New products and other elements will continue to power American Omni Trading Co.’s growth, says Chris Brackin, the company’s president.
MTD: How was the first half of 2024 for American Omni?
Brackin: We’ve had an interesting and exciting first half of 2024, to say the least. We started the year waiting for confirmation on the duties for Thailand-produced PCR and gauging the impact to the market in terms of pricing. We were also closely watching the impact of the TBR duty that was announced in May.
At the same time, we launched our two new flagship products for the Americus and Thunderer brands, complete with a multi-day customer experience to demonstrate the performance capabilities of these products, which we were happy to have MTD join!
We have also expanded and strengthened our manufacturing partnerships to diversify our sourcing and further enhance our product offerings to our customers. We were honored to be able to participate in Deestone’s 50th anniversary in May as our longest-tenured supply partner.
And lastly, we have experienced solid growth with a number of our customers year-to-date, as well as expanding our customer base with an aggressive business development approach.
MTD: What's your take on the state of U.S. consumer tire demand?
Brackin: For passenger and light truck, I think everyone agrees that overall it’s been a challenging market so far in 2024. A number of influencing factors have caused headwinds on the demand side that have clearly impacted the sell-in side. Add to that the current supply chain environment and we are finding that customers are being generally conservative in their approach to ordering and managing inventories.
The good news for AOT is that the majority of the growth this year has been in the value tier, where we are strongly represented and have picked up market share and shelf space with both existing and new customers.
We are seeing some good signs on the horizon relative to retail demand and are positioned to meet that demand as it likely ramps up in the back half of the year.
For TBR, 2024 has been exceptionally challenging. In addition to customer uncertainty prior to the announcement of the preliminary duty rates for Thailand-produced TBR, overall demand has been soft and inventories and order books are reflective of this current status.
Again, we are seeing some signs of things picking up as we move forward into the back half of 2024 and are ready to meet this demand with our strong lineup of brands and products in this category, including the re-introduction of our popular Omni Cargo brand in Q4 of this year.
MTD: American Omni continues to invest in - and expand - its product line-up, including the recent launch of the Thunderer Mach1 Plus and American Recon Tour. How have these products been received by your dealers and distributors?
Brackin: These two new products have been exceptionally well-received by our existing customers, as well as several new Americus and Thunderer customers who were attracted to these brands by the launch of the Mach 1 Plus and Recon Tour.
We will continue to proactively develop these lines moving forward to keep ahead of the growth sizes in the market and support our customers marketing efforts around our brands. We have some exciting additions to our brands that will be rolling out (during) the back half of this year and into 2025.
The team also launched a new S/T radial pattern that has been extremely well- received thus far by our customers.
MTD: Earlier this year, Tom Brackin, American Omni's CEO, told MTD that American Omni will be moving into other product segments. Can you give us a preview? And why is this effort important to American Omni's ongoing success?
Brackin: We already have an extremely robust assortment of products, from passenger to medium truck to specialty. However, there are some key segments that we are targeting for new products as they have grown in demand and also represent strong profit opportunities for our customers.
This fall, we will be launching a new radial UTV tire in higher rim diameter sizes to capture the booming market in these vehicles. There will be additional growth in the lawn and garden segment of our lineup as we look to enhance the current portfolio of products in the Deestone lineup.
The team is also focused on developing and introducing additional new product segments such as all-weather, EV and ultra-aggressive all-terrain and mud-terrain tires that will appeal to the growing community of enthusiasts that participate in these segments.
MTD: Tire importers are facing a variety of shipping challenges, including the high cost of freight. Is American Omni in a good supply position as the second half of 2024 begins? How would you describe your current fill-rate?
Brackin: The current ocean freight environment is challenging, as it is for all importers. However we are working hard to mitigate the impact on our customers through a variety of ways, including working with our manufacturing partners to push out product and leveraging our beefed-up domestic inventories to provide more immediate product supply. We have also partnered with our freight providers to develop additional creative ways to keep the flow of product moving to our customers.
Our supply commitments from our partner factories are strong and continue to grow. The concern is more on the extension of our historical lead times due to longer routing and securing container space in today’s shipping environment. It is our job to manage this with our customers to minimize the impact.
MTD: What can tire dealers and distributors expect to see from American Omni during the rest of the year and into next year?
Brackin: We will continue to aggressively monitor and manage the end-to-end supply chain to ensure that our products are consistently available, competitively priced and aligned with the market in terms of sizing and segments. This includes a potential expansion of our current domestic distribution footprint.
We’ll be continuing the expansion of our core brands, as well as introducing several exciting new product lines in key segments. Be on the lookout for another exciting launch from us around the AOT brand that the team and our ad agency have been hard at work on.
Looking into 2025, we will be celebrating our 35th anniversary, where we have multiple events to celebrate with our customers, suppliers and staff in appreciation of their support over the years.
