RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. (May 22, 2002)—Tire Kingdom Inc., a subsidiary of TBC Corp., has opened four new stores in the south and southeast.
The new locations are in Concord and Charlotte, N.C., and Luling and Hammond, La., according to Bob Patron, Tire Kingdom director, new strore operations.
The new quartet brings Tire Kingdom's total outlets to 208. The company has plans for three more locations in the near future, Mr. Patron said.
Those and other TK outlets may be staffed by former employees of Penske Auto Centers Inc., which closed its 562 stores in early April. Aubrey Felton, TK's vice president, retail, said the company has looked into hiring former Penske employees at locations in all markets.
“We've gotten quite a few mid-level managers and a lot of assistant and store managers,” said Mr. Felton, who added that employees went to Tire Kingdom and vice versa. “There were a few people we knew of that we reached out for. We got quite a few phone contacts. You know who the quality people are, regardless of the company they work for.”