Jensen Succeeds Hoffman in Top Post at Tiger

Tiger International, the Los Angeles-based transportation firm struggling to reverse five straight years of losses, announced that Wayne M. Hoffman retired Monday as chairman. He will be replaced by Robert P. Jensen, who will continue as chief executive and president.

The departure of Hoffman, 63, came two years before he was expected to leave under the company’s mandatory retirement policy. Jensen, 60, said in an interview Monday that Hoffman was not forced out by the firm’s board. A Tiger spokeswoman said Hoffman wanted “more time to himself.”

Hoffman, who also resigned as a director but will continue as a consultant to Tiger, was not available for comment. New York financier Saul P. Steinberg, Tiger’s largest shareholder who controls about 13.5% of the firm’s stock, also could not be reached for comment.

Hoffman, who had variously served as chairman, president and chief executive of Tiger since its founding in 1970, led the firm on an ambitious expansion plan in the late 1970s aimed at making Tiger a wide-ranging transportation firm with cargo operations in air, trucking and rail. However, that expansion ran headlong into the 1981-82 recession, with sharp drops in traffic leading to massive losses that continue to plague the firm.

Jensen, who replaced Hoffman as president and chief executive of Tiger last August, said he expects “significant improvement” in 1986 over last year’s $72.7-million loss. He said his turnaround strategy includes a cost-containment program and a re-evaluation of the loss-plagued domestic operations of Flying Tiger Line, Tiger’s air cargo subsidiary. He also is considering acquisitions, possibly in non-transportation businesses.