Gossco Retreading, a retreader since 1936, is phasing out passenger retreading and relocating its remaining light and medium truck tire retreading capacity to a new facility.
``The market's gotten too small and the process too expensive,'' said Gossco President Sally Goss about her decision to end passenger retreading.
The firm, now independent of nearby Goss Tire Co., is moving to a new building this summer that will be about a third the size of the existing 100-year-old structure, Ms. Goss said.
``Moving to a smaller, purpose-built plant should help us save quite a bit on overhead,'' she said. The space needed to do passenger retreading made it cost-prohibitive, she added. As recently as 1999, Gossco sold 20,000 passenger retreads, 80 percent of which were snow tire treads.
Production at the new plant should start at about what the company is doing now, Ms. Goss said, or 40 to 50 medium truck and 30 to 40 light truck tires a day. She did not say what the move will cost.
The firm uses Oliver Rubber Co.'s MegaMile tread rubber for its medium truck tires and the mold-cure process for its light truck tires.