By Amy Antenora

The Week in Review offers a snapshot of the most highly read stories of the week as seen on aftermarketNews. To access the complete stories, simply click on the highlighted links. If you missed reading one of our daily news emails, just click on the link that says "News Archives" at the bottom of the page to begin catching up on the latest industry news.

There is a lot of variety is this week’s most-read news items. Leading off the top five is the news that AutoZone has added two new directors to its board, bringing the total number of board members to 11. Robert Grusky and William Crowley have been elected to the AutoZone Board of Directors, in accordance with the recently announced agreement with the company’s largest shareholder, ESL Investments. The agreement called for the addition of three new directors to the board, two of whom were to be identified by ESL.

Moving from the retail world to the distribution segment, another top story this week was the announcement of two new additions to the National Pronto Association membership. Cross Country Auto Parts located in Albuquerque, N.M., and Lubricantes Peninsulares SA de CV located in La Paz, Mexico, have joined the Pronto group effective Aug. 1. Cross Country is a start-up warehouse serving Albuquerque, the State of New Mexico and Southern Colorado. Lubricantes Peninsulares serves the Baja California Sur area of Mexico with locations in La Paz and Cabo San Lucas.

While it was good news for Pronto this week, many other automotive companies are struggling to stay afloat in today’s challenging economic environment. As such, Goodyear said this week it will close 92 underperforming retail locations by the end of the year, in order to improve the profitability of its U.S. retail operations. This move will eliminate $9 million in annual losses for the company.

Another popular news item this week shared news of a recent accomplishment for Raybestos. Raybestos brand brakes recently earned the distinction of having its line of police friction products recognized as being D3EA PPSV (Police and Public Service Vehicle) certified. This is the only voluntary, objective and completely independent validation process for replacement brake friction materials and rotors that provides a basis for maintaining compliance with new vehicle Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) requirements.

Uni-Select has been making headlines recently with its acquisitions of Beck/Arnley, and more recently the Mid-Atlantic parts distribution operations of Parts Depot. With this in mind, attendees of the MIS Council’s 2008 Fall Conference will no doubt be eager to hear what Brent Windom, vice president of marketing and product management for Uni-Select USA, has to say in his “Customer Spotlight” at the event. Windom plans to discuss Uni-Select’s technology environment, current e-commerce projects and future technology initiatives at the event, which takes place Tuesday, Oct. 14 in Marco Island, Fla.

To view all of the news from the past week, simply click here to view our News Archives.