Back in 1982, compact discs were hitting the shops, Duran Duran were riding high in the pop charts and Edward Kusznierski snr opened a tyre business in Tewkesbury, supplying tyres to farmers and hauliers with a van and a pick-up truck.

Known to his friends and customers as ‘Ski’ (He gave himself that name because he got fed up of people asking him to repeat his real name) Ski had little idea that 25 years later Ski Tyres would be one of the largest independent tyre companies serving the south west of England, and one of Michelin’s most active MBA dealers in the UK.

Today, the company boasts five branches in Gloucester, Cheltenham, Tewksbury, Hereford with the latest branch opening in Bridgend, South Wales, this year. Ski and his wife Margaret are now taking a back office role. The family-owned business now has Edward Kusznierski Jr at the helm – backed up by his brother Oliver – and still serving many of its original customers who have stayed loyal to the Ski Tyres.

As the business has expanded, so has the range of tyres, supported by a team of fifty staff, happy to work on anything with a tyre on it. From a wheel barrow tyre to an earthmover tyre.

“Many of the people we see on a regular basis are customers that have been with us since the business started and vary from large hauliers to smaller own-account operators, as well as car dealerships and private motorists,” says Edward Kusznierski Jr. “The business has been built on the principle that people do business with people they like,” he adds.

Michelin accounts for over twenty per cent of Ski’s business, with the company keeping a stock of around two thousand truck tyres across its branch network, and a keen promoter of Michelin’s Four Lives tyre policy for commercial vehicles.

Ski Tyres is also one of only a few firms in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and South Wales to carry both agricultural and plant tyres.

One customer Edward is keen to highlight is Douglas Equipment, where the Ski team fit all original equipment tyres to aviation towing tractors, ground support vehicles, port tractors, distribution and yard shunting tugs manufactured at the company’s factory in Cheltenham, which are then supplied to customers across the UK and Europe.

The twenty fifth Anniversary year brought triumph and disaster at the same time when the company’s Tewkesbury branch and headquarters were hit by the floods in July.

“The flood waters were about five feet high and we were unable to gain access to the branch in Tewkesbury until the water had subsided. I had a call from our security company to say that the alarm system had been triggered, so I tried to get through the flood waters to the offices, but was beaten back,” says Edward.

“It was difficult coming back to the office as we were not sure what to expect until we opened the doors and got inside. With a lot of hard work from the team, we were up and running within a few days and have been operating from a couple of temporary buildings on site while the workshop and offices have been re-equipped.

“ Thankfully, the work is completed and we are really pleased to have moved back into the branch and got back down to business,” adds Edward.