GreenMan Technologies Inc. has agreed to be the sole producer of roofing shingles made from scrap tires for U.S. Century L.L.C. of San Antonio, Texas.
The tire recycler's newly acquired Azusa, Calif., facility will produce the shingles for U.S. Century, which will market the shingles to areas in the South and Midwest that see hail damage to roofs, according to Chuck Coppa, chief financial officer for GreenMan. GreenMan is installing the first production line and should be ready to manufacture the product in early October, Mr. Coppa said.
U.S. Century has developed a patented ``hail proof'' shingles product called FlexShake which is stamped from the tread of scrap tires, then coated and granulated to have a ``slate look.'' FlexShake shingles provide the resilience of a tire with more insulation value than traditional asphalt roofing products, according to GreenMan.
``Our agreement with U.S. Century establishes the first of what we anticipate to be multiple shingle production lines located throughout the country at other GreenMan locations in order to meet the projected demand for FlexShake,'' said Bob Davis, GreenMan CEO, in a prepared statement. ``We anticipate each FlexShake shingle production line to generate about $1 million per year in revenue.''
David Nowacek, managing partner for U.S. Century, said the company has been developing its shingle product for several years and had no interest in entering the scrap tire business.
Mr. Davis said the agreement with U.S. Century underscores GreenMan's goal to to recycle more than 90 percent of each tire and ``realize value from almost all components of a tire.'' Interviewed by Tire Business, Mr. Coppa said that after GreenMan stamps out seven or eight shingles from a sidewall, the carcass of the tire then is shredded to make tire-derived fuel for GreenMan's other customers.
``It gets back to that philosophy of the cow comes in and you make some hamburger and some sirloin,'' he said.
Depending on demand for FlexShake, Mr. Coppa said GreenMan could have five to 10 production lines stamping shingles in the next two years, some of which would be located in other GreenMan facilities.
GreenMan has six locations that supply scrap tires to cement companies, Mr. Coppa said. The firm processes more than 30 million tires per year and expects to post $25 million in revenues for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.