OAKLAND PARK, Fla. (May 2, 2007) — Tesco of America Inc. has sold its Trent Rubber specialty tube and envelope manufacturing division to an unnamed company based in Angola.
Daniel Zeledon, who is a business partner in Tesco with his father Claudio Zeledon, said the buyer—whom he declined to identify—will produce rubber tubes in Africa.
“With the cost of raw materials escalating and even some raw materials on allocation, we felt that the time frame of profits to be earned compared to the profits in selling after a few months of negotiations was highly beneficial,” Daniel Zeledon said in a statement.
The continued loss of manufacturing in North America is “really a shame,” he noted. By selling the rubber business, the company was able to make a profit in a short period of time that otherwise would have taken five to 10 years to attain.
The decision to sell the rubber division will allow the company to focus on future business expansion such as a larger Fort Lauderdale, Fla., warehouse and new product lines and retread molds, he added.
The existing 250,000-sq.-ft. Trent Rubber plant in Lindsay, Ontario, had ceased production in early 2007 and will soon be demolished to make room for a neighborhood development, Tesco said. Equipment was moved to a new facility in Lindsay and was in the process of being refurbished when the offer was made, Mr. Zeledon said.
Mr. Zeledon said the future of the new Lindsay facility is uncertain. However, he said he will retain the facility for the next year with the possibility it will become a Tesco distribution center for Canada. Although manufacturing is expected to take place in Africa, Mr. Zeledon said the Angola company could utilize the Lindsay facility.
“(The Angola company's) statements have been that they were going to move to Africa, but that may change because of all the (former Trent Rubber) employees,” Mr. Zeledon said. “Trent Rubber had people that worked there for 30 years that had the product knowledge on how to manufacture.”
The former Trent Rubber plant, which had 375 employees, manufactured specialty tubes, precured envelopes, mold cure tubes, flaps, aircraft tubes, antique tubes and truck tubes.
Tesco will retain the trademarked brand of SuperCure retread envelopes and precure and mold cure retread molds as well as its compounding, and said it will “farm out the production in the very near future.” The Angola company will manufacture the tubes and envelopes for Tesco via its trademarked molds and compounding.
The Oakland Park-based company, which has been in business for more than 18 years, purchased the assets of Trent Rubber in 2005 after Trent had filed for bankruptcy. Tesco supplies retread, tire and automotive equipment to both U.S. and international markets and is the exclusive U.S. importer of Simpes Faip HPA tire balancers and tire changers from Italy.