Titan International at Wells Fargo Conference: Navigating Challenges with Innovation

On Tuesday, 10 June 2025, Titan International (NYSE:TWI) shared its strategic insights at the Wells Fargo Industrials & Materials Conference 2025. The company, represented by CEO Paul Reitz and Chief Accounting Officer Tony Ahele, discussed both the challenges and opportunities it faces. While Titan navigates tariff uncertainties and a soft agriculture cycle, it remains optimistic due to its robust product offerings and strategic acquisitions.

Key Takeaways

• Titan International is leveraging its differentiated product offerings and strong aftermarket business to mitigate market challenges.
• The company is optimistic about long-term growth, despite current high interest rates affecting dealer inventory, especially in agriculture.
• Strategic priorities include expanding the product portfolio, geographical footprint, and partnerships, with a focus on innovation and debt reduction.
• The Karlstar acquisition and Goodyear brand license renewal are key elements in Titan’s strategy to broaden its market reach and product offerings.
• Titan’s focus on aftermarket sales is boosting margins and strengthening customer relationships.

Company Overview and Competitive Advantages

Titan International is a leading manufacturer of wheels, tires, and steel tracks for the agriculture, construction, and consumer industries. The company distinguishes itself through its commitment to product customization and a deep understanding of end-user applications, creating a niche that is difficult for competitors to penetrate.

Tariffs and Q2 Performance

• Long-term, tariffs are seen as beneficial for Titan, helping to address market imbalances.
• The Karlstar acquisition, including a facility in China, positions Titan to compete in low-cost segments.
• Q2 performance is expected to align with expectations for revenue, gross margins, and EBITDA, with adjusted EPS remaining strong.

Market Conditions and Segment Performance

• The agriculture sector is nearing the end of its downturn, but high interest rates are impacting dealer inventory levels.
• Globally, the mining aftermarket business is stable, while European construction has paused due to uncertainties.
• The consumer segment, driven by aftermarket sales, remains resilient against economic concerns.

Goodyear Brand License and Karlstar Acquisition

• Titan renewed its brand license with Goodyear, expanding into light construction and other segments.
• The Karlstar acquisition has met expectations, aside from tariff impacts, and is creating a one-stop shop for customers.
• Cost synergies have been achieved, and commercial synergies are being pursued in Brazil and Europe.

Innovation and Aftermarket Business

• Innovation is central to Titan’s culture, with products like run-flat tires and cushioned wheel designs enhancing value.
• LSW tires are a notable innovation, offering significant savings and yield improvements for farmers.
• Aftermarket sales, now nearly 45% of total sales, enhance margins and customer connections.

Growth Priorities, Capital Allocation, and South America

• Titan aims to expand its product portfolio, geographical reach, and partnerships to minimize capital investment needs.
• Priority for capital allocation is debt reduction, with a focus on strategic growth opportunities.
• The Brazilian market is vital, with business doubling since the 2011 Goodyear acquisition, despite currency impacts.

For a detailed understanding of Titan International’s strategic direction, refer to the full transcript below.

Full transcript - Wells Fargo Industrials & Materials Conference 2025:

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: right. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Wells Fargo Industrial Materials Conference. I’m Ed Braganci with Wells Fargo Securities. I’m joined by Paul Reitz, CEO of Titan International and Tony Ahele, Chief Accounting Officer.

For those in the audience who may not be familiar with Titan, Paul, could you provide a brief overview of the company and what Titan does? Yes.

Tony Ahele, Chief Accounting Officer, Titan International: So we are a leading manufacturer of wheels, tires and steel tracks on the carriage equipment in the agriculture, construction and consumer industries. So we manufacture products that move really cool, nice equipment. We if you think about wheels and tires that of our product that grow into our customers, I mean, you’re looking at the small size to the large sizes. And these are all off the road, so we don’t do passenger tires. But these are unique products, which we partner with OEMs to design some of these products.

And then we also sell through aftermarket as well. We’re a global company with presence in The Americas, North America, South America and Europe. All around the world, we sell our products. And we have very good quite a few manufacturing facilities around the world in various countries as well.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: Great. Why do customers choose Titan? And what do you think is differentiated about your company

Paul Reitz, CEO, Titan International: product? Well, like Tony said, our products go on cool equipment, all right? So we may not be cool. You think about the value of that equipment, how important that equipment is, I mean, we design products that make equipment perform better. So because this is all we do.

And some of our competitors are parts of they’re a smaller division of a much larger company. During cycles, you know where that answer goes on how they invest. Whereas Titan, we’ve been committed and dedicated to this industry for four decades, public for three decades, and we connect to the end user better than anybody else in our space. And so that’s step one. We understand not our products, wheels, tires, undercarriage, we know that, but we know how that interface is between that cool equipment and the application that, that equipment is serving.

And so that’s step one. I mean step two, and this is more of a nuance to our industry, But if you look at those customers we serve, they come in all different colors and forms and shapes and sizes of equipment. But it’s not just the shape or size of the equipment or the color that makes our niche somewhat protected. I know that’s a strong word to use with group investors, but I’m going to say our business is protected because when you’re in a niche business that’s cyclical and you have products that are highly specialized custom designed products that require investments in tooling. Now in the financials like times like this, you’re going to see the results of the cycle of the market, but the reality is our products are incredibly important to the customers we serve.

And they’re not easily replaceable because of the investment in the engineering that goes into not just the production capabilities, but all the tooling required to manufacture what we do. And just keep in mind, every time you see a different piece of equipment, it’s a hub and an axle that requires a customized product that Titan can make.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: Got it. Turning to the broader macro picture, would you mind addressing the impact of tariffs on Titan?

Tony Ahele, Chief Accounting Officer, Titan International: Yes. So we’ve said this a few times, and I’ll say it here again that in the long term, tariffs are positive for Titan. So when you think about the ideal tariffs to create that level playing field, to solve a situation where there’s imbalance, tariffs are good for Titan. We have facilities in The U. S.

Where we manufacture products that are sold in The U. S. So when you think when we think of foreign competition, which is a lot of who we have to deal with, it is positive for us in the long term to have well planned out tariffs that are put in place. So we look at it as being positive. Now we also have a facility in China, which I would say, which it helps us that came on board with the Costa acquisition.

And the purpose of that really is it allows us play in a niche space, in a market where low cost matters. And so we have that facility there. And so even with the tariffs, as long as the tariffs are reasonable, you don’t have the 100 plus percent retaliatory tariffs. It is still positive for us. We’re in a good position because we have enough facilities to be able to determine where to optimally produce various products.

And where we decide to keep products in China, it’s because we know that we are still ahead of the competition doing that or at least can match the competition in those areas.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: Got it. Just following up on that, since you last reported in early May, how is Q2 shaping up? I know only a few weeks left.

Tony Ahele, Chief Accounting Officer, Titan International: Yes. We all know what’s been happening with the tariffs and the uncertainties and the pause in investments. But we’re glad to say that Q2 is shaping up within our expectations. And when we think about our key metrics, be it top line, gross margins, EBITDA, it’s shaping up within our expectations. Now we do not typically give guidance on EPS, given how variable that could be because of taxes and where profits are foreign versus domestic.

However, I’ll say that in terms of the adjusted EPS, we’d expect it to be somewhere in line with the high rates just as we saw in Q1. And that’s really because with the ad trough that we are seeing with an ad markets being primarily U. S, A big piece of it, we have losses there and then the profits are sitting in other parts of the world. So that would obviously create a high tax rate relative to the taxable profit. Similar to what we saw in Q1 is what we would expect in that regard.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: Got it. And then you touched on the ag cycle, but what are you seeing in terms of the evolution? Are we close to a bottom?

Paul Reitz, CEO, Titan International: We’re getting there. We’re getting there. Cycles are never pleasant, and they’re even less pleasant in the ag space. But they do have a tail on them, and we feel like it’s getting near the end of the tail. I think there’s a lot of reasons why you could point to that being the case.

But I think one thing key element I want to touch on though is what’s made this cycle different than some of the other ones is the impact of interest rates on inventory. And there’s this expectation, and I’m not saying this within in this room, but a lot of our business is served by folks that are dealing with Main Street type customers. And so these dealers in Main Street USA have this strong belief that rates are too high, significantly too high. And it’s just a matter of time before they get back down to something that is much lower. And so when they see their floor pan financing coming in at 7%, 8%, they look at it as an expense that is just out of line, ridiculous, and I got to find a way to reduce inventory and reduce that expense.

And we’ve seen the impact of that coming from not really the tariffs, but really as we were in the middle of the the middle to the tail end of the downturn, the expectations were that the uplift was coming. The tariffs have put a pause on that, and not just ag, but just about everything that exists in this planet at this point. But that’s where also this financing concern really has been highlighted this year. I can’t tell you how many dealers I’ve talked to said, look, interest rates are too high. I’m not paying that.

Inventory has got to come down. Now the reverse we’re starting to see, answering your question about where we think we are in the cycle, is we have some customers who are now coming to us saying inventory is too low. I’m not comfortable. I can’t run the race by training for a week. I need to be prepared for that race.

In order to do that, I got to start building back my inventory. And so we are seeing pockets of customers who now come to us and said, inventory is too low. I want to plan on how I can build that back. But I think these interest rates have had a bigger impact on, again, the dealer landscape of kind of Main Street USA, where they just they have the belief still that Powell sets the interest rate, that it’s not set in any way by market influences, that it’s a number that’s assigned by the Fed. And once the Fed lowers rates, it’s going to come down significantly.

So I think we’ve to get over that hurdle. It’s coming. But we’ve seen it more in our business because, again, it’s that impact of the market being down with inventory correction on top of it that we’ve seen this year.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: Got it. If you wouldn’t mind addressing what you’re seeing also on the earthmoving side, the construction side as well as the consumer side, Titan is a lot more than just ag.

Paul Reitz, CEO, Titan International: Yes. Yes. That’s a good point. We love to talk about ag, a big focus of our company, but we have diversified into those segments. And earthmoving construction, I would say, is more looked at on a global basis for us.

Our strength isn’t necessarily here in The U. S. So globally, we’ve seen the mining activity continue and most of our mining business is going into the aftermarket. So that’s been holding up fairly well. The European side of construction is a part of the market where when The U.

S. Was starting to cycle down, U. S. Or excuse me, Europe was more muted and more moderated through a period of time. So there’s not a lot of room to fall, but we’ve seen the European construction some of our customers go, you know what, I just don’t know what the hell is going on in the world right now.

And we’ve seen a pause in Europe. And so I think that’s something else we’ve got to work through with the OEMs is they need to get some stability as to what’s going I mean, they’re kind of caught in the middle. They’re getting lobbied back and like a ball back and between China and The U. S. And so I think it’s one of the things we’ve seen here recently is just what’s going on with the European OEMs.

But we’ve done a pretty good job in that segment, again, diversifying, like I said, with the aftermarket in mining and construction. We do have a foundry in our earthmoving construction business. It makes us fairly unique. A lot of people like to just look at Caterpillar’s numbers and compare it to anything that’s earthmoving construction. But what’s unique in our business is we own a foundry in Spain, so we can customize aftermarket specific parts that go on mining equipment.

So whatever you need, much you’re talking about sand molds that we can cast, we can harden it, we can do whatever is needed to make a customized part. And so that helps kind of weatherproof us from some of the trends you would see in earthmoving construction that maybe just strictly an OEM would talk about. Consumer, the OEM and the consumer is very similar to ag and earthmoving construction. Probably different reasons why they’re on pause, but they’ve definitely been on pause. But that business, again, us is more aftermarket driven, kind of sixty-forty split aftermarket versus OEM.

And the products we serve for consumer, this is not on road truck, bus, passenger type vehicles. This is off road. This is the fun stuff. These are the trailers that pull your boats and your recreational equipment. This is high speed power equipment, turf, utility vehicles like Polaris Rangers.

I mean so this is the you’re not going to stop using your boat because you’re frustrated with the economy. You’re going go use your boat. And so the aftermarket part of our business, again, is a good strong focus for us. The OEMs are on pause just like everything else.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: Got it. You recently renewed your brand license with Goodyear, including an expansion into new segments like light construction, industrial, ATV, lawn and garden. Can you describe why you’re so excited about this new opportunity?

Paul Reitz, CEO, Titan International: We just got done negotiating that. So I’m going to borrow some language that they said about our relationships. Always want your partner to talk about your relationship more than you do. But Goodyear said this is a unique deal that they have with us. I mean you think about we not only have pretty much owned their brands for the last two decades.

We get no technical support. This is us representing their brand, but we bought their plants as well. And so this has got a long tenure to it. And for us, it was something that we always wanted to expand and really never had the volume to get their attention. But with the acquisition we did last year, we’re able to now as we’re going to the negotiations on this on the license that just got renewed, we said to them, look, we got tremendous opportunities.

You’ve trusted us with your brand in ag, why not let us grow it elsewhere? And so as you just said, we announced recently, we did expand the licenses rights into some new segments. What’s really the benefit of that is you walk into a customer anywhere, anywhere and you say, I got the Goodyear brand, it resonates immediately. And so for us, as we look to expand our footprint, both product and geographical, it’s an entry point conversation starter that is to none because Goodyear is one of the few global brands that exist in our space. And so I think there’s some great opportunities ahead with that.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: You touched on the Karlstar acquisition last year. Walk us through the strategy behind that and how you feel like it’s enhanced the franchise overall.

Tony Ahele, Chief Accounting Officer, Titan International: Yes. So when we did the Karlstar acquisition a little over a year ago, and this is just this is something where we want to create a one stop shop. When we think about the portfolio of products which we’re able to offer to our customers now, it’s way broader at this point. So I mean, that was a great positive for us. Looking back at what has happened over the last year, I mean, it’s been a great acquisition.

Everything has met expectations except the tariffs, which were not forecasted But outside of the tariffs, everything has met our expectations. The integration, the coming together of the two companies, the way people work together, they want to go to market, it is like you bring together two teams, two winning teams that want to win. They want to go out there. They want to take opportunities. They want to increase their market share, and we are doing that.

We think about our synergies, which we planned. And the cost synergies, we’ve been able to execute on all that, taking out costs in SG and A and various aspects of the business. We’ve negotiated supply contracts, which we will begin to see a lot of that come through once the markets begin to come back and the volumes increase with much more benefit falling through. And then we’re executing on our commercial synergies as well. There’s a lot of opportunity out there in the marketplace, in Brazil, in Europe, where we can take Calstar products using the Titan, the existing Titan sales structure we have out there and go take market share, bring products to the market.

And Paul touched on the Goodyear license. That’s something new, where we’re going to have the Goodyear license on caster products. So a lot of opportunity out there for us.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: That’s great. As part of the acquisition, gained a significant shareholder in American Industrial Partners. At this stage, what can you share about how they think about their investment in Titan?

Paul Reitz, CEO, Titan International: I mean I just found them a few weeks ago when I was out in New York. I mean they own 38 industrial companies right now, long history. So we knew AIP well before we got into dialogue with the CarlStar acquisition. There’s a well known space when it comes to any type industrial company. And so for me, they don’t necessarily know a lot about our space.

They ran a really good company, created a nice platform for us, but they’ve been very hands off since then. They have other companies portfolio companies that they’re involved with. But for me, the advantage is they make stuff, we make stuff. There has to be similarities in how we make stuff. The stuff we’re putting into our products have to be similar to somewhere what you’re doing.

And so what I was talking to him about a few weeks ago is how do we explore those synergies and those opportunities where together, we got to find a way we can do something better. And so every private equity firm is different in how they structure things. And they did have an operational person that was assigned to CarlStar, but that person has moved on to the next portfolio company. So really, I think it’s more broader synergies in the industrial landscape because that is what they do and that’s what they know. Understood.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: Titan has a history of innovation. Can you describe some of the key innovations and unique products the team has introduced to market?

Paul Reitz, CEO, Titan International: We have to innovate. That’s got to be our heartbeat, and this is what we do. So again, going back to what I said earlier, mean, the bigger companies have other things they can go make. We got to be really good at doing this. And our innovations have been continuous.

One thing we have said say here, I’ll say it to the Board meeting the Board again tomorrow, we always will continue to invest in the future through our product development. We are the most connected to the end user using that piece of equipment than anybody in our space. We’re not going to lose that advantage. We will continue to do that. And what that does then is it helps drive innovation.

So it’s really at the root of the culture of our company. Makes it interesting, I’m biased obviously, but makes it a pretty damn good place to work when your product is driving your culture versus the slogans you put up on the wall. And again, what we do, like Tony said at the beginning, is cool. Go watch a video of a construction piece of equipment in action, an excavator. You’re going to be fascinated.

I dare you to watch it for less than ten seconds. You’re going to watch it more than that. But what happens, so what we do is we take our videos and we use that kind of that social media platform that is maybe something I don’t know a lot about, but that’s how you connect to people. And we take our products and they become a connection to the marketplace, to the end users. And so what we can do that’s different than the competition, we can do the standard stuff like we know how to design wheels, tires and track.

We’re doing some cool things. We’re making run flats on outdoor power equipment. So you drive like a wild person, get out of control, hit a rock, got a flat tire, guess what? Our tire is not going to go flat. We’re going to get you back home safely to your family.

So things innovation like that, we constantly keep coming up with how we design the wheels so they can provide a more cushioned, comfortable ride, how our undercarriages can interact with the information that now RFD and technology sensors can provide to the end user of that equipment. But I think one of the coolest things we do is because we manufacture wheels and tires. We’re the only company that does this in our space. Just imagine a tire. I’m six foot six.

Imagine a tire that’s almost as tall as me. All right, pretty damn close. And it’s five feet wide. That’s what we put on tractors now. What that does is it provides all the nice comfortable ride that you could possibly imagine or want, but that is not how we sell.

That is the basics of what but what we provide to our end users is ROI. So when you use a tire that wide, it reduces the soil compaction. Therefore, you’re protecting your land. It reduces the amount of fuel required to run your tractor. So now you’re getting immediate fuel savings.

It improves the yields. So not only does it float across the surface to protect the land, it doesn’t pinch the seeds, reducing your yields. So you get improved yields. And one of the things we just learned recently that’s perfect for a smaller farmer. So if you imagine a small farmer has to navigate through some terrain, every time you turn your tractor, that additional weight, these tractors are so large, it puts weight into the ground that compacts the soil, compacts the seed, like I was saying earlier, but even more so when you turn.

With an LSW, you get 30% more yield every time you turn the tractor. Think about that. Every time you turn a tractor, you now get 30% improvement in the yield by using our products. And so it’s that type of innovation that we keep connecting to the marketplace. Again, we can do things that provide comfort.

That’s going on in everything. It goes on in the SUVs that we drive. But what we’re bringing in the marketplace, because we understand the end users and how they use that equipment and how that equipment interfaces with the ground, we’re developing technology that provides ROI and puts money in their pocket.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: Potentially underappreciated area of the business is your strength in aftermarket, now almost 45% of your sales. Can you discuss your strategy and positioning in that channel?

Tony Ahele, Chief Accounting Officer, Titan International: Yes. So this is it’s a big area for us. And when we think about where we’ve been in the past, growing the business, the aftermarket business from 25%, maybe ten, fifteen years ago to where it is, we have 45%. It’s significant to us. And when we look at that, it’s also coming with margins, right?

And so that’s an area where we’ve always continued to focus on because, one, it creates the better margins for us. But also, if we think about cycles, right, it’s a different it doesn’t go with the out cycle directly. Now we are in a unique situation today with interest rate, tariffs and everything going on right now. But in a normal out cycle, you wouldn’t be talking consumer market consumer business there because it will just be going on its own on a different pace. So these are the advantages we see in that.

And we continue to invest in that because also the other thing it does is it connects us directly to our customers, the end users of our products. Because that’s the way we’ve driven innovation. We go to the farmers. We have conversations with the farmers. We know what works for them, and we drive innovation that way.

And so our aftermarket business is a very key component of our business in that sense as well because that also provides that connection, that servicing the support the farmers need to keep their equipment running. The aftermarket business provides that.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: It’s never too soon to be thinking about growth. What are your priorities in the near to medium term?

Paul Reitz, CEO, Titan International: Continue to fill in the cracks that may exist in our product portfolio, expand that geographical footprint, continue to do what we’re doing, but go on a broader global scale. And I think we have opportunity in front of us because what we what the acquisition did last year is it really truly gave us a capability that is so far above the competition, meaning we can make as Tony said at the beginning, we can make the smallest tires and wheels that go on your golf cart, and we even can make the largest that goes on the biggest equipment in the world. And to be able to go to our customers and have that leverage to say, we do everything. And going back to something we mentioned earlier, the fact that quite a few pieces of what quite a few products that we make are highly specialized engineered to that particular customer and that particular piece of equipment means that with a broad product portfolio, incredible manufacturing capabilities that are geographically located near where our customer is at. So we’re providing a risk mitigation level that nobody can come close to.

And risk mitigation with what’s going on with the chaos and kind of geopolitics in the land of tariffs right now is becoming more and more important, and that falls right into our hands. So like Tony said earlier about the advantages of tariffs, there’s the dollars and the cents and the things you can put on a piece of paper, but it’s more that broader scope look that supply chain and customers are now taking to say, look, we got to worry about risk mitigation. That’s perfect where Titan is at. And so, so many opportunities on how we can continue to grow within the portfolio geographically, but also how we work with other partners. We are the desirable company to work with because of our distribution footprint and everything I just talked about.

I won’t repeat it. So we’re finding ways that we can, without as much capital investment, grow this business into parts that we currently aren’t in.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: With respect to capital allocation, could you discuss your current priorities there?

Tony Ahele, Chief Accounting Officer, Titan International: Yes. Our main priority for capital allocation will be paying down debt. And if we just take a look, fifteen months ago, we acquired Calstar. We took on a little more debt then to acquire Calstar. It’s something we had worked on to be able to do over the years.

And so that was a good thing with it. And looking back, we made the right decision on that. We’ve also repurchased stock from shareholders, including the major one we did in October. Those were all things we have done. But we were able to do those because we strengthened our balance prior to them.

And so our focus now is paying down the revolver and making sure we’re in a good spot to take on the next opportunity that comes.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: Got it. How significant is Titan’s business in South America?

Paul Reitz, CEO, Titan International: Do you

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: think this geography is misunderstood in your view?

Paul Reitz, CEO, Titan International: Yeah, it is. In fact, were just talking with in one of our last investor meetings we had before coming here, it’s misunderstood because the real is so weak. I mean, the Brazilian agriculture economy is huge, and its importance to the global landscape is tremendous. And that’s why you see China playing off Argentina and Brazil in these crazy ways because guess what? They can.

Brazil and Argentina are really powerful in some important areas in mining and agriculture. But the weak real, when we kind of folded in the results here in The U. S, it just gets buried too much. And so very important market for us. I mean, business has actually doubled since we acquired it in 2011 from Goodyear.

We got incredible market share down there, but the real has also gone from BRL 160 to BRL six. So it’s hard for me to convince you of that when it doesn’t show up in the numbers. But Brazil is important, and it’s becoming more important because of what’s going on with China and The U. S. We got to be real careful with one.

It’s like the old saying is don’t walk into the bar and think you’re the toughest person in the world, because once you get hit in the back of the head, you’re going to feel it. And at times, with this whole battle that’s going on, we’re forgetting the fact that Brazil and Argentina are very powerful in the land of soybeans. And a lot of these grains are incredibly important to things that we don’t think about. People think of corn as the stuff that you buy and eat on the corn on the cob or out of a can from the grocery store. That’s not corn.

That stuff you see in the fields when you’re driving down the road, that is you don’t eat that corn. If you did, you’d probably lose multiple teeth, just fall right out of your mouth. That corn goes into food production. There is not a government in the world that’s not worried about food production, food production and taking care of their society. And that’s where we got to be careful about again, I think too much corn is thought of corn is thought of potato chips and corn on the cob and things like that.

It’s not. Your entire food supply is driven by that corn that you see in the fields. And there’s some countries in the world. Brazil is growing tremendously and getting stronger. Argentina has kind of figured out politics and economics a little bit more so than they have in a while.

And so if we think we can just go fight with China and we’re going to win in that space, we’ve got to be Trump knows that, too. He’s got smart people telling him those things.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: Before we open to the audience for questions, any final thoughts you want investors to know about Titan?

Tony Ahele, Chief Accounting Officer, Titan International: I’ll just say that we, as a company, we look at where we are today. And we believe the work we’ve done over the last few years have set us up well, that we’ve been able to navigate this trough to be where we are today. We are properly positioned for the recovery that comes. And we believe there’s a lot of upside once the recovery comes.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: Any questions in the audience?

Paul Reitz, CEO, Titan International: Yeah, it’s interesting. The one I was just telling you about, tractors turn, that was data that was given to us. And so we don’t really have good access to the data coming directly. But I don’t there’s a whole battle with deer and who owns the data. But where we get access is farmers are good business people.

And when times are tight, they’re looking at every cost very closely and they track it. So we had a group of farmers that was tracking the performance of LSW for us because he was doing some contract farming. And he was doing it from some smaller plots of land. And he’s the one who came to us and said, you know what I found is every time I turn this piece of equipment, your LSWs are saving me 30% and improving my yield by 30% and your input costs going down by that. So the data can be very beneficial in a lot of ways.

And that’s why I keep referencing, and I’ll say it again to our Board, is why we got to stay connected to the end users because the end users are only getting smarter and smarter because of the data. And if we’re just focused on designing products within our own four walls, that’s not what we should be doing. We should be listening to what they need and figuring out where they’re going. And so we’ve done a good job with that. And again, even that recent example, that came from the Farmers data.

So now what we’re doing, we’re still trying to get caught up is how do we now market at that, how do we provide that ROI calculator that if you’re a farmer that maybe doesn’t have access to all that data, we can help you utilize the data that we’ve got. You can do a calculator that says, okay, I have a 75 acre farm, this is what LSWs cost, this is what and provide that ROI and that return. And farmers are looking for every way they can to get smarter. And so the information is good, but it’s a little bit it’s like everything these days, it’s in so many different formats. It’s hard to so we’re very fortunate that we have some smart people that kind of pulled it together for us.

Tony Ahele, Chief Accounting Officer, Titan International: And one area we’re also trying to use data is in our construction business, IT and trust, where we have equipment, we’re able to monitor the performance of the steel tracks because we have devices on those. And we’re actually looking to we have begun actually. That’s an area we’re trying to grow in to see how we can get that data and monetize that data as well. So customers are signing up for it, but it’s still at the early stages.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: No subscription revenue coming anytime soon. Any other questions?

Paul Reitz, CEO, Titan International: Well, that comment was more specific to where I got the intelligence would be from dealers because the ag cycle the reason why I’m referencing ag with that is the ag cycle was deep, has been deep, but it was about to start turning the corner using forecasts using my intelligence that I got from our customers. If I go back to the tail end of last year, kind of third ish quarter, felt really confident about that statement. And then the election and then the tariff uncertainty brought in this pause. But what I learned once we got this pause is that how pissed off dealers are at interest rates. Not like you and I talking about it like, oh, they’re angry.

And the reason why is now the one, they’re getting they’re trying to have to manage this inventory level that’s kind of a falling knife trying to catch it, but also at the same time going, now my costs are just too high. And I feel it in their way that’s different. And so I’ve asked a lot of questions in meeting with some of the dealers that I know personally just to understand why is that. And they’re like, look, my business model isn’t set up for 7% interest costs, just like and so I need to reduce it. And they also believe that interest rates are coming down.

So I think it’s just a short term phase because eventually what’s going to happen as soon as they know the market’s picking back up, they’re going to want inventory again. We’re not as worried at Titan. Now Tony is because I’m telling him you got to manage working capital. But because of our product portfolio, we get more drop in orders than anybody else. So it’s not always a bad thing for our business because it shows the importance of Titan to our customers when we can fulfill their orders and others can’t.

But what we have to manage through as a company is we got to make sure we got the direct labor available. And so we’ve been short shifting weeks. We’ve been taking weeks out. And I’ve been saying to the marketplace, I’ve been saying to the Board, you don’t just hire, retrain and retain people easily in our business in this type of labor market. So we are ready to flex our business.

We have the product portfolio to meet it. We’ve been holding a little bit of extra working capital that he would like to get rid of, but to meet those drop in orders. So we’re going to get through this. But also what I’ve heard from we’ve seen from a couple of customers, and I just heard from one yesterday, when they feel like their inventory is too low, they panic. That’s why our business goes like this.

It’s always up and down because it’s they don’t want to miss an order. So we’re starting to see some customers panic going, I need more inventory. But I was a little bit surprised what I’ve learned this year, kind of paraphrasing what I’ve learned over the last two quarters, is just the impact of interest rates on their decision to hold inventory. Something I think I just overlook is interest rates are interest rates. You got to pay it.

But they just believe Main Street USA has a belief that interest rates aren’t going to come back down significantly. Whether it happens or not, I think a lot of us in the room would probably argue, probably Wells Fargo might give you a different opinion. I don’t think they’re coming down that significantly. But I think Main Street USA still believes that. So they’ll work through it.

They’ll work through But in the meantime, I mean, we just we had to modify how we manage our business a little bit this year.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: Time for one more.

Paul Reitz, CEO, Titan International: All right.

Ed Braganci, Analyst, Wells Fargo Securities: Thank you, everyone. Appreciate your time. Appreciate it.

Paul Reitz, CEO, Titan International: Thank you. Paul. Thank you,

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