The Week in Review offers a snapshot of the most 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, click on any of the dates listed at the bottom of the page to begin catching up on the latest industry news.
The most highly read news item on aftermarketNews (AMN) this week was the announcement of CSK closing stores and cutting jobs in an effort to reduce expenses. The company anticipates that the store closures and staff reductions will reduce expenses by $7.6 million net pre-tax in the remainder of fiscal 2007 and by $34 million net pre-tax in fiscal 2008. "Among my primary objectives since joining CSK this summer was to initiate a comprehensive review of the company’s operations to help us identify opportunities to improve our competitive position, our operational and financial performance, and our ability to deliver value to our stockholders,” said Lawrence Mondry, president and CEO.
Another news story that AMN readers found interesting was Dorman’s announcement of its acquisition of the consumer division of Rockford Products Corp. Headquartered in Rockford , IL , the consumer division packages and distributes standard fasteners to customers in the farm and automotive aftermarkets. The purchase price is expected to be approximately $3.5 million subject to pre-closing and post-closing adjustments as required by the agreement.
Dana Corp.’s announcement of a Plan of Reorganization and Disclosure Statement to emerge from Chapter 11 also gained a lot of AMN reader interest this week. The Plan contemplates an investment of up to $750 million in new convertible preferred stock in the reorganized Dana. The Disclosure Statement contains a discussion of the issues that led to the Chapter 11 filing, a description of the Plan provisions and an analysis of the Plan’s feasibility. With this filing, Dana is one step closer to achieving its goal of emerging from Chapter 11 protection by the end of this year.
Bosch’s launch of a new water pump program was of significance to the AMN audience this week. The updated water pump program features greater coverage, heat-tempered bearings for most applications, plus new tri-lingual packaging. "In addition to stronger, more efficient water pumps and more attractive packaging, the new Bosch water pump program includes overall market coverage of 98.2 percent, an addition of 6.8 percent. We have added 56 new part numbers and coverage is updated through 2007,” said Rob Backode, group p rod uct manager, water pumps and breaking products.
Rounding out the top five most highly read stories on AMN this week was the appointment of Bill Burns to CEO of Independent Warehouse Distributors, LLC. Burns began his new duties on June 7 and succeeds former CEO Bruce Tavik, who left the position due to the sale of his business.
To view all of the news from the past week, simply click on the link for each corresponding day: