By Gary Massaro
It’s a year of anniversaries for Larry Pisciotta.
For one, it’s the 50th class reunion – graduating class of 1960 from Pueblo Central High School.
For another, it’s the 20th for his latest business – Brakes Plus.
It’s a family business run by Pisciotta and his three sons, Dean, Mark and R.J.
Each brings his own expertise to the business.
His sons also call him “Larry.”
“It’s not disrespect,” Pisciotta said. “We’re just super close.”
Larry and Jean Pisciotta stand by his restored VW.
Pisciotta is the founder of Brakes Plus.
Before that, he owned a series of Firestone dealerships in the Denver area.
And before that, he worked for Firestone in the finance department.
Pisciotta grew up in Pueblo. His father owned a saloon. But the elder Pisciotta encouraged his son to get an education.
The family took root in Pueblo, drawn to the southern Colorado city by free land. By the time they arrived, the only free land left for homesteading was east of town, on the high desert, far beyond the reaches of the St. Charles River – Rio San Carlos is what the Spanish named it. The river is what made the high desert just east of Pueblo fertile. It was hostile land where the Pisciotta family settled.
Pisciotta heeded his father to get an education.
After graduating high school, Pisciotta enrolled at the University of Denver, where he studied business.
After he graduated, he joined Firestone, working in corporate offices in California.
He married his childhood sweetheart, the former Jean Collins.
“She lived across the alley from me,” he said.
Pisciotta worked in the Firestone finance office a few years before leaving and moving to Greenwood Village. He and Jean now live in Cherry Hills Village.
He bought a Firestone dealership, then another and another. Firestone then bought out Pisciotta.
He had a no-compete clause in the buyout. And when that expired in 1997, Pisciotta started Brakes Plus.
He was careful in selecting the name to go with the motto: “We do brakes … plus.”
Pisciotta’s family-run business currently has 55 shops, mostly in Colorado, but also in Arizona, Texas and Wyoming.
His three sons work alongside him in the corporate headquarters in Centennial at 6911 S. Yosemite St.
They and their employees are tight-knit as well.
“You shouldn’t be in business unless you’re able to take care of the people working for you,” Pisciotta said.
He said success comes from hiring the best people and allowing them to do their jobs to make the company better.
Pisciotta started Brakes Plus with 10 employees, six of whom are still with the company. He now employs 450.
He said business has improved in a slumping economy because people are spending money to repair their cars rather than trading them in and getting into debt to buy newer ones.
“It’s more than just brakes today,” Pisciotta said. “We’re trying to maintain their cars. If you maintain your car each year, they’ll last 200,000 miles. Cars are built better and won’t break – unless you abuse them or don’t maintain them.”
He said each Brakes Plus shop has a computerized diagnostic system as well as one that tracks records of repairs.
Pisciotta gives back generously to the community.
“We can’t be everything to everybody,” he said.
So he and his company help organizations that boost education and young people, including Community College of Aurora and Gold Crown Foundation, the philanthropic arm of his brother-in-law Ray Baker and former Denver Nuggets player Bill Hanzlik.
If he hadn’t gone to college, Pisciotta might have made his living pouring beer instead of poring over his business portfolio.
Asked what he would have done without an education and he was momentarily stumped.
“I … I have no idea,” he said. “Without education, I wouldn’t have had the doors open.”
Education and hard work got him where he is.
“That’s one of the things our parents taught us out of Pueblo – how to work,” he said.
———–
reporter@villagerpublishing.com
