Magna Tyres to add manufacturing at Dutch plant

Waalwijk, Netherlands — OTR tire specialist Magna Tyres Group is adding manufacturing capacity for new tires at a retread plant in the Netherlands it acquired in late 2016.

Waalwijk-based Magna Tyres describes itself as a privately held manufacturer of OTR, industrial and truck tires, with manufacturing contracted out to tire makers in China and Taiwan, but its design and engineering staff is based in Europe.

A year ago Magna acquired OBO Tyres, a Dutch retreader specialized in agricultural and OTR tires and related repair services, with one factory in Hardenberg, Netherlands, a community of about 20,000 residents located 100 miles east of Amsterdam on the border with Germany.

Magna did not say at this time which types of new tires it will be producing at Hardenberg, but the company is planning a ribbon-cutting on Jan. 11, when it's expected to disclose more details.

OBO — the name is derived from its original name, Overijsselse Banden Onderneming — was founded in 1959 in Beerzerveld, Holland. It moved in 2006 to Hardenberg and later added a second location, in Leipzig, Germany.

Magna offers a diverse portfolio of solid and pneumatic tires for off-the-road applications, ranging from forklift and skid-steer tires to dozers and articulate dump trucks, along with agricultural and some over-the-road trucking.

Sizes range from 12-inch rim applications in the skid-steer/forklift category up to 57-inch diameters for construction equipment.

Magna has a sales company in Canada, Magna Tyres Canada Ltd., in Aurora, Ontario.