OK Tire is honouring women in their workforce by not only acknowledging International Women’s Day but extending it throughout the month of March.
At OK Tire Prince George, there is strong female leadership in the capable hands of co-owner Trisha Andrews.
Born and raised in Prince George, Andrews has been working at OK Tire Prince George in one capacity or another for the last 20 years.
Andrews went to high school in College Heights and then took psychology at CNC, always knowing she wanted to help people.
“But life had other plans,” Andrews said.
She got married, got pregnant and was looking for a job with flexible hours so when she had the baby, she could balance family and work life. Andrews started working as a bookkeeper on a casual basis at OK Tire.
“I know a lot of women don’t get that opportunity when they have kids and I was grateful and took advantage of it,” Andrews said. “Through that whole time, I was fighting it the whole way – ‘I’m not doing this, I’m not going to work in this industry, I’m going to be a psychologist!’ But then I realized I was good at it and I really loved it.”
Andrews did that for a few years, then started managing the male-oriented business along with her husband Kevin and for the last five years they have been co-owners with another business partner.
“I feel a lot of pride because I feel I have my finger on the pulse of every part of the business at all times,” Andrews explained. “That’s just part of my personality. I like to know exactly what’s going on with everything. So I run counter sales, inventory, HR (human resources), advertising, bookkeeping – pretty much everything that goes on except I’m not doing any mechanical work – but I have in fact helped with tires before!”
OK Tire is the largest independent tire and auto service retailer in Canada and paves the way for women in the automotive industry, breaking down barriers to positions traditionally filled by men. Those positions across the country include office administrators, dealer owners, service technicians and boom truck operators.
“The automotive industry in general lacks gender diversity,” Andrews said. “Because many of the OK Tire stores are family-owned stores, generationally – like our store – my husband’s parents owned it before us – 30 per cent of the corporation are women. That definitely does stand out when you look at most auto industries so that’s been really great. I feel OK Tire has always really supported me, valued me as a woman and I feel really lucky. Not all industries have role models women can follow – if you don’t have someone in the industry who looks like you or has gone through things like you have it’s harder to get the confidence to do it. But when you see another woman doing it you then think you can do that, too.”
