Reorganization focuses Yokohama consumer, commercial tire businesses

Yokohama Tire (Canada) Inc. will sharpen the focus of both its consumer and commercial tire businesses with a new internal structure designed to better support dealers serving those growing markets, the company has announced.

The reorganization has created distinct business units to manage sales and marketing for each of the consumer and commercial lines, headed by a new generation of executives who will drive growth and market development for each category.

Jonathon Karelse will lead the consumer side as Business Unit Director while John Overing has been named Business Unit Director for commercial tires. Both appointments are effective January 1, 2011. Both directors report to Yokohama Canada president Éric Dedoyard.

“We are creating a more effective and responsive operating structure that will increase the ability of both business segments to grow,” said Dedoyard. “The new structure will allow us to better serve our entire customer base by leveraging the skill sets of our people across all categories of our product portfolio.”

The organizational change means tire retailers will deal with a single, unified Yokohama sales and marketing team, Dedoyard says.

Because some Yokohama dealers handle both consumer and commercial lines, the two business units will work closely together to capitalize on synergies while sharing marketing and customer service resources. The new structure will see an internal realignment of personnel including business development and inside sales positions for each unit.

The new marketing and sales organizational structure will be supported by the company’s existing Administration, Distribution and Technical departments.

The new structure for the Canadian operation reflects the Yokohama Canada commitment to parent Yokohama Rubber Company’s Grand Design 100, a global sales initiative created to drive sales growth through this decade.