Superior Tire & Rubber Corp. is celebrating fifty years in business. The Warren, Pa., company manufacturers solid industrial tires, wheels and polyurethane and rubber industrial components for the material handling, construction, agricultural, military and mining industries.
The company serves the aftermarket with material handling and agricultural specialty tires through distribution locations in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Superior Tire was founded as a tire retailer, re-capper, and molder of solid industrial rubber tires. In 1974, Henri LeMeur Sr. purchased the company and focused on manufacturing specialty industrial tires. An early success was tires for floor scrubbers and sweepers where wet traction, chemical resistance, and high load carry capability necessitated specialty compounds.
In 1994, leadership of the company transitioned to Henri LeMeur Jr., who became CEO and president.
Today, Superior Tire has two manufacturing facilities, a technical center, and is a third factory is in the planning stages. The company generates 200 new products per year incorporating high performance polyurethane and rubber compounds, some of which are based on new patents.
Superior Tire grew through the out-sourcing era from 1994 through 2004 when most competitors and many customers moved production to China and the “China price” became everything, according to LeMeur. During this period “we lost our number one customer four different times which includes one situation when we even “won” a customer’s reverse auction,” LeMeur says.
Since 2004, Superior Tire’s sales have more than doubled and the company has been able to attract a talented core of young professionals committed to the rubber industry. Superior Tire says it is confident growth will accelerate through the end of the decade.
For more information about the company and its products, visit http://www.superiortire.com/
