American Freight ways Corp.
by January 12, 1998 12:00 am 309 views
Wil DeOrsey, vice president for operations, resigned in December, several days after the company announced that its fourth-quarter earnings would be just a nickel a share instead of the 19 cents a share the company predicted.
DeOrsey was the second vice president of operations to resign in the last 17 months. Tony Balisle resigned the position in August 1996 after 10 years with the company.
On the day the fourth-quarter earnings were announced, American Freightways’ stock dropped $4.50 to $10.06 per share. Immediately, Salomon Smith Barney and Alex. Brown & Sons Inc. lowered their ratings of the company’s stock from a recommendation to buy the stock to a recommendation to hold the stock.
Company officials attribute the decline in earnings to problems with operations and training employees, a failure to renegotiate customers’ contracts adequately and expenses related to expanding into Michigan.
American Freightways is a scheduled, for-hire carrier of less-than-truckload shipments of general commodities, presently serving all points in 27 mid-Atlantic, midwestern, southeastern and southwestern states. The company employs 12,000 people operating more than 21,400 pieces of equipment from a network of 210 customer centers.