Ms. Elliott is Mr. Gabbard’s daughter. She joined him in the business a few years ago and now manages the business’ locations, according to a Q&A with Mr. Gabbard posted on Big O’s franchise site.
Mr. Downing is a separate Big O Tires franchisee who’s a partner in this store. He opened his first Big O outlet in 1997, according to his LinkedIn page.
“Big O Tires is proud to continue building our footprint in the Arizona market with great franchisees like Karl, Desiree and Ian,” said Kevin Kormondy, executive vice president and COO for Big O Tires, a business unit of TBC Corp.
“We look forward to strengthening our new-store growth in 2015 and positively impacting the communities we serve.”
The Surprise store opened in late May. DMS Enterprises’ other stores are in Glendale, Goodyear, Sun City and Phoenix (two stores).
The Surprise location is the 54th Big O Tires outlet in Arizona, according to Big O’s website, including 26 in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area.