Visions - Fall 2012 - (Page 8)

L I V I N G R E L AT E D B U S I N E S S G R O U P Treadways 27 r s! Yea S ince the late 1960s, SCOA has been a prime marketer and distributor of Sumitomo Brand Tires in the United States. Building on this relationship, in 1985 SCOA established the Treadways Corporation to expand SCOA’s reach in the U.S. tire business. Having weathered both tough times and proud successes, Treadways is currently celebrating 27 years of delivering quality tires to wholesale distributors throughout the U.S. Taking its place as an integral part of SCOA subsidiary TBC Corporation, Treadways helped create not just a foothold, but a leading position within this competitive market, a position it still occupies today. Treadways got its start selling Sumitomo brand tires on the west coast, eventually expanding their distribution network to the east coast to improve service throughout the United States. Shortly after Treadways opened up an office in Edison, NJ, two problems arose. The yen began to rise against the dollar, squeezing the profits on the tires they sold from Japan, and a U.S. recession emerged, cutting demand for tires. In 1993, after two years of losses, Treadways restructured their business, closing offices and distribution centers, including their east coast operations. The company, up until that time, was structured to grow, but it was double the size it needed to be, and the supply situation from Japan was unstable. At this point, SCOA and Treadways decided the best way to stabilize the business against the fluctuation in the value of the yen was to secure domestic production by purchasing private brands that could complement the tire production of Sumitomo Rubber Industries. Treadways started by buying Eldorado® Tire from Kelly Calamari in 1995, and then contracted with Cooper Tire® to manufacture them. This was followed in 1996 by the purchase of Laramie®, Jetzon® and Telstar® from the Hoffman and Reichman families. The acquisition of these private tire brands achieved the goal of domestic U.S. production and also led to a much larger and established customer base. Prior to their acquisition by Sumitomo in 2005, TBC Corporation was the largest competitor to Treadways; the two companies sold similar products into the same market space. TBC, however, also recognized the need for diversification and growth, and had a substantial head start on Treadways in the race to develop business channels and product categories. By the time SCOA crafted its acquisition of TBC, the core Treadways distributor business was roughly equal in scale to TBC’s Private Brands division. However, TBC had increased its portfolio to include Carroll Tire®, Big O Tires®, Tire Kingdom®, National Tire and Battery®, and Merchant’s Tire & Auto Centers®, thus creating a much larger company. In 2006, the logical next 8 v i s i o n s F a l l 2 0 1 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Visions - Fall 2012

Visions - Fall 2012
Contents
Trust: The Foundation Of SCOA’s Longstanding Businesses
Union Pacific & Canadian National Railway
Chicago Metra
Treadways
Smithfield Foods
SMS Equipment Inc.
Robroy Industries
Osaka Titanium
Hamilton Sundstrand

Visions - Fall 2012