One of the country’s largest retreaders is closing one of its plants and leaving the off-the-road retreading business altogether.
McCarthy Tire Service Co. is closing its lone OTR retreading shop in Somerset, Pa. The plant, which produces 40 OTR tires a day and employs 38, will close Aug. 17, 2015. McCarthy is No. 7 on Modern Tire Dealer’s list of Top 100 Retreaders.
The company says it still will provide retreads to customers, but will source them from RDH Tire and Retread Co. and B.R. Retreading Inc. The company provided this statement to MTD.
“OTR retreading is a highly capital-intensive process," says John McCarthy Jr., president of McCarthy. "An OTR retread plant needs new equipment every three to four years to stay competitive in the marketplace. McCarthy Tire Service is focusing our energies on the service side of our core business for our OTR and commercial customers in order to increase their uptime and production capacity. This includes new tire sales, quality retread tires and expert service.”
McCarthy disclosed its plans to shutter the plant in a filing with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry. That notice came less than a week after McCarthy announced its latest acquisition, of Ragan Tire Group, based in Concord, N.C. Ragan sells and services OTR tires in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. McCarthy later acknowledged the Ragan deal didn’t include RDH, the 34th largest retreader in the U.S.
McCarthy says there are no planned changes at its medium truck retread plants, and it will continue to retread industrial tires from its Manassas, Va. location.
