BOULDER - Environmentally friendly car service store Green Garage is on the move, buying The Tire Source Inc. tire retailer and planning to open a new location in Boulder in mid-October.

Tire Source owner Pete Spoelhof decided to sell his 40-year-old tire business at 3200 28th St. in Boulder to Primoris Energy Solutions Inc., doing business as Green Garage, so he could retire, the companies said in a press statement. The sales price was not disclosed.

Tire Source had 10,000 customers in 2011, or about 5 percent of the total 218,000 cars registered in Boulder County, said Ryan Ferrero, founder and chief executive of Green Garage. The purchase gives Green Garage the leverage to buy and price car tires competitively with other retail chain stores, he said. In the future, tire sales are expected to represent about 15 percent of the overall Green Garage business, Ferrero said.

"Prior to this acquisition, we could not compete, since tires are commodity-priced," Ferrero said. "Now, we can include this with all of your maintenance and repair and show you how to be cost-saving and money conscious."

At the same time, Green Garage plans to remodel and open a new 8,000-square-foot store in the former Carpet Outpost LLC building at 2907 55th St. in Boulder in October, Ferrero said. The new location will have a sandwich shop and comfortable seating - a bit like "Starbucks meets an Apple store," Ferrero said. Next, the company plans to open two new locations in Fort Collins.

Early next year, Green Garage plans to open a store in San Francisco, followed by a franchising push across the country, Ferrero said. Green Garage currently has three locations, one in Boulder and two in Denver. Its goal is to have 5 percent market share by 2019, with 95 percent of the stores to be franchises, Ferrero said.

While Ferrero declined to give sales figures, he said the business has seen double-digit percent increases in every month of 2012 over the prior year. About 65 percent of Green Garage customers are women, he said.