About Us
In 1960, Master Tire was founded by Charles (Chuck) Zeller and Francis (Fuzz) Herr in Evansville, IN. They started in a one-bay garage retailing passenger tires, and doing light service work. The story Fuzz told, was their garage was so small they had to pull the car in forward and change the front tires and then back the car in to change the rear tires. A few years later, Master Tire moved and expanded into a newly built four-bay garage with a customer showroom. They doubled their employees from two to four. "I knew they were going to be successful when they built the new building on land that was previously used as St. Anthony’s Church convent", said Father Ted.
In 1978, Fuzz was diagnosed with cancer and passed away a short time later. In 1979, the second generation of the Zeller family came into the business. Chuck has 6 children, all of which at one time worked in the family business. Bryan started in the business in 1979 and is now President of the corporation. David started in 1980 and is Vice President and runs the downtown location. His daughter Laura is Office Manager and his wife Betty works part time in the Accounts Payable/Receivable department. Chuck has 4 grandchildren who also work part time in the business.
In 1983, the name was changed to Master Tire and Accessories Inc. The company became more focused on full automotive service and installing aftermarket accessories. We expanded our location to 15 bays and hired 5 full time ASE certified mechanics. In the same year, we started a wholesale tire division with one employee and a pick up truck delivering tires in the tri-state area. Today, the wholesale division has grown to include nine employees and a fleet of trucks delivering tires daily to four different states including Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and Tennessee.
In 2000, we purchased a second location on Evansville’s West Side, Zeller’s Master Tire. It was a two-bay gas station built in 1960. Bryan and a few part time employees ran this location for two years until it was decided to build a new state-of-the-art service center with a gas station and convenient store attached. Zellers Master Tire now employs five full time employees and ten part time employees. One part time employee is third generation,18 year old Blake, who is learning the business just as his Dad and Uncle David did, starting in the service area changing tires, changing oil and doing general cleaning up. We have serviced the Evansville and tri-state for over 48 years and look forward to servicing you for many years to come.
