MUSCATINE, Iowa—Bandag Inc. announced July 12 it will eliminate more than 100 manufacturing and administrative positions to ``address fundamental change in the nature of its business.'' The company will cut 59 manufacturing jobs—including 34 in Muscatine, 19 in Chino, Calif., and six in Muncie, Ind.
Bandag's wholly owned subsidiary, Tire Distribution Systems Inc., will eliminate another 45 positions by closing its Central Division office in Columbia, Miss., and consolidating that division with its Eastern Division office in Nashville, Tenn. The move will leave TDS with two divisional offices, the other being in Wheat Ridge, Colo.
Bandag said the moves were necessary because the company is changing ``from a product-driven organization to a fully integrated provider of tire management products and services.''
CEO Martin Carver said: ``Bandag is a very different company today than is was as recently as three years ago, when our growth was measured in dollars of tread rubber sold.
``Our growth is coming from a mix of higher-margin products and services that help our fleet customers.''
For the first quarter of 1999, Bandag reported a 5-percent drop in revenue to $226.8 million, compared with 1998, but net income increased 10 percent to $10 million.
Bandag spokesman Bill Block said TDS' newly consolidated Nashville office will remain under the direction of Gary McNally.
Prior to heading TDS' Eastern Division, Mr. McNally was in charge of the eastern U.S. sales operations of Columbia-based Southern Tire Mart, one of the original five dealerships acquired by Bandag in 1997 and subsequently merged to form its TDS subsidiary.
Former Southern Tire Mart president and CEO Thomas Duff, who had directed the operations of TDS' Central Division since the dealership's buyout two years ago, recently left the company to pursue other endeavors, Mr. Block said.
In 1998, TDS spent more than $20 million to acquire more than a dozen commercial sales locations and six retread plants.
Mr. Block said the company's expressed intention has long been to integrate the formerly independent dealerships that make up TDS into a single, unified operation. He said that no store closures are involved in the planned consolidation, which should be completed within 60-90 days.