RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.—Falken Tire Corp. has created a commercial tire division and promoted Bob Klimm, Falken Canada and Northeast U.S. division manager for the past several years, to manage it.
“Falken has decided the timing was right to invest in our internal sales department with a fresh structure boasting new personnel and increased headcount,” Andrew Hoit, vice president of sales, said in a statement.
“Falken's expanding sales team is still evolving, and the latest upgrade to our department is representative of a commitment to the commercial business.”
Klimm will oversee Falken commercial tire sales in both the U.S. and Canada, Falken said. The new division will operate in three zones—west, northeast and southeast—that are aligned with Falken's consumer division. Klimm will report to Hoit.
Falken also promoted Richard Love to southeast zone manager for the commercial division and hired John Grimm as a field engineer. Love was a consumer account manager; Grimm joins Falken after a 20-year career with Bridgestone Americas.
In addition, Falken hired Jules “JR” Nottolini to be manager of the northeast consumer division. Most recently he was a regional director at Hankook Tire USA.
“We're very pleased to have Bob assume this new position and to have JR join the Falken family,” Hoit added. “We have no doubt that the experience and relationships these two men have will translate very quickly into increased Falken market share.”
Falken, a unit of Japan's Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd., has been transitioning its truck tire line to the Falken brand over the past few years, while at the same time phasing out the use of the Ohtsu brand name for commercial tires.