
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 13, 1995                   TAG: 9510130050
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WHITE TIRE DISTRIBUTORS BUYS LUCAS TIRE

White Tire Distributors Inc., a Roanoke retailer of tires for commercial vehicles, said Thursday that it has bought Lucas Tire Co. Inc. of Roanoke and will close Lucas' Patterson Avenue store.

Van Lucas, owner of Lucas Tire, and some of his employees will move to an East Orange Avenue location that White acquired this year from Bogle Tire Co. Inc. Of approximately 11 Lucas employees, four or five will move to Orange Avenue, two or three will retire and the remainder will be laid off, according to Dave White, president of White Tire.

White said the acquisition of Lucas Tire is consistent with his company's goal to become more dominant in the Roanoke market. The acquisition will add $1 million to White's $35 million in annual sales and put the company into the off-road and earthmover tire business in Roanoke.

Lucas Tire has operated in Roanoke for more than 50 years as either Lucas or Boyle-Swecker Tire Co.

White Tire began in 1972 as a one-man operation in Roanoke. The company has grown into one of the largest distributors in the country with outlets in Kingsport, Knoxville and Nashville, Tenn.; Greenville, S.C.; and Charleston, W.Va.

Its purchase in April of McDowell General Tire Co., a Nashville truck tire dealer, made White one of the 20 largest companies in the industry.

by CNB