Yokohama TWS tire plant people talk about new name, latest news as Senior Center program

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

First it was Mitas Tires North America. Then it was Trelleborg Wheel Systems Americas. Now it’s Yokohama TWS North America Inc.

The names have changed but the Charles City factory continues doing what it has done since opening in 2012 – manufacturing tires, specifically tires for agriculture equipment.

The company today has a goal of having a greater community presence and doing more to tell its story, two local executives of the company said last week.

A week earlier they had made a presentation at a Lions Club weekly meeting, and last Thursday they were the morning program before lunch at the Charles City Senior Center.

Plant manager Dietrich Riedemann and human resources generalist Nikki Uhde talked about their journeys to the plant, a little bit of its history and where it’s at today.

Uhde said she’s been with the company for almost a year. Prior to Yokohama she was in human resources for Walmart. She said she’s lived in Charles City for almost 10 years and has two children.

Riedeman said he has been involved in manufacturing since leaving Bemidji, Minnesota, when he was 21 and moving to Arizona.

“I was a single guy for a long time and then I got reconnected with a friend that I knew growing up,” he said. They got married and he moved to Cedar Falls in 2017 where his now wife had been living, and he worked for John Deere.

“Then a recruiter called me about an opportunity here in Charles City, and I didn’t think anything of it because when they called me they said Mitas and I thought it was Midas. I thought, ‘mufflers?’ I was thinking mufflers and shocks, but no, it was the tire factory.”

He said he came for a look, liked what he saw and joined the team as the production manager.

“Then about two years later I got invited to be the plant manager and I happily accepted that, so it was a good move for me,” he said.

“It really depends on the folks that you have working there, and in Charles City it’s got one of the best teams I’ve ever worked with, here at the plant,” he said, “especially for some of the core people that were there when I started out and are still there.”

On May 2, the Charles City Trelleborg plant officially became part of Yokohama TWS North America Inc., he said.

Yokohama has its headquarters in Japan, and does about $6 billion (U.S.) annually in revenue.

The company is one of the global leaders in the tire industry and other rubber applications. Yokohama Rubber was the eighth largest tire manufacturer in the world, and when it acquired Trelleborg it became No. 6, he said, but it didn’t have a lot of business in the agricultural tire sector before the acquisition.

Riedemann asked the folks at the Senior Center who they thought the No. 1 manufacturer of tires in the world is, and people guessed names such as Goodrich and Goodyear.

Nope, he said. The answer is Lego.

“All these toys that they produce have tires on them,” he said. “They produce more tires than anybody else in the world. Tiny, but they’re considered tires. I didn’t know that, either.”

Regarding the ownership change, “what will change here for us in Charles City is nothing,” Riedemann said. “We are staying the same. Everything stays the same. The leadership stays the same. Our headquarters is in Italy, just outside of Rome. That has stayed the same. Our manufacturing portfolio, all that stuff has stayed the same.”

Riedemann talked a little about the tire manufacturing process, some of the equipment used at the plant and some of the new equipment that has or will be added.

He said the factory sits on 84 acres in the Southwest Industrial Park and has 4.6 acres under roof. The plant usually runs three shifts a day, five days a week, and has about 150 people on staff.

“The type of production that we do there is obviously agriculture tires,” he said. “Our products range anywhere from 24-inch to 54-inch tires.”

Interestingly, he said, despite the various name changes, about 95% of the tires manufactured at the plant are still sold under the Mitas brand name.

The biggest customer is John Deere, and the plant ships a lot of tires to Waterloo, he said, but he added, “we also ship around the world.”

The plant’s output has increased substantially since 2018 by streamlining the processes and putting people in the right positions.

“I’d say we’re really good at that,” he said. “We don’t give up on someone. If we hire them for something and it doesn’t work out we’ll move them somewhere else. Putting them in the right spot, putting them where their talents are, shows that we can produce more in less time”

Riedemann said Yokohama is investing in the Charles City plant, including various new pieces of equipment such as a dry ice machine that uses dry ice pellets instead of sand blasting to clean molds, robots and other big automation projects, extruder upgrades and more.

“It’s making our process better, but also safer for our folks,” he said.

The No. 1 priority at the plant is safety, Riedemann said.

“We want to make sure everyone who comes to work in our factory goes home every day – maybe tired, but that’s about it. We want them to go home feeling satisfied and we want them to know that we care about them and they have a safe work environment,” he said.

Uhde, the HR generalist, said the company is interested in increasing social engagement, and part of that is visiting places like the Senior Center.

“Part of my goal, when I took the role, was to become more involved within the city,” she said. “I knew about Trelleborg and Mitas a little bit. I barely knew where it was, … but I didn’t see much from them, and that was something that Dietrich and Nicole, who is my HR plant manager, we talked about, and we want to be more involved.”

Uhde said the plant sponsored teams with the city youth organizations, helped sponsor Party in the Park, has made contacts with the FFA and the Farm Bureau – “reaching out to the farmers who are buying our tires” – and wants to help organizations like the Senior Center with things they need.

“We want to be more involved in the city where we’re at, so we have a better relationship, so you guys know what’s going on and we’re able to work together,” she said. “We want to be more engaged on where we’re at.”

Both Riedemann and Uhde said they welcomed tours at the plant and would be happy to give them to anyone interested.