In the aftermath of last month’s catastrophic flooding that damaged its Baton Rouge, La., warehouse, American Tire Distributors Inc. (ATD) is servicing area customers at least once a day from two other distribution centers.
Modern Tire Dealer contacted ATD for an update on operations at the Baton Rouge distribution center, which took on 4 feet of water at the height of the flooding. Ron Sinclair, president of ATD’s Tire Pros franchise program, responded to MTD’s inquiry.
“While it will clearly take time to get the Baton Rouge center operational again, I am pleased to report that ATD was able to quickly reinstate service to all of our customers previously serviced from Baton Rouge,” Sinclair said. “In fact, we are servicing these Baton Rouge customers at least once per day from our ATD distribution centers in Slidell, La., and Beaumont, Texas.”
Several ATD employees were affected by the flood, which has been called the worst U.S. natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
“On a more personal note, ATD did have a number of Baton Rouge employees that were personally impacted by the floods and 14 were displaced from their homes,” said Sinclair. “Through an internal fund raising effort, ATD employees contributed almost $30,000 to support their fellow employees during this difficult time. This outpouring of support, combined with the contributions from ATD, has been a huge help for our Baton Rouge colleagues in their time of need."
