Carlisle Tire & Wheel Sales up 19 per cent

Carlisle Tire & Wheel Company has reported a 19 per cent increase in 2004 net sales, compared with the previous year. According to the company, most of the increase came from sales in commercial and consumer power equipment, lawn care products and ATV wheels and tyres.

Last June, the company acquired Trintex, a leading manufacturer of semi-pneumatic tyre and wheels for the lawn and garden industrial markets. This contributed to the increase of sales, the company reports. At the same time as detailing sales increases the report notes that price increases implemented in 2004 were not sufficient to fully offset the rise in raw material costs. The report did not detail Carlisle Tires’ figures individually, but the Industrial Components division that it is part of reported sales of $622.4 million and operating earnings of $61.1 million.

Parent company, Carlisle Companies Incorporated, reported an 18 per cent net sales increase. In the fourth quarter of 2004 the company generated $2.23 billion of net sales compared with $1.89 billion in 2003. The company also reported $21.4 million of income from continuing operations, compared to $19.6 million in the fourth quarter 2003.

Carlisle president and CEO, Richmond McKinnish, commented: “Our 2004 earnings showed improvement over 2003 in spite of the unprecedented increase in raw material costs throughout 2004…Though we could have acted a little more quickly to pass the raw material cost increases along to our customers, we continue to focus on recovering these costs in 2005.”