About two years after acquiring Spring Arbor Distributors (News, June 2, 1997), Ingram announced last week that it plans to close the company's Belleville, Mich., offices and consolidate Spring Arbor's corporate and business functions at Ingram's LaVergne, Tenn., headquarters.

The move to LaVergne will be made in different stages over the course of the spring and summer. Ingram hopes to complete the process by mid-September. Approximately 161 employees work in the Belleville offices, and 44 people have been asked to relocate; the remaining staff members have been encouraged to apply for positions at LaVergne. No upper management changes are planned, and Larry Carpenter will continue as Spring Arbor president.

Carpenter said he expects the transition to LaVergne to be "very seamless for our customers and vendors." Ingram had experienced some service difficulties shortly after its acquisition of Spring Arbor, but those problems have been corrected.