After more than four years of decline, Titan International Inc. has reported higher sales for three straight quarters, and the company predicts the good times will continue to roll in the new year.
In December Titan's board of directors approved the company's 2018 strategic and operational plan. The board also appointed Titan's CEO and President Paul Reitz to join the board as of Dec. 5, 2017. His term expires at Titan's 2018 annual shareholders meeting.
In a press release following the board's year-end meeting, Reitz offered these comments:
"After working hard to manage our way through three years of a cyclical downturn and then post three consecutive quarters of revenue growth this year, it was great to be able to present to our board a 2018 plan that continues to reflect growth across all of our business units.
"The revenue growth in our 2018 plan is consistent with the outlook we announced in November 2017 of net sales growing in the range of 7% to 12%.
"Along with our plans for continuing sales growth, we discussed with the board how we're planning to make improvements to our margins in 2018. We continue to expect gross profit improvement between 25% and 40% and to increase EBITDA in the 50% to 100% range during 2018. Our 2018 plan also focuses on reducing SG&A/R&D to the 10% to 10.5% range while we also closely monitor our cash management and working capital.
"During 2017, we have invested in working capital to support our sales growth; however, we don't expect the need to invest at these same levels to support our 2018 growth plan. Our diligent focus on capital expenditure return on investment should continue to enable us to keep 2018 capital expenditure investment in the range of $35 million to $45 million, a level less than annual depreciation. As we round the corner into 2018, we believe that Titan is well positioned to continue on a positive trend and our 2018 plan as approved by our Board supports that belief."
For more information about Titan, visit www.titan-intl.com.
