News

As some of you know, back in November, Frank Bingham won the Knox County Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year. All of us here at Bingham Tire could not be any more proud of Frank. He is the epitome of hard work and dedication. It all started for Frank in a small cellar in his back yard. He is proof that if you put your mind to something, you can do anything. All of us here at Bingham Tire would like to say THANK YOU to Frank for dedicating your life to this business. 

Here is the speech he gave the night he received the award. 

“I would like to thank all the members of the Barbourville Chamber of Commerce, my family and all the people of Barbourville.

I would also like to thank Daddy Jim Sproul for his 42 years with Bingham Tire and all of our other employees for their time and hard work.

But most of all I would like to thank my wife Shirley of 61 years. She would help out in the office, visit with customers, she would even sell tires sometimes but the one thing most people would tell you about Shirley is that she would have breakfast ready for whoever wanted it at 9 AM. It didn’t take long before every salesman knew to be at Flat Lick for Shirley’s famous 9 AM breakfast of county ham and gravy and biscuits. I think that’s what helped us get some of those good deals.

I went to Knoxville, Tennessee in 1964 to talk to Goodyear about selling tires because I was trucking then and thought selling tires was a good idea. It took me a long time to find where I was supposed to go but I ended up finding it and sat down with a guy. This guy was sitting there in a suit and a tie and ask if he could help me. I told him I wanted to start selling Goodyear Tires. I was more nervous then than I am right now. I signed a contract with Goodyear that very day. I don’t know how because I didn’t have any money to pay for those tires. It was just that easy. And I brought a pickup truck load of tires back home with me that day. I didn’t know where I was going to put all those tires and I finally decided to put them in the cellar. Shirley wouldn’t let me put them in the house. I started selling tires the very next day and the rest is history. In the 1970s, we had grown in the commercial business so much that 64% of all coal truck tires produced was being shipped to Flat Lick, Kentucky. At one time I had over 1000 of these tires. I had the buildings and garage all full and I started stacking tires in the back yard.

Scott and Brent wanted to build a new store in Barbourville and we made that dream come true in 1999. 

We opened the Retread plant in Barbourville in March of 2002.

And Brent and Nina bought a store in Clinton, Tennessee in June 2005 and a store in Somerset, Kentucky in January 2014. 

We have come a long way from a one-man show in a cellar in Flat Lick, Kentucky to over 65 employees and 4 locations. And we sure couldn’t have made this happen without all of our loyal customers.”