology seminars where we teach the legal community, the government agencies, or the military on tire forensics, vehicle dynamics, the manufacturing processes of tires so when they go into represent their clients in the courtroom, they know that tires have a purpose. There is a reason why they fail you, as far as manufacturing for quality purposes. Ivy Hartman: So you’re going too actually, we talked about, early we talked about the UTQG, which is a standard or rating on these tire. Tim Dietz: Yes, correct. Ivy Hartman: So then when you’re a consumer, you know what kind of tires you’re buying. Tim Dietz: Absolutely. UTQG stands for Uniform Tire Quality Grading and its set up by the Department of Transportation for consumers to make an educative purchase. If you look on a tires tread in every store in the rack, there is a long sticker. On that sticker represents the same thing molded in the sidewalk and there are three grading; temperature, traction and tread wear. That way you can make an educative purchase on the quality of tire you want to purchase; a mid entry level or a premium tire. Ivy Hartman: And you do some of these grading then. Tim Dietz: Absolutely. There is a grading, there is a uniformed course, it’s in Uvalde, Texas and all the tire manufactures use it. It has all the different road gradient types; asphalt, pavement, dirt, gravel and it’s a city course, country course and everyone uses the exact same course so it has uniform predictors in it. Ivy Hartman: Okay as a company of 65 employees now. How long has STL been around? Tim Dietz: We’ve been around since the 1969. Our founder "Dick" Fuller worked for Firestone. He purchased the machinery for them and they also grow formula ford cars. He had a passion for vehicles, so those two kind of merged and he said “I can build a better machine” and that was the time when Department of Transportation ion the industry went from bias flat tires to radial tires. And he says, “If I build you a machine would you use our lab?” We’ve been doing Department of Transportation’s compliance testing ever since. What the general public doesn’t realize is our government takes a sample of tires out of the wreck and we’ll test those to make sure that those manufacturers are doing what they are supposed to be doing. Ivy Hartman: For safety and quality. Tim Dietz: Safety and quality, right. Ivy Hartman: Okay so you’ve been in business since the late 60’s. Tim Dietz: Yeah. Ivy Hartman: And now you’ve, you’re over seas and talk about how it started it now; it’s turned into a term key business all over the world. Tim Dietz: Right, of the four divisions we have, the second one is fabricated machine. We build tire and wheel test equipment and it’s a global market for us anywhere where there is a manufacture of tires or wheels that equipment goes. Well self term key labs to foreign companies, foreign countries even. We’ll teach you there, there are pillars how to operate the equipment, get everything set and all that, they are ready to go. Ivy Hartman: Tim, thank you. It really is and a lot of our small business viewers are looking at, “okay, how can I take my small business global?” And did you have to do a lot of research in those markets to find out that it would be compatible or the tires are all the same everywhere you go. Tim Dietz: Right, correct. I’ll tell you, SEMA has really helped that because everyone shows here and it’s a chance for us to meet. We also travel. We have a corporate office in China now; that’s a growing market. And we’re in Virgin Islands, some in Japan, in Germany. So we put our people out there where business is and we’ll try to take this small company from Mason Ohio and reach the world. Ivy Hartman: And STL does a lot of different things and you serve a lot of different people and including one thing that Tim had mentioned is that you actually serve as an expert witness that every so often. Tim Dietz: Right. Ivy Hartman: And trials and things like that. So if we want more information about STL; Standard Testing Labs, how can we do that? Tim Dietz: We have a website, stllabs, there are two l’s or you can contact any of the SEMA directories, you’ll find us here. We have a booth. Ivy Hartman: Perfect and you have just been elected to a SEMA, the WTC, is that right? Tim Dietz: Wheel and Tire Council, I’m the chair elect in two years I’ll be the chairman. Ivy Hartman: Perfect. Well good luck with that new position. Tim Dietz: Thank you. Ivy Hartman: And have fun here at SEMA 2007.