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By Oregon Small Business Association,
Tire king Les Schwab Tire Centers may sell its 450 stores in a deal that could garner at least $3 billion, according to sources who didn’t want to be identified.
The company, founded in 1952, has stores in 10 states with the real estate alone worth $2 billion, according to Bloomberg.com. Advisors are exploring options for selling the company, which has annual revenue of $1.8 billion, or divesting of real estate, but officials at the headquarters in Bend, Ore., didn’t comment.
The Oregonian reported that Les Schwab, the company’s founder, grew up with two siblings in a two-room shack in a logging camp and lost his parents as a teenager. He started his business in Prineville, Ore. He began transferring his business to descendants in 1974, the Oregonian reported. He died in 2007.