Commercial Tire Dealer™
Plentiful low-cost truck tire imports cloud retreaders’ outlook By Ann Neal
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roduction of retreaded truck tires grew nearly 5% in 2014, according to Modern Tire Dealer market data. Yet David Stevens, managing director of the Tire Retread and Repair Information Bureau (TRIB) says retreaders expect a fat year in 2015. “I don’t think anyone is forecasting much in the way of growth,” he says. One reason for the lackluster outlook is the growth of low-cost truck tire imports. “Te hope is that with some of the continued investment in trucks, you get more trucks out there, so there’s more replacement demand that will go to the retread business. But puting constraints on that is competition with low-cost import tires,” says Stevens. Service Tire Truck Centers Inc. of Bethlehem, Pa., is “continually watching the pricing coming from Chinese imports, which is pressuring the Tier 2 tires and retreading,” according to Scot Bennet, vice president of sales. Te company is ranked No. 12 on this year’s Top 100 list, up one spot from last year. Imports are afecting casing supply at Allen Park, Mich., based Belle Tire Distributors Inc., which is ranked No. 22 , down two spots. “Casings continue to be an issue in regards to major brands,” says Tom Bowman, vice president of the commercial division. “With all the Tier 3 and Tier 4 imports fooding our North America market, the quality is geting tougher to fnd in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 casings.” Bill Ziegler, president of Ziegler Tire and Supply Co., says the Massillon, Ohio-based company has been challenged by casing supply and price competition. “Casing availability has been very difcult for the year, although it has been easing up. Casing prices are starting to drop a litle. Te low price on Chinese tires has defnitely started to squeeze the pricing on retreads and this has afected our volumes. As the raw material prices have declined the retread rubber manufacturers have been slow to lower prices and the Chinese imports have been quick to lower their prices,” he says. Te company is No. 27 in the rankings, up two spots from last year. Customers choose a lower cost tire because they don’t understand cost per mile, according to Rick Majewski, vice president of Wilson County Tire and Retreading in Lebanon, Tenn. “I think they ought to put a tarif on Chinese tires to pay for the highways because they’re pricing the tires so low they are going to put the retreader out of business. If everyone retreads a premium product, the retread will outrun the Chinese tire in mileage. But people don’t look at long-term cost, they look at acquisition cost, that’s the problem.” Wilson County Tire and Retreading is part of Sumerel Tire Service Inc., which is owned by Rick’s brother Bob Majewski. Te Newport, Ky.-based company is ranked No. 60 on the list,
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Andrew Stivers applies tread rubber at the Great Lakes Best-One Tire and Service’s Bandag retreading plant in Alliance, Ohio. The plant’s 13 employees retread more than 100 truck tires a day during the spring season. Plant manager Jerry Baniecki says an expansion is planned in the next few months. The 34,000-square-foot plant includes a retread shop, offce space and pull-through service bay.
up three spots from last year. Te plant opened in July 2014 and has seven employees. Even with the pricing pressures from imported tires, the plant was proftable by August. Majewski says his core customers are dealers who do not have their own retread plants, and he expects business levels to double in 2015. While volumes were higher overall, business levels were down for OTR retreaders serving the mining industry. Government regulations placed on coal mining and the use of coal in power generation are behind the decline, according to Jim John of Craf Tire Inc./Shrader Retreading in Uniontown, Pa. “Also, road construction and housing construction are still lagging behind a normalized pace.” Te company dropped two spots to No. 37.
Acquisitions in a nutshell Several dealers added market coverage and retread capabilities through acquisition. Best-One Tire & Service purchased a Bandag retread plant in Alliance, Ohio, from American Tire Distributors Inc. (ATD) in August 2014. ATD had acquired the plant from Terry’s Tire Town Holdings Inc. earlier in 2014. Te Alliance plant operates under the Great Lakes Best-One Tire & Service banner. Best-One Tire Group now has 16 retread plants and holds the No. 5 spot, the same as last year. Also in August 2014, McCarthy Tire Service Co. Inc. purchased Terry-Haggerty Tire Co. from Jim and Tom Terry. Te acquisition gave McCarthy a combined commercial-retail location and a stand-alone retread shop in Albany, N.Y. Te purchase increased McCarthy’s production capabilities for Bandag retreading by 200 units a day. McCarthy now has
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