MTD Mid-Year Q&A: Hankook Plant Will Drive Growth

Hankook Tire America Corp.'s investment in domestic manufacturing will help it serve dealers more effectively, Rob Williams, the company’s president, tells MTD. 

MTD: Can you bring us up to speed on Hankook Tire America Corp.'s performance so far in 2026? What have been some of the company's challenges and achievements?

Williams: I think pretty much every year there are always challenges, but we want to be optimistic and look at some of the momentum we've built. And it started in January, when we had all of our dealers in the Dominican Republic. It was really a great time for us to share a little bit about what we're doing for 2026 ... (to) focus on our strategy, focus on our innovation and focus on our new products. 

I'm sure you heard that we have engaged with the TGL (Tomorrow Golf League), so we had a lot of our dealers also participate in that. We could get everybody together (and) talk a little bit about what our plans are. But more importantly, it’s really (about listening) to the voice of the dealers to understand what their challenges are. And as a result, during that meeting, we actually had our first dealer council.

Every year, we have different challenges. With the conflict in the Middle East, supply chain disruptions could certainly be more noticeable. But I think the main thing that we really want to talk about is the optimism within the market and surrounding our Tennessee plant expansion and our innovative new products.

MTD: Hankook is making a $1.6 billion investment in its Clarksville, Tenn., plant. Can you bring us up to speed on that? When will TBR tire production start at the plant and when will the additional PLT tire component be up and running? 

Williams: Construction is on schedule. Things are progressing very well. The PLT portion of it, we expect to have completion of all the equipment installation and production within the next couple months ... we'll call it beginning (in) the second half (of 2026.) With TBR, the same way. We're progressing on all the construction, the equipment installation and the testing of the TBR products. So we're looking at the second half, as well, on the TBR (side). We're really excited to be able to bring more passenger/light truck domestic product to the market and for the first time ever, TBR tires. It will take us probably about six months to a year to get up to full capacity - so probably early-2027 on phase two of consumer and then probably middle of next year on TBR.

MTD: You mentioned products. Over the past few years, Hankook has made a huge investment in the development of its iON EV tire lineup. With the removal of government incentives for EV purchases, what's your short-term and long-term forecast for the EV tire market? Can you talk about what you're doing on the light truck tire side, with the Dynapro line? 

Williams: Starting with EV, to be very clear, we've invested heavily in our iON line. It was very important that we came out with an innovative, market technology leader product with the iON. The latest product that we've rolled is the iON HT, which really helps us in that EV light truck SUV segment that will continue to grow. We expect that to be one of the faster-growing segments, along with SUV, and now we've got a complete line of iON products, whether it be for touring, SUV or light truck. We really can't predict what's going to happen with the EV market, but when we look at it globally, there are a lot of countries that are still growing their EV segment quite rapidly. And the good thing is, we'll be on the cutting edge of technology ... as that segment continues to grow.

We have a full line of Dynapro products that we're very proud of and we'll continue to evolve as market needs and demand change. We have some Dynapro products coming out a little bit later this year. We'll wait to talk about those as they get a little bit closer. As we expand the Tennessee plant,  we'll be looking at both our X/T (extreme-terrain) and M/T (mud-terrain) products. We'll be able to build (these products) here in the Tennessee plant. We feel confident that will help us round out the the Dynapro line. 

MTD: What are Hankook's plans for its Laufenn brand? As consumers continue to trade down to less-expensive brands, where does Laufenn fit inside Hankook’s product screen?

Williams: Consumers still want a great quality product at a value price, so we've really looked at Laufenn as a great product to kind of position just below the Hankook (brand). We’ve used Laufenn to really try to sell up into the Hankook line. We know it's a great product. It’s a Hankook-built product. And as a result, it becomes a great trade-up product.

We just came out with the Laufenn XFIT AT2 that we're really excited about – a great-looking tire we feel that will kind of round out that Laufenn portfolio, where we have (a) touring (offering), light truck, SUV, and, of course, (cover) the performance segment, as well. We feel it's a great product that really allows us to gain some of that shelf space and that tier-three space, but also with the ability to trade up into a more premium brand with Hankook.

MTD: When we talked last year, you mentioned that Hankook was making a big investment to place “more boots on the ground” in the form of expanding its sales team. Can you bring us up to speed on the progress you've made there?

Williams: It’s all about optimizing the sales force. And a couple things we did to start out (during the) middle of last year was to put in two very strong, experienced veteran vice presidents. K.C. Jensen is leading the passenger light truck consumer side. Mark Rowe is leading up our commercial TBR side. And working with both of them, as well as Aaron Hong, (our) vice president of marketing, we've looked at how we really want to optimize the sales force.

A couple things that we've done on the PLT side is looking at the Hankook One and retail rewards program. I think it's very important that (Hankook dealers have) more touch points with territory managers, their corporate account managers and their key account managers. Lauren Smith, our program manager for Hankook One, has done a tremendous job kind of revamping the Hankook One program. As a result, the folks in the field are spending a lot more time trying to get to the retail point of sale. 

On the TBR side, under Mark’s leadership, we're really focused on the fleet and getting to the end user. And of course, we do that through our partnerships with commercial dealers. We’ve really worked hard on the TBR side to gain more wheel positions on the fleet side and the relationships we have with their commercial dealers and our commercial wholesalers continue to strengthen. Our focus is to really gain share of account with them. Signing new dealers is certainly always important. But if we had a priority, it would be to grow organically with our current partners and get more share of account (and) get more products in their stocking profile, so they always have a Hankook tire available when a consumer or fleet needs it.

MTD: Does this become more critical with new production coming online in Clarksville?

Williams: There's no doubt that we need to get our product into more points of sale and that's the thing that our leaders have continued to talk about. We have to be easy to do business with. We have to make sure we have a good, strong supply chain. That really takes having our product with the distributor, who can help get that product to the market ... what I call with just-in-time inventory. That moment when a consumer walks in and says, 'I want a Hankook' or a dealer recommends (Hankook), the ability to get the product is critical. As I mentioned, Hankook One is a great way for us to get our product into a lot of the small, independent dealers. Obviously, the larger national retailers and the larger regional retailers are just as important. But how they get the product typically is direct, where Hankook One dealers are getting it just-in-time, two and four at a time. 

MTD: What can we expect to see from Hankook during the rest of the year and into 2027?

Williams: You asked earlier about our products, I think for Hankook, the ability to continue to develop and bring to market innovative products - and not only innovative products, but products that both the consumer and our dealers are asking for - (is important.) We'll continue to do that in the second half of 2026 and into 2027. 

I think with everything going on - whether it be the tariffs, whether it be some of the conflicts that are going on globally – (it’s important) to make sure we strengthen our supply chain. We have to be not only be more responsive. We have to be proactive. And the proactive (strategy), for us, is going to rely very heavily on the Tennessee plant expansion ... and the fact that we'll be adding an additional warehouse there - 350,000 plus square feet. So we'll have the ability to warehouse more product. Ultimately, that allows us to get that product to the market even quicker. And then certainly last but not least, is to continue to grow and develop our partnerships that we have throughout the U.S. and we do that with a great sales team (and) a great support team here in our Nashville headquarters. We have to make sure that with our dealer council, we're listening to the voice of the customer and are being responsive and then ultimately, we're very, very confident we'll win in 2026.