Titan has purchased portions of Denman Tire, including the company’s name, tire specifications, patents, molds, various bladder tooling, customer lists and other assets.
The bid in Federal Bankruptcy Court – amounting to $4.4 million – excludes machinery, land and buildings. Denman, which had had $75 million in sales in 2008, ceased operations in March of this year.
Established in 1919 by the late Walter R. Denman in Warren, Ohio as the Denman-Myers Cord Tire Co., the venerable firm focused on manufacturing tires for construction, agriculture, mining and other industrial applications.
“This acquisition fulfills some needs in our product range in underground mining and specialty tires,” says Titan Chairman and CEO Maurice M. Taylor Jr. “Titan plans to move the assets and should be in production within 30 days and able to fill orders for customers,” he reports.
“Overall, I believe it was a good investment for Titan,” observes Taylor, noting that “it will lead to exposure to new customers and drive sales of other Titan product.”
Walter Denman was at the top of his profession as a mechanical and electrical engineer when he founded the firm following a series of associations with the Diamond Rubber Co., the B.F. Goodrich Co. and the Miller Rubber Co. Granted more than a dozen patents during his lifetime, Denman was instrumental in perfecting the first natural cord tire.
In recent years the company had struggled to maintain financial viability as executives sought to refinance its debt or find a buyer. The fate of its shuttered buildings in the Ohio communities of Braceville and Austintown remains unclear.
For more information, visit www.titan-intl.com.
