10,000 Discount Tire Employees Live on Kronos for Retail; Leading Tire

    Business Editors/Technology Editors
    NRF Annual Convention 2005

    NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 17, 2005--Continuing its focus on providing superior customer service, Discount Tire Company selected Kronos(R) Incorporated (Nasdaq: KRON) to eliminate manual employee-centric processes and allow managers to concentrate on more value-added activities. In less than eight months, America's largest independent tire company implemented the time and labor functionality available in Kronos for Retail in 562 stores. In addition, the company has begun rolling out the suite's optimized scheduling functionality. Kronos for Retail is the workforce management organization's comprehensive offering of software and services. Kronos made this announcement from the National Retail Federation (NRF) Retail Big Show being held Jan. 16-19 in New York.
    After an internal business assessment, which revealed managers were spending up to 45 minutes each day manually adding up timecards, Discount Tire determined an automated system was crucial to continuing their aggressive growth. As a result of the implementation, Discount Tire has a uniform way to provide store managers with the tools they need to manage their workforce and enable excellent customer service.
    "Discount Tire believes in taking care of our employees," said Rich Kuipers, senior vice president, store operations, at Discount Tire Company. "They are the people who create the customer experience at our stores, which leads to our success. So, if we can find a way for our managers to find an extra 45 minutes in their day to focus on exceeding customer expectations or to go home on time, we will do it. Kronos provides us with tools to save our employees valuable time."
    Kronos for Retail also will provide Discount Tire with many new capabilities for identifying new efficiencies and maximizing productivity. Kronos' optimized scheduling application will integrate with Discount Tire's point of sale system to align labor demands with the company's value streams. Kronos will also track the time and movement of Discount Tire's trucking and distribution department, which delivers products from one store to another, allowing better management of those resources. These and other efficiencies from the Kronos applications are in support of Discount Tire's Six Sigma initiative to drive continuous improvement into their business.
    "Kronos has exceeded our expectations from day one," continued Kuipers. "They take the time to understand our business, our wants, and needs, and have continued to impress us by delivering on their promises each step of the way. For an independent company like Discount Tire, which generally prefers to solve our problems ourselves, the relationship we have developed with Kronos is a perfect fit for our company."
    "Discount Tire asked Kronos for three things," said John Anderson, director of retail industry marketing at Kronos. "To help them save money, increase productivity, and improve customer satisfaction. Kronos for Retail is designed to meet those demands by standardizing and optimizing the workforce management process across all stores. Kronos is proud of the benefits we are already delivering to Discount Tire and we look forward to further exceeding their expectations as they continue their workforce management initiative."

    About Discount Tire Company

    Founder and Chairman Bruce T. Halle opened his first Discount Tire store in 1960 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. With six tires and a portable air tank, Halle started what has now become America's Largest Independent Tire and Wheel Retailer. His philosophy has remained consistent - develop a long-term relationship with customers by providing a product that exceeds their expectations at a competitive price. Treat customers with respect and fairness, while offering them service that reflects the skill and knowledge of our employees. And always remember that customer loyalty must be earned. Today, Discount Tire Company has over 550 stores and four distribution centers in 19 states. Discount Tire Company (also known as America's Tire Co. in some areas) is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.

    About Kronos Incorporated

    Kronos Incorporated is the most trusted name in workforce management. Kronos helps organizations staff, develop, deploy, track, and reward their workforce, resulting in reduced costs, increased productivity, better decision-making, improved employee satisfaction, and alignment with organizational objectives. More than 20 million people use a Kronos solution every day. Learn more about Kronos' high-impact enterprise solutions at www.kronos.com.

    (C) 2005 Kronos Incorporated. Kronos, Workforce Central and the Kronos logo are registered trademarks of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. All other product and company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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CONTACT: Kronos Incorporated Michele Glorie, 978-947-2855 mglorie@kronos.com

KEYWORD: NEW YORK TRACK INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE SOFTWARE NETWORKING TRADESHOW MARKETING AGREEMENTS SOURCE: Kronos Incorporated

Copyright Business Wire 2005