Photos: Top Retreaders Expand for the Future
Retreaders endured an uneasy 2020, but they pushed forward with investments in facilities and technology as they remained focused on the future. Here's a look at the domestic retread tire market in 2021, and some of the people making things happen.
Beasley Tire
Beasley Tire Service’s plant is in its fourth full year of operation. President Bob Beasley says, “We made a large initial investment in retread plant capacity that would carry us through the first five years.”
Border Tire
Border Tire made major acquisitions in California in 2018 and again at the end of 2020. Both deals included a Michelin retread plant. First shift employees at the company’s Fontana, Calif., pictured here, are ready for work.
H&H Industries
H&H Industries Inc. President Noah Hickman said his company’s greatest opportunity for growth continues to be building partnerships with service providers and end users. “We’re also offering long-term, web-based customer inventory information, invoicing, analysis reports and end-user specific data” for customers, “so they don’t have to.”
Ziegler Tire
At Ziegler Tire & Supply Co., Vice President John Ziegler says imports are still having the same effect on business as in recent years. “It’s about the same as last year,” but he notes the flow of those tires is highly irregular. “It’s more delayed than in years past.”
Parkhouse Tire
Parkhouse Tire is “building for the future” and in December, began production inside a new Bandag retread plant in Fontana, Calif. The plant will have the capacity to produce up to 1,000 truck tire retreads a day.
Parkhouse Tire
Tire dealers are accustomed to the difficulty in finding qualified employees, and at Parkhouse Tire, where the company has built a larger retread facility with an eye on expansion, the only option was to raise wages. But Jim Parkhouse says, “It’s very difficult to raise your product price or your labor price. We’ll grow into this as we need (it.) That’s why we built it. We couldn’t fill it right now anyway. We hope to continue to grow.”