A steel radial 17.5R-25 is in production now at the Freeport plant, and production on another size is expected within two weeks, Titan said. Titan believes that the Freeport plant can produce in excess of $60 million in OTR tires in 2007.
“Titan is aligning synergies, which includes retooling, retraining personnel and movement of equipment at the Bryan, Freeport and Des Moines facilities,” said the tiremaker in a release. “This may cause the company’s gross margin to be negative for the fourth quarter of 2006, as labor costs that are normally dedicated to making products were instead used for retooling, retraining and movement of equipment.”
Titan International Inc. spent approximately $153 million on the acquisitions of Goodyear’s North American farm tire assets and the Continental Tire North America’s OTR tire business in Bryan, Ohio.
“The 2005 revenue of Goodyear’s farm tire business was over $200 million, and Continental’s Bryan OTR business was over $100 million,” Titan reported in a release.
“Last fall, Titan set 2007 management sales goals at $800 to $825 million for the year, and we still believe this is an achievable objective,” said Maurice M. Taylor, Titan’s chairman and CEO. “We have already seen strong demand for January and February. If this continues, 2007 will be Titan’s best year ever.”
