Ohio city hopes to land Kenda tech center

By Chris Sweeney, Crain News Service

GREEN, Ohio (Feb. 13, 2015)  —  Green City Council approved legislation recently that would clear the way for American Kenda Rubber Industrial Co. Ltd. to establish its operations within the city, about eight miles south of Akron.

Reynoldsburg, Ohio-based Kenda declined to comment on the resolution. The firm, a subsidiary of Taiwan's Kenda Rubber Industrial Co., announced plans in April 2014 for an Akron-area R&D center.

It set up temporary R&D operations last year on the premises of Martin Wheel Co., an affiliated company, in Tallmadge, Ohio.

The resolution, passed Jan. 13, said Kenda plans to hire about 45 permanent full-time employees with an annual payroll of about $4 million.

In the resolution, City Council authorized the execution of the Municipal Economic Development Grant Agreement because Kenda “is qualified by its financial responsibility and business experience to preserve employment opportunities and to improve the economic climate of the City of Green.”

Under the grant agreement in Green, Kenda must create 42 permanent full-time employees with a payroll of about $4 million by the end of 2019 and maintain those levels through 2021.

The resolution outlined employment and payroll targets through the next four tax years:

• 2015 — 17 full-time employees at a $1.54 million payroll investment;
• 2016 — 22 full-time employees at a $2 million payroll investment;
• 2017 — 28 full-time employees at a $2.55 million payroll investment; and
• 2018 — 42 full-time employees at a $3.48 million payroll investment.

The City of Green will reimburse 50 percent of Kenda's payroll withholding taxes if it meets the job creation and payroll investment targets outlined in the resolution.

In a 2014 interview, Tom Williams, vice president of engineering at Kenda, said expansion is on the horizon for the Akron area.

“We're not going to stay small in Akron. We're going to put more capability in place,” Mr. Williams said. “The only question is whether we want to do it jointly with Martin Wheel or independently.”

American Kenda is a subsidiary of Kenda Rubber Industrial Co. and focuses on bicycle, industrial product, wheelchair and motorcycle tires. The firm has been branching out into the passenger car radial, light truck radial, and truck and bus radial tire markets in the last few years, which is the primary reason for the company's added investment in R&D worldwide.

Based in Yuanlin, Taiwan, Kenda reported tire sales of about $1.1 billion in 2013, placing it 28th in Tire Business' 2014 Global Tire Report ranking of the 75 largest tire makers.

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This report appeared on the website of Rubber & Plastics News, an Akron-based sister publication of Tire Business.