Chairman and CEO, Maurice M. Taylor comments, "Titan continues to execute our business strategy through acquisitions and product innovation. Titan is making the focused investments needed to deliver the long term growth opportunities to the company. Titan is planning to close on the purchase of Voltyre-Prom, which is the leading producer of agricultural and industrial tires in Russia, no later than September 1, 2013.
This acquisition will increase our international footprint and be Titan's base for other acquisitions in the CIS region. The South American farm tire market is getting stronger for Titan and we look to establish wheel manufacturing in the region to complement the tire offering in the coming year. Along with these strategic moves, we continue to tighten costs across the company.
"As a result of acquisitions, Titan will see record revenue in the second half of 2013. If the markets remain as they are, Titan will continue its growth similar to the last few years. As we grow the business, there has been a learning process involved in Titan's young management team, but they are improving each month. There is still work to be done to reduce our SG&A under 7 percent and we continue our efforts to lower these costs.
"Titan's primary business is farm tires and wheels where volume has remained strong. Titan has been building the Goodyear farm tire brand since 2006 as represented by our leading market share in North America. We believe that this American brand will allow Titan to gain greater market share in the coming years although, the construction market continues to show signs of weakness.
"There has been a negative impact on pricing in all our markets due to raw material price decreases passed along to our customers along with excess supply of product," Taylor concluded.