The retreading in-dustry in the U.S. consists of 597 companies employing 8,083 workers generating $1.29 billion in goods, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2002 Economic Census, the latest in the bureau's series of five-year updates.
Based on these data, the average retread establishment em-ployed 15 and generated $2.15 million in sales. The bulk of the companies (219) had one to four employees; 128, or 21.4 percent, had 20 or more employees, while five employed 100 or more.
The Census data show retreaders paid $133.3 million in wages/benefits, or slightly more than $300,000 per employee. Broken down further, wages paid to 5,011 production workers were $133.3 million, or roughly $265,000 per employee.
Geographically, 54 of the firms were in California, 50 in Texas and 28 in Ohio.
The Census Bureau report shows retreaders bought $477 million worth of materials during 2002, with tread rubber accounting for $206.3 million, or 43.2 percent. Casing purchases were $34.2 million.
Capital spending during 2002 amounted to $39 million, the bulk of which was for new and used equipment and machinery.