Kal Tire is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and Canada’s largest independent tire dealer is continuing to grow.

It has opened a new 14,000 square metre warehouse in Edmonton, alongside a 3,000 square metre retread facility.

“Our business is booming,” said Ed Lauer, senior zone manager for Alberta. “We needed this state of the art facility to ensure fast, reliable service to our current and future customers.”

To put it in perspective, the new facility is the size of three CFL football fields. The new warehouse will service about 60 Kal Tire stores within a 500 kilometre radius.

Kal Tire kicked off the grand opening of the new warehouse by inviting more than 600 commercial customers to a barbecue in support of the Alberta beef industry.

When Kal Tire was first founded 50 years ago, it was Tom Foord’s brainchild. He is still active within the company today. The first location was in Vernon, B.C. and that remains the company’s headquarters. Today, however, it has grown to include 160 stores, five distribution centers and 10 retread plants in Canada. In addition, the company operates a fleet of 350 service trucks to provide on-site service to truckers.

Commercial truck tires are a big part of the company’s business.