Telle Tire & Auto Centers Announces Acquisition of Casey Automotive

Telle Tire & Auto Centers today closed on the acquisition of Casey Automotive, which will operate under Telle’s HEART Certified Auto Care division. The transaction adds three locations in Arlington Heights, Palatine, and Streamwood, and brings HEART to eight locations—double its footprint at the start of the year—following Telle’s March 2 acquisition of Libertyville Duxler.

Founded in 1942, Telle Tire has grown to 91 locations across six states by acquiring like-minded, operator-led businesses and placing them inside the division that best fits their model. Tire-forward
businesses join Telle Tire. Repair-focused businesses join HEART.

Casey Automotive and Libertyville Duxler, both built by legacy owners around a repair-led, people-first philosophy, fit the HEART division. Steve Casey built Casey Automotive over 50 years, serving more than one million customers across three locations and earning more than 4,400 Google reviews. Mike Foster spent 42 years in the industry, 36 of them building Libertyville Duxler. When each of them sat down to decide who would carry their life’s work forward, they arrived at the same answer within 60 days of each other.

"After 50 years building this business, I decided it was time to retire. That meant finding the right people to carry it forward,” said Steve Casey. “I chose HEART because of how they operate. They invest in their people. They’re rooted in their communities. They treat customers the way customers deserve to be treated. That’s what has always mattered most to me, and HEART delivers on every one of them."

Mike Foster struck a similar note in announcing the Duxler sale in March: “The relationships we built over the years are the reason this place meant so much. When the time came to decide who would carry it forward, I took that responsibility seriously. I chose HEART because they take care of their people, they invest in their communities, and they treat customers the way customers deserve to be treated."

The right home for every operator

The fit Casey and Foster describe starts at the Telle level. Customer-first, people-first, long-term orientation—those are the standards Telle applies to every acquisition. What changes from deal to deal is where the business lives inside the Telle family.

"Casey and Duxler are exactly what we look for when we acquire a business," said Aaron Telle, president and CEO of Telle Tire & Auto Centers. "Operators who put people first. Teams who’ve been together for decades. Customers who keep coming back. That’s the standard at Telle, and HEART is how we carry it into the Chicago repair market. Four months in, this is exactly what we set out to build."

Brian Moak, Brand President of HEART Certified Auto Care and head of Telle’s HEART Division, added the operator-to-operator perspective.

"What makes me most proud is that Steve and Mike saw in Telle and HEART what they built in their own companies,” said Moak. “Spending 40 and 50 years building something and then trusting us to carry it forward—that’s the highest compliment an operator can pay another operator."

Continuity for teams and customers

To date, every member of the Libertyville Duxler team has remained with HEART and is fully engaged in the business. The intention with Casey Automotive is the same—to welcome the existing team and continue the service relationships those locations have built with their customers over decades. Customer service history transfers seamlessly across both transitions. Over time, Casey and Duxler locations will also transition to HEART’s three-year / 36,000-mile parts and labor warranty, one of the strongest coverage standards in the Chicago market.

"I went through this acquisition myself in January. Aaron and the Telle team delivered on everything they promised—the culture, the commitments to my team, the long-term orientation, all of it. That experience is why I can look another repair-focused owner in the eye and tell them this is real,” said Moak. “Telle is actively talking with repair-focused operators outside of Illinois about joining the HEART Division. If you’ve spent decades building something and you care about what happens to it next, we want to be in the conversation.”