People Places & Racing News

Movers & Shakers: Toyo Tire Promotes Randy Gaetz; U.S. Postal Service Celebrates Pickups With Four New Stamps

Compiled by SEMA Editors

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Randy Gaetz

Toyo Tire U.S.A. Corp. Promotes Randy Gaetz to Senior Vice President of Sales

Toyo Tire U.S.A. Corp. has announced the promotion of Randy Gaetz to senior vice president of sales. Gaetz joined Toyo Tires in September 2013 as vice president of sales and has been instrumental in growing consumer tire market share in the United States and successfully relaunching the brand’s truck and bus tire business. A 38-year veteran of the tire industry, Gaetz is responsible for the sales of all Toyo Tires product lines through all channels of distribution in the United States, and serves as a member of the Toyo Tires senior leadership team.

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Artist Chris Lyons of Pittsford, New York, used Adobe Illustrator to create these stylized renderings of the pickups. Art director Antonio Alcalá of Alexandria, Virginia, designed the stamps.

U.S. Postal Service Celebrates Pickups With Four New Stamps

This year, the U.S. Postal Service celebrates pickups—the rugged and reliable work vehicles that Americans have driven for nearly a century. The stamps feature four iconic models: the ’38 International Harvester D-2, ’48 Ford F-1, ’53 Chevrolet and ’65 Ford F-100.

DiabloSport Unveils New Website

DiabloSport has officially launched its new website designed around ease of use, innovation and automotive performance technology. The fresh look for Diablo includes a brand-new vehicle configurator that will allow consumers and resellers to look up vehicle-specific features and benefits. The new site’s key features include a modern look, an engaging user experience with enhanced search and navigation and a mobile-friendly interface.

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Husky Liners: Excellence in Marketing Award (L to R: David Ayers, Roger Tibbetts, Samuel Kieffer).

AAM Names Oustanding Vendors, Contributors at Annual Meeting

The AAM Group presented awards to eight manufacturing partners at its recent Annual Membership Meeting held in St. Louis. Highlighted by the Partnership Award and the Impact Award, the categories also included Excellence in Manpower, Excellence in Marketing, Excellence in Shipping, Fastest Growing Vendor, Most Innovative and Profit Generator. AAM also named four recipients of the Ambassador Award, given to key employees of partner vendors who provided unique and extraordinary support of member distributors. In addition, it acknowledged 33 vendors that exhibited data-quality excellence and 29 that attended marketing strategy meetings at company headquarters.

Vendor Winners:

Towing vendor CURT accepted the Partnership Award, which honors the vendor that demonstrated outstanding overall performance across all the award categories. For the second consecutive year, the Impact Award went to LUND for its contributions to the success and growth of AAM headquarters, members and jobbers. Westin Automotive accepted the Excellence in Manpower Award for fielding the most robust outside sales presence, including actively maintaining strong relationships with retailers and warehouses. The Excellence in Marketing Award, which honors the vendor that exhibited the best overall marketing concepts and execution, went to Husky Liners. The Excellence in Shipping Award went to Air Lift, which demonstrated the best overall purchase order fulfilment rate. Retrax took home the Fastest Growing Vendor Award for achieving the largest sales growth as measured as a percentage over the previous year. Putco won the Most Innovative Award for Nite-Lux. The Profit Generator Award, presented to Race Sport Lighting, recognizes the manufacturing partner that generated the greatest opportunity for profit across distribution and retail. Ambassador Awards went to Junior Calvert from Westin Automotive, Patrick Cripe from CURT, Mike Lovro from Auto Meter and Chris Thomson from K&N.

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Dan Flores

Betts Company Appoints Dan Flores as Controller

Betts Company has announced the appointment of Dan Flores as the company’s new controller. Flores will report to Betts Company president Bill Betts. Flores has more than 12 years of accounting, purchasing and administration experience. In his new role at Betts Company, Flores will manage the finance department, general ledger, audits, and cost and account trade.

McCullough Public Relations Launches Redesigned, Optimized Website

McCullough Public Relations has launched a redesigned, mobile-optimized website, featuring a new design, streamlined navigation and added content. The website’s new look is designed to make it easier for media outlets to quickly and easily access client press kits, including the latest product news, prewritten feature and how-to-install articles and executive bios and company backgrounders. Each client’s section also features a broad selection of high-resolution photos and logos. In addition, the website’s new events section features a regularly updated industry calendar, highlighting client activities at industry trade shows, classic car auctions and other automotive-related events across the United States. Along with the redesigned website, the public relations firm also launched its new business-focused Facebook page.

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