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THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2019
Les Schwab Tires considering selling business
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
The Oregonian
Les Schwab, the Bend
tire powerhouse known for
its customer service, com-
pany culture and — once
— its fi erce commitment to
keeping the business in the
family, is considering a sale.
Bloomberg
reported
Tuesday that the indepen-
dent retailer is “exploring
options including an out-
right sale, which could fetch
at least $3 billion.” The
report, attributed to people
with knowledge of the mat-
ter who asked not to be iden-
tifi ed because of the deal’s
privacy, said that the com-
pany is working with an
adviser as it weighs alterna-
tives, including divesting its
real estate portfolio.
It would be a historic,
and surprising, move for
the business. Long after Les
Schwab founded his epony-
mous company in 1952, he
made it clear that he had no
interest in passing control of
the company to anyone out-
side his family.
“This company isn’t for
sale,” he said in 1997. “It
will go on, bigger and bet-
ter than ever and continue
to provide opportunities for
young people to be success-
ful. All the stock will remain
in our family.”
In step with his desire
to keep the business fami-
ly-owned, Schwab rebuffed
offers over the years from
French tire magnate Fran-
cois Michelin and billion-
aire investor Warren Buffet.
Schwab reckoned with
the fate of the business and
its ownership when, in 2006,
his daughter, Margie Den-
Bend Bulletin
Les Schwab Tire Center employees install tires at the Franklin Avenue location in Bend.
ton, passed away after a long
battle with cancer. Schwab’s
son, Harlan, had died in a
1971 car crash.
The loss of his second
child devastated Schwab,
and it also forced him to
re evaluate the future of the
company. Until Denton’s
death, the tire baron had
trained his daughter, a board
member and active partic-
ipant in the family busi-
ness, to take the reins when
he stepped down. Denton
had also pledged to keep
the business in the family, at
least through her generation.
The responsibility of
the business would fall to
Schwab’s four grandchil-
dren, who weren’t as active
in the business as their par-
ents and grandparents.
Now led by Chief Execu-
tive Offi cer Jack Cuniff, the
company has $1.8 billion in
annual revenue, according
to a November 2018 inter-
view with The Bulletin.
Les Schwab operates 450
locations across 10 states,
including Washington, Ore-
gon and California.
Les Schwab is one of the
largest employers in Central
Oregon, and its sale could
throw its large regional
workforce — split between
white-collar jobs at the
company’s Bend headquar-
ters and blue-collar ones at
its warehousing and man-
ufacturing operations in
Prineville — into doubt.
A large employer with a
workforce that cuts across
income brackets is a rar-
ity in more rural parts of
Oregon, said Damon Run-
berg, a regional economist
for the Oregon Employment
Department.
“For a community like
Prineville that had some
really big losses on the man-
ufacturing side and wood
products, (a sale) would cre-
ate a level of uncertainty in
that community in partic-
ular,” Runberg said. “And
a fi rm of that size with that
many professional jobs in
someplace like Bend, that
would probably make any-
body nervous.”
The prospect that Les
Schwab could be absorbed
by another chain of tire
retailers could add to the
unease. The administrative,
manufacturing and distribu-
tion jobs could be seen as
obvious cuts as the buyer
grows its footprint.
And while Prineville’s
economy has made up for
the loss of some manufac-
turing jobs with new data
centers operated by some
of the biggest names in the
tech sector, those server
farms haven’t proven to be
big enough drivers of mid-
dle-wage jobs to offset those
lost.
Les Schwab’s pending
sale is the latest in a string of
signature Oregon companies
that ultimately sold to larger
businesses out of state. From
Fred Meyer to Tektronix, to
more recent deals for Pre-
cision Castparts and — just
this month — New Sea-
sons, the state has suffered a
steady erosion of corporate
headquarters.
The
deals
haven’t
derailed Oregon’s econ-
omy, which is enjoying one
of its longest expansions on
record. But the sales worry
economists, who feel the
state may be vulnerable in
the long run without big,
local companies to anchor
the economy.
And the deals under-
score the inability of Oregon
entrepreneurs to grow big
new businesses to replace
those that sold. That may
refl ect, to a large degree,
the nation’s economic con-
centration in big metropo-
lises like Seattle and the San
Francisco Bay Area.
Private equity fi rms have
been investing in tire and
auto-focused retailers, in
part because they have been
less disrupted by the rise of
e-commerce, according to
Bloomberg. Bain Capital
agreed to invest in Dealer
Tire in 2018, and earlier
this year Greenbriar Equity
Group LP acquired Evans
Tire & Service Centers,
Bloomberg reported. Indus-
try giants, meanwhile, have
snapped up smaller rivals,
with Goodyear Tire & Rub-
ber Co. agreeing last week
to buy Evansville, Indi-
ana-based Raben Tire Co.
for an undisclosed amount.
Homeless campers shaken after alleged attack in Longview
‘IT SEEMS TO BE A CONSTANT NARRATIVE OF THIS
CITY THAT THE UNHOUSED ARE A DANGER, BUT
WHAT I WITNESSED LAST NIGHT ... THE VIOLENCE
ISN’T COMING FROM THEM. CITIZENS ARE
ATTACKING THESE PEOPLE THAT HAVE NO
PLACE TO GO IN THE COLD.’
By KATIE FAIRBANKS
The Daily News
LONGVIEW,
Wash.
— A group of young men
threatened and attacked
homeless campers outside
of Longview City Hall on
Sunday night, leaving the
campers shaken and a hand-
ful with minor injuries,
according to a volunteer
who witnessed the fi ght.
Police Chief Jim Duscha
said Monday that he had not
yet read the reports from the
incident, but said there were
no arrests stemming from
the incident. The investiga-
tion is active, Cpl. Tim Wat-
son said.
Jennifer Langley, who
volunteers at the severe
weather shelter at First
Christian Church, said
she was driving around
the Civic Circle at about
10 p.m. when she noticed a
large crowd of people that
she didn’t recognize outside
City Hall.
She said a group of
about six to eight young
men wielding baseball bats
were threatening the home-
less people camping outside
City Hall.
Langley said she “put
herself in the middle” and
tried to de-escalate the
situation. The group of
men said they were upset
because one of the camp-
ers threw a wrench through
a car window and broke
their friend’s jaw, she said.
Langley said she told them
repeatedly to report it to the
police.
One of the men threat-
ened to beat her up while
brandishing a baseball bat,
she said. After telling her
ex-husband to call 911, “all
hell broke loose,” Lang-
ley said. The group of men
attacked homeless peo-
ple standing around Lang-
ley, and several people took
hits, including another vol-
unteer who came to help
break up the fi ght.
Police arrived soon after
and the fi ghting broke up
quickly, she said. The men
ran off to three or four
Jennifer Langley | volunteer at a severe weather shelter
Courtney Talak/The Daily News
Tents line the grass on Broadway outside City Hall in Longview.
trucks parked near the p ost
o ffi ce, Langley said, but
police arrived before they
could drive away. The
group apparently “came
with a plan,” she said.
“It was truly the most
frightening situation I’ve
been a part in,” Langley
said. “It seems to be a con-
stant narrative of this city
that the unhoused are a dan-
ger, but what I witnessed
last night ... the violence
isn’t coming from them.
Citizens are attacking these
people that have no place to
go in the cold.”
Hollie Hillman, who also
volunteers at the shelter,
said she came to City Hall
after a call from Langley
and tried to help break up
the argument. She said one
of the men punched her in
the face. Hillman said she
told police she could iden-
tify the person who punched
her but was told to write a
statement the next day.
Longview police did
not respond to requests for
further comment on the
investigation.
People drive by every
day and harass campers by
honking, yelling at them
and even throwing bottles
and other items at them,
Hillman said. She’s seen
fi ghts before, but nothing
this “extreme,” she said.
“It’s scary. People are
scared,” Hillman said.
“They feel worthless. That
they’re not even worth the
cops taking the time to fi nd
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Camper
Rebecca
Michael said she was in a
tent on Broadway around
the corner from the fi ght on
the 16th Avenue side of the
building but said she could
hear people getting hit with
bats.
“It was bad,” she said.
“Why would you want to
hurt people that are already
hurting?”
Watson, who checked in
with the campers outside of
City Hall throughout Mon-
day, said he would hate for
any citizens to take advan-
tage of vulnerable people.
He said the investigation is
active and that they want to
get to the bottom of it.
Chuck
Hendrickson,
Love Overwhelming exec-
utive director, said negative
comments about the home-
less on Facebook and other
social media sites can affect
other people that see the
posts and “run with it.”
“I don’t think anyone
told them directly to do
this, but divisiveness really
breeds hate,” he said. “This
should be about the (home-
less) people and making
sure they’re taken care of
and safe.”
Hendrickson said his
biggest concern is safety
as the campers move out of
the City Hall area when an
ordinance banning camping
on city right of way during
the day goes into effect on
Friday.
Campers would still
be allowed to set up their
tents at City Hall overnight
because a federal court has
ruled that it is not a crime
to sleep in public places.
However, under this ruling,
if the city establishes a sep-
arate camping site, it can
ask campers to leave the
right of way.
The city is preparing a
designated campsite at an
empty lot near Alabama
Street and Oregon Way, said
City Manager Kurt Sacha.
The fenced-off site should
be ready Friday morning
for people to move into, he
said. It will include portable
toilets, wash stations and
garbage service.
Sacha said the site is
meant to be temporary,
and the city will be work-
ing with Cowlitz County
and Kelso to provide other
campsites to alternate
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