Titan's Third Quarter Results: Net Loss of $11.1 million

Titan International of Quincy, Illinois posted a net loss of $11.1 million for the period, compared to a net gain of $10.3 million for the same period last year, reports Tire Review. Driving down the profits was a sharp sales drop: $141.5 million for the quarter against sales of $255.5 million for the same period in 2008. Year-to-date sales were $581.1 million, compared to $778.1 million in 2008, and net profits year-to-date were $1.8 million in 2009, compared to $31.7 million last year.

Morry Taylor, Titan chairman and CEO was confident that the poor results symbolised the nadir of recent tough times: “I believe that the third quarter was the bottom of the downtrend in the construction and farm markets,” he said. “While the earthmoving and construction segment has been experiencing decline due to various factors in the construction, infrastructure and housing markets in 2009, the agricultural segment has more recently moved lower. I believe inventory reduction is over and business will start to slowly grow during the next four quarters, but anyone who knows this business knows it can turn on a dime.

“Trying economic times call for making tough business decisions,” he continued. “As many of Titan’s major customers implemented extended shutdowns during the period, we in turn extended scheduled shutdowns at our production facilities to manage lower demand and bring down inventory levels. Though it did result in lower manufacturing efficiencies that directly affected the bottom line, Titan was able to decrease inventories by $25 million.”