A longtime Minot business has a new owner/manager plus a new focus.

Clint Burgardt purchased Harry’s Tire Service from his father-in-law, Mike Hemphill, in January.

Burgardt, originally from Kansas, has been in Minot for just five years but is very aware that Harry’s is a household name in Minot when it comes to tires. Burgardt would like to expand on that, and literally has, by expanding the company’s operations at 1604-20th Ave. SE with the addition of three new alignment bays.

“We’re not quite done with it,” Burgardt said of the upgrade last week. “We’re in the process.” In fact, new floor drains were being installed by a Minot plumbing company prior to a scheduled concrete pour to finish the floor in an area that once housed a tire retreading center. That work has been shifted to Wahpeton, Burgardt said. When the new alignment bays are finished in the next few weeks, Harry’s will hire several new workers, adding to the 50-plus already with the company.

That number includes employees at Dakota Truck and Farm nextdoor, which is the commercial truck, tire and trailer arm of the business. They sell and service big rigs and small in the newly expanded shop where they also work on RVs.

So where, or rather who is Harry?

Harry Ommen opened Harry’s Tire Service in the late 1930s in downtown Minot, between what is now Bremer Bank and Tom’s Coin on First Street Southwest.

“We haven’t quite nailed down what year it was, but it was the late ’30s or early ’40s,” Burgardt said.

Harry’s Tire moved to South Broadway in 1969 and thrived there until moving to the present location in 2000.

The chain of ownership included Ommen’s son, James, and then his son who sold the business to Hemphill, a longtime employee at Harry’s.

“I bought (Mike) out this January so that he could retire,” Burgardt said. “He worked there for 42 years.”

Despite the moves and the changes in ownership, Harry’s customers have remained loyal. “A lot of the people that come in here, the older people, dealt with Harry the original Harry,” Burgardt said. “We still have some of his customers.”

And with the oil boom waning in Minot, having an established and loyal customer base is a valuable asset for a new owner to have. Burgardt gets that.

“Obviously, the economy has slowed down, but it hasn’t hurt us too bad. We’re still fairly busy,” he said.

Busy enough to be adding employees, an expense that a lot of business owners would like to have these days. And hopefully adding a new generation of Harry’s customers to the fold.