Goodyear Farm Tires has almost doubled the warehousing space at one of its key European sites, adding more than 1,500 square feet / 140m₂ to the capacity of its Titan France headquarters in Flers, Normandy. The off-highway tyre specialist anticipates that a greater capacity will reduce both transit times to major European cities and delivery lead times to farmers.
Goodyear Farm Tires has shared “ambitious plans” to expand its product range in 2025. The Titan International business intends to address the ever-changing demands of the agricultural sector by extending availability for its exclusive Low Sidewall Technology (LSW). The company’s dedicated European Development Centre in France is playing a key role in plans to enhance the LSW portfolio with further sizes over the next 12 months, and has also developed further products that build on the new radial tyre sizes recently brought to the market.
Goodyear Farm Tires will shine the spotlight on its growing prominence in the European agricultural market and further expand its dealer partner network at The Tire in Cologne this June. During the three-day show, Goodyear Farm Tires display its innovative and flagship Low Sidewall (LSW) range, fresh from opening a new Technology Development Centre in France in April that makes the products more accessible to the European market.
The second quarter of 2014 was, in the words of Titan International’s chief financial officer, “disappointing in terms of performance.” John Hrudicka reports that the 11.7 per cent year-on-year decline in sales to US$523.7 million occurred against a backdrop of price reductions, a downturn in the mining segment and a decline in agricultural markets. Gross profit also decreased 74.0 per cent to $22.6 million and was 4.3 per cent of net sales, as compared to 14.6 per cent of net sales a year earlier. Loss from operations amounted to $29.5 million in the second quarter of 2014, compared with a profit from operations of $36.9 million in the second quarter of 2013. Net income went $20.5 million into the red. Dividend declared per common share was $0.05.
Arguments about greater steering precision aside, the chief reason for fitting low profile tyres to a car is to enhance its appearance. But a narrow sidewall is favoured by some in the off-road sector for entirely difference reasons. Titan International developed its first low profile – it calls it low sidewall, or LSW – off-road tyre in the 1990s and initially introduced the technology on the Caterpillar-brand skid steer tyre in 1999. The company believes that when the benefits of LSW are more widely known the technology will gain widespread acceptance, and to spread word about LSW a new, dedicated website has been rolled out.
Titan has expanded its OTR product range with new Low Sidewall (LSW) options for light, medium and heavy-duty equipment. These tyres, with their larger rim diameter and smaller sidewall than standard tyres, offer improved equipment stability and performance.
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