Kenda Tire has officially opened its new Martin Wheel manufacturing facility in Kent, Ohio. The Kenda Martin Wheel plant gives the company more capacity to produce steel wheels and completed tire-and-wheel assemblies for original-equipment and aftermarket customers.
The 193,000-square-foot facility replaces Martin Wheel’s older Tallmadge operation, where decades of additions, limited dock access, low ceilings and a constrained layout had made it increasingly difficult to support the company’s growth. At the new plant, manufacturing, quality control, warehousing, assembly, packaging and shipping are connected under one roof.
For Martin Wheel’s customers, the investment is designed to translate into greater product availability, a broader range of sizes and configurations, more consistent quality and faster movement through the plant. Kenda Chairman Jimmy Yang said the facility gives Martin Wheel the ability to pursue more business without immediately running into the space and production limits that shaped its former operation…