Jordan Beck | Daily Press Stropich Oil and Tire Manager Marty Bartoszek, right, and Bookkeeper Shannon Bartoszek stand in the business’ new storefront. The storefront was completed last summer.

Editor’s note: The Daily Press features a profile of an area business each week. This week’s featured business is Stropich Oil and Tire in Escanaba.

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By Jordan Beck

jbeck@dailypress.net

ESCANABA — Local business Stropich Oil and Tire, which recently completed a major expansion, offers a wide variety of services to people and organizations in the area.

Many of Stropich Oil and Tire’s services are directly related to vehicles.

“We do tires — tire sales, tire repair … and then we also do automotive repair,” Manager Marty Bartoszek said.

However, these are not the only services the company provides.

“The other end of our business is … oil,” Bartoszek said. Their fuel delivery trucks provide heating oil for residences and bulk fuel deliveries for farms and other commercial accounts.

Stropich Oil and Tire started with Bartoszek’s great-grandfather Merko Stropich, who started the company as a small gas station in the 1940s. It is currently owned by Bob and Julie Bartoszek — Marty Bartoszek’s mother and father.

“We’re a family-oriented business,” Bartoszek said.

Bartoszek has been involved with Stropich Oil and Tire for decades.

“I’ve actively been here for over 20 years,” he said.

Last summer, Stropich Oil and Tire completed a project that moved its storefront from its previous location in the old Firestone station to a newly-remodeled building next door.

“We were due for an update — it’s been several years since the last update,” Bartoszek said. The old station, which is connected to the storefront with a hallway, is still in use as an auto repair shop.

Bartoszek said his family had already owned the building now being used as the business’ storefront.

“It’s been in the Stropich family,” he said. Before it was remodeled, this building had served as the old Y Motel.

Though the company has no immediate plans for further expansion, Bartoszek said this may change in the future.

“We are just (going to) continue to make … building improvements as time goes on and expand on an as-needed basis,” he said.

Stropich Oil and Tire is located at 1325 Washington Ave. in Escanaba. For more information on the business, visit their website at www.stropichoil.com.