Our first weekly recap of the year brings news of auto center closures for Sears. At least 30 Sears Auto Centers will be among those locations closed as part of Sears Holding Corp.’s plan to close as many as 120 of its retail stores. The retailer announced before the holidays that it would close from 120 to 140 Sears and Kmart stores in an effort to reduce costs. Prior to the closings, Sears operated 768 auto centers.
Several personnel announcements comprise this week’s top news as well, including reports of new unit presidents for UCI International and FRAM Group. Bob Larson was named president of Filtration, encompassing UCI’s Champion Laboratories unit as well as the FRAM filter business. In addition, Don Nelson was named president of FRAM Group’s Autolite sparkplug businesses. Larson joins UCI/FRAM from Reynolds, where he’s been since 2008. Prior to that, he spent 30 years with Alcoa. Nelson, also a former Alcoa exec of 17 years, joins FRAM from Rexnord LLC. He began his career as a structural engineer at Boeing in St. Louis.
Mevotech, a Toronto-based supplier of steering, suspension and driveline products, has expanded its sales team. Gilberto Lopez joins Mevotech as director of international business (Mexico, Central America and South America); Ray Ingraham as director of sales (Eastern Region); Lawrence Devereux as director of sales (Western Region); and Roy Yancey as director of sales (South/Central Region). Regional sales agencies will be reporting to their respective directors and in turn, each director will be providing additional sales support and leadership.
In other top news this week, ACDelco announced a new winter promotion. The “Rev it Up With ACDelco” promotion runs through Feb. 29 and operates at three spending levels. Rewards, including $50 Amazon.com gift cards, a Kindle Touch and a Kindle Fire, are available to qualifying shops spending in the $1,000, $2,000 or $3,000 ranges.
Last, in our round-up of the week’s most-clicked news, we look at new research from IMR Inc. focusing on independent repair shops’ preferred first call. According IMR’s latest Installer Survey, WDs take the lead when repair shops are asked where they make their first call, at 55.5 percent. Retailers are the second most popular "first call," at 29.3 percent. Regardless of where that first call might be placed, independent shops report buying nearly three quarters of parts from that trusted resource.
