Olsen named TBC chairman as Day retires

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. ( July 9, 2014) — TBC Corp. has named President and CEO Erik R. Olsen to the additional role of chairman of the board, effective July 1, after Larry Day retired June 30 as chairman.

“This represents the last piece of the transition plan Larry and I launched in the fall of 2013,” Mr. Olsen said in a press release.

“As I stated after being named president and CEO, TBC is poised for significant growth due in large part to Larry's leadership over the past decade. All TBC employees thank him for the countless contributions he made to our corporation.”

Mr. Day joined TBC in 1998 as executive vice president and chief operating officer, moving to TBC from Monro Muffler Brake Inc., where he was president and CEO. He was promoted to president in October 1998.

Mr. Olsen joined TBC in December 2004 as senior vice president and chief marketing officer. From 2005 to 2008 he had the added responsibility of president of TBC's Carroll Tire Co. subsidiary. He was named president and CEO of TBC Wholesale Group in 2008 and elected to the Palm Beach Gardens-based distributor's board of directors.

In 2013 Mr. Olsen was appointed chief operating officer and became TBC's president and CEO on Jan. 1 of this year.

Prior to joining TBC, Mr. Olsen had held various senior management positions with Michelin North America Inc. Prior to joining the tire maker in 1996, he held marketing and sales positions of increasing responsibility with Procter & Gamble, Clorox Co., and Ralston Foods.

Mr. Olsen received an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

One of North America's largest marketers of automotive replacement tires through a multi-channel strategy, TBC is a wholesale supplier to independent regional tire retailers and distributors throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The company's wholesale group operates Carroll Tire, a regional tire wholesale distributor servicing independent tire dealers across the U.S., while its retail group operates more than 2,700 franchised and company-operated tire and automotive service centers under the brands Tire Kingdom, Merchant's Tire & Auto Centers, National Tire & Battery (NTB), Big O Tires, Midas and SpeeDee Oil and Lube.

In 2005 TBC was purchased by Sumitomo Corp. of Americas (SCOA) — the largest subsidiary of Sumitomo Corp., one of Japan's major integrated trading and investment business enterprises.

TBC still functions as an independent company of SCOA.