President & Chief Executive Officer, Titan Company Limited
PAUL REITZ - TITAN INTERNATIONAL
Paul Reitz joined the Titan in 2010 as Chief Financial Officer, became President in February 2014, and was named CEO effective in January 2017. Prior to joining Titan, he was the Chief Accounting Officer for Carmike Cinemas based in Columbus, Georgia. He has also held leadership positions with McLeodUSA Publishing, Yellow Book USA Inc., and Deloitte and Touche LLP.
About Paul Reitz
Paul Reitz, President and CEO of Titan International, has discussed the importance of connected teams and trust in leadership. In a June 2024 podcast appearance, he stated that "if you have a connected team you're gonna do much better than a much than a more disconnected team 100% of the time." He also emphasized learning from failure and taking feedback seriously, saying "the best achievement has been... when I've looked to invest in relationships and take every bit of the feedback that I'm given." Reitz has also spoken about Titan's operational resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the company "kept operational through the entire pandemic" and "didn't miss 20 days total." He has commented on the company's hybrid work model and its decision to move its headquarters from Quincy to St. Charles, Illinois, while maintaining operations in Quincy. Reitz expressed a desire for more recognition from state officials for keeping jobs in Illinois, stating "I wish the state would give us more credit for that." He has also discussed the need for strong supplier relationships, saying "the days of just kind of sitting at your desk... and everything just shows up are gone."
Transcript (32 segments)
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Bob Goff0:11
Welcome to Muddy River News this week, furnished by Harvey's. I'm Bob Goff. Paul Reitz is the man in charge at Titan International, and he's in here with us today. Of course, just got off a plane and made his way in here. Welcome. Thank you. Great to be here. Well, Paul, let's talk a little bit about the company. How did you... you've been CEO now for a bit. How have things been in the chair?
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Paul Reitz0:38
Well, the chair has always got a lot going on. There's not too many days where you just get to sit there quietly and kick your feet up on the table. But now things are going well. Really, really proud of what Titan's been able to accomplish. You know, we've had some moments that have been more difficult over the last five and a half years that I've been in the chair, but really proud how the teams responded. We've done a great job of getting through those challenges, overcoming them, and have hit some really key milestones with the company, with how we repositioned our balance sheet, with the growth we've experienced around the world. And we just put out our most recent 2021 earnings here recently, and just had an exceptional year with a good forecast for 2022. So.
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Bob Goff1:18
And talking about, you know, of course, Titan Wheel here in Quincy, but of course there's Titan Tire locations all over. Talk about how the company has kind of evolved over the last five years.
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Paul Reitz1:31
Yeah, no, you got a good point here. I mean, we're really proud of what we have here in Quincy, but we do only make wheels. Our company does also make tires. We make tires in three locations here in the U.S., plus a fourth that does the mixing of the rubber compounds. Then we have a tire plant down in Brazil, and then we got one in Russia that also makes tires. And then we also make, if you see the bulldozers out there or big excavators, we make the steel track. Primarily a lot of that goes into Europe. We do have a facility up in Wisconsin that makes some of that here in the U.S., and another one down in Brazil that makes the steel track. So it's a pretty diversified company. But from the perspective of how we've grown or what we've done, we've really been focusing on our core. So within those three products – undercarriage, the wheels, and the tires – we've continued to innovate. Something that our team does an exceptional job is continuing to put out high quality innovative products that makes equipment perform better. So if you look out there in farm fields, you see, like today flying into Quincy, saw the ground is really wet. It could be difficult for farmers. You have small windows for planting and harvesting. You need to be in the fields taking care of your business. We make something called the LSW, which the tires are ginormous, and with that you can pretty much handle any type of farming conditions that you experience. So because we make the wheel here in Quincy and we also make the tires at our locations in the U.S., we're able to sell those, and the only company in the world that can do that. So really what we have been doing is focusing on our core products and just continuing to get better at it.
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Bob Goff3:06
And you know, one of your facilities here in Quincy, the Locust, you actually produce those massive wheels, right? Correct. I mean, because you see it, you can just see that facility. It's like, how, you know, I've been inside there, but I guess it'd be pretty cool to kind of see those coming out in finished product.
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Paul Reitz3:21
Absolutely. That's something we love doing with our customers and our investors. We take them through our plants, and just to see the wheels coming together. And when you're bending and forming massive sheets of steel, and the end product is what we're able to produce. I mean, it's what our operators do that's impressive, but it's the combination of what we have with our R&D teams. Together, there's nobody in the business that's better than us. Of course, that Quincy facility's been around a long time as Electric Wheel, and then of course when Maury Taylor made the purchase and the conversion to Titan Wheel. And it's been one of Quincy's steadiest employers over the years.
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Bob Goff4:02
Why has, you know, and again in the state of Illinois it's a little tough to do business these days, but your dedication, the company's dedication to a key facility here in Quincy, what's led to that? Why have you said Quincy is a good place for us to do business?
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Paul Reitz4:19
It's always about people. We got a great workforce here. Before I came over here, I was walking around the plant for an hour and a half, and you just see the dedication they have, the commitment. That's what makes our products what they are – the people. And we're really proud of the workforce we have. Long history, to your point, we have a tremendously long history here in Quincy, and with that comes excellent experience and knowledge. And that's whenever you're moving thousands and thousands of pounds of steel, you really got to know what you're doing, both as an operator, you got to have that skill, all the way through our R&D team that designs it, and then really our teams that put together the tooling. I mean, a wheel, we all kind of take it for granted when we see it on a car, but when you're moving 400 horsepower pieces of equipment through tough conditions in the farm fields, where you not just have wet conditions but imagine the side slopes and what they have to do – that's really what you turn to your people. And that's really what I would say why Quincy is so important to us: because of the excellent workforce and excellent people we have here in town.
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Bob Goff5:29
And you have made a significant investment to upgrade and modernize that facility as well. I mean, you know, for years you had the old Hux fixture store was there, that factory was there, and of course now you guys have that corner and it puts some new, brand new modern facilities and buildings there. So your footprint in this community certainly expanded as well.
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Paul Reitz5:50
Absolutely. Yeah, what that old Hux building now is is the finest paint shop you'll find in our industry. So it's, I know it's kind of buried behind those walls, but the end product comes out fantastic. But yeah, we are going to continue to invest here in Quincy. It's a key part of our global strategy of who we are as a company. Our customers rely fiercely on what we produce here at Quincy, and we're going to continue to invest and get better. In fact, at about four o'clock when I get out of here, I'm meeting with our general manager here in Quincy and we're going to talk about our investment plans for the next five years.
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Bob Goff6:25
Like I said, with the state of things in Illinois and we've seen a lot of businesses and people move out, you're talking about, I mean, Titan's here to stay then? Absolutely. Well, good people like to hear that. You can count on that, and we're going to continue to grow. I mean, our HR team has been working really hard within the area to make sure people understand that we're here to invest in the community and we're going to continue to be, you know, what we believe is a strong, important employer for the city. In today's workforce, what incentives, what has Titan had to do to make sure we can keep our positions filled that we have to have filled?
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Paul Reitz6:59
You do have to get creative. You know, how you reach people is a lot different. You used to do it through more traditional forms of communication. Now you have to get into things that, quite frankly, I don't understand that well, but how you connect with people has been a lot different. But what we do here in Quincy that I think separates us from others is that we pay out a semi-annual bonus, profit sharing. We've been committed and dedicated to that workforce through the years. So I think the last thing you want to do is also treat your new people better than your experienced folks. So I think what we're doing is continuing to treat our experienced folks along with those new hires well. But you do have to invest more in training. We've been hiring a lot of people here, and as we bring new people in and bring in the next generation, you got to make sure that you have them having the same level of skills as what you have with your experienced folks. Now, if you've been doing your job for 30 years, last thing you want to do is spend the next 12 months training a bunch of people. So there's a balance between how many people you can hire with the training needs that are there. But we want to continue to connect in the community, let people know we're here. We're consistently looking to bring on new people and give that training program so they can succeed and have a good long career.
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Bob Goff8:20
So as far as your schedule goes, what does, you talk about all these different facilities you have. Do you just kind of come in on that? Do you have a place where you have a desk and a computer and everything, or you just got out of your suitcase?
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Paul Reitz8:32
That's a good question. You know, I honestly, other than my wife, I'm not sure anybody's ever asked this one before. I truthfully live out of a suitcase because of the locations we have. We operate in over 15 locations around the world. We have the wheel facility here, but we also have our tire headquarters in Des Moines, we have our corporate headquarters in Chicago. So quite frankly, I'm on the road every week and try to get here on a pretty consistent basis. Again, it's a good group of people. But with today's technology, we do have a team call with myself, our CFO, and the management team here in Quincy every Wednesday. Can take anywhere from up to two hours just talking through issues. So you don't always have to be there in person these days, but at the same time you want to be there in person, so I do travel every week.
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Bob Goff9:18
Well, we found that out with the pandemic that you could do a lot of things remotely, but one thing you can't do is put a tire or a wheel together. So you definitely had to have your front line guys and gals had to be there. How did Titan navigate that over the last couple of years?
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Paul Reitz9:35
Yeah, that's where you really, it's the investments you've made in your team and your people start to show through. And I can't say enough about how well our team performed once the pandemic hit. So if you look back to March of 2020, we have a plant in China, so we knew about the virus coming kind of the second week of February. We have two undercarriage plants, one in Madrid, Spain, outside Madrid, and then we have four facilities in central Italy. So if you remember back to the early days of the pandemic, that was the heart of the pandemic. So then we saw it coming over here into the U.S. that was kind of mid-March, and then within a few weeks of that, the government had deemed pretty much around the world, not just the U.S. government, that the products we make because of their association with agriculture and construction were deemed critical infrastructure. And so we had to keep operating, and that's where our team stepped up in just tremendous ways. The part I could do is, going back to what I do, I travel every week to be with our people, but for me it became even more important that I had to be out there with them. You know, along with our CFO, we traveled every week just letting people know that we're here to support you the best we can, and you guys are doing a tremendous job. So we kept operational through the entire pandemic. I think around the world, I bet we didn't miss 20 days total.
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Bob Goff10:54
When you talk about responding to your clients, who are your biggest customers right now?
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Paul Reitz11:01
John Deere is our biggest customer. Yeah, I knew that. I know that's still the case. For a while, that's still yeah. Their global products are just tremendous and strong everywhere we operate. So North America, South America, Europe, their agriculture equipment is a good fit for what we produce. But some of our other leading customers, you know, CNH clearly fits well with the North America, South America, European model that we have with our plants. But we got some other customers that are pretty important to us as well. Kubota, kind of the smaller compact utility equipment, they're really a leading customer for us. In fact, a few weeks ago we just announced a pretty big project we're doing with them. Kioti, another compact tractor company, the compact tractors have really become a key segment within the agricultural space, both as a supplement to big farms but also the hobby farmers that are getting into that area as well. And so the one thing we pride ourselves on in Quincy is we have a really strong diverse customer base. If you look at our top 50 customers, it's pretty much a who's who of, you know, anytime you see off-road equipment, agriculture, construction, that's where Titan tries to be.
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Bob Goff12:11
Well, and in the grand scheme of the entire world, John Deere's pretty much a neighbor being in the Quad Cities. You got it. So that's like one of your closest. If you got to do some real tough dealing with some customers on a quick basis, it's like hey, we can get with John Deere, we're right here. You got it.
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Paul Reitz12:28
Well, and one thing I want to mention about what we do with the locations we have around the world, with the pandemic and as companies look to de-risk their supply chains, that's where Titan is really becoming even stronger with the relationship we have with our customers. Because we do have a global footprint, and because they're looking at their supply chains and going, look, we got to take some of that risk, that complexity out of there with logistics and lead times and everything that's foreign exchange rates, everything that's going on in the world that's crazy and changes every day. That's where they can turn to Titan and go, look, you guys are right there. To your point, we're almost like a neighbor to them, and that's really important in today's age.
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Bob Goff13:03
So you talk about the supply chain from a provider perspective. What about the things you have needed when it comes to supply chain? How's that been?
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Paul Reitz13:14
I would say it's been entertaining, but it's actually gone fairly well when you look at the big picture of it. It's been difficult. You know, sourcing our components, obviously steel, the pricing in the markets for steel has been up and down. The steel we buy also has to go through a processor, so you have the logistics between the mill to the processor then to here. If you look at a tire, there's many components that go into a tire. It's not just natural rubber, there's about 10 core components that go into a tire. So our supply chain team has really had to adapt. And like our customers are turning to us, we've had to turn to our key suppliers and say, look, we need you, what do you need from us? And so we've had to approach it differently as well. The days of just kind of sitting at your desk and making some spreadsheets and some phone calls and everything just shows up are gone. You got to have good strong relationships with your core suppliers, and in some cases you got to sign agreements, you got to lock in that commitment to them so that they know that you're not just going to need them for a month, you're going to be with them for years to come.
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Bob Goff14:20
So what is your worldwide employee number right now? How many people are Titan employees?
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Paul Reitz14:27
We're about 7,500 worldwide.
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Bob Goff14:31
And of those in Illinois, how many, ballpark roughly?
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Paul Reitz14:35
If you look at the two locations, so we have another one that's right outside Rockford in Freeport, Illinois. My best guess is I think we're going to be around 1,300.
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Bob Goff14:49
Well, and again, I like I said this in Quincy, you know, Titan's had a corporate presence here for a long time and a good strong employer base. And you've had, again, trying to find the people. One, when you know Quincy has worked with Greta and the city to try to figure out ways to help all the employers keep people and get new people, because that has been the biggest challenge that we've seen over the last couple of years. As we went into the pandemic and then when we tried to ramp up after the pandemic, all of a sudden it's like, well, where were all the people? And you guys have had to be one of the ones to also say, hey, we have to do what it takes, like you said, to train people and keep people. Because that's, you know, in being a CEO, the fact that the time you spend and invest in bringing in someone to just see that person leave after a few months is just a waste. It's really expensive. And I think it's the long-term view. And sometimes politically it's tough to have a long-term view, as we know how complicated politics can get these days. I do like where Greta is going, and Kyle Moore is doing a great job. He has that long view. You know, Kent Snyder, there's other folks that I've been talking to here in the city that consistently look at the long-term picture. That's what the area needs. Because we're looking, like I said, at four o'clock I'll be sitting down making capital plans for the next five years. So we're thinking long term. We need the community and the city leaders also thinking long term. And that's difficult because they kind of look at more of a short-term spectrum of what do I need to do to win favor now. And we're looking at it going, we need you to build a strong community that's getting us the people that we need for the long term. So we try to partner with John Wood, we try to look at these sources where you can continue to train people, and hopefully as we need people, then they're available in the community. That's the other thing: you can't always predict when you're going to need a certain area. Sometimes you have retirements or turnover, and so you want to be able to reach into the community and be able to get them when you need them.
So what is your background? How did you end up to where you are now? Where'd you start?
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Paul Reitz17:01
It's a long, crazy journey, as we've all had, as many as everybody can say. I started off as a finance guy, as an accountant. And my dad, actually his background was in accounting and then he jumped into sales, and he told me, don't become an accountant. I said, Dad, I want to start there and we'll see where it leads. So I did. I started off with one of the global firms called Deloitte & Touche at the time. I spent a few years there and realized, as my dad had kind of was trying to push me, I wanted to get into something different long-term. So I actually went and got my master's degree, but I majored in marketing when I got my master's degree. So after I got my MBA, I went back and I kind of worked in some different roles in finance and marketing. And really what I always did is I took an opportunity whenever there was a challenge to learn something new, I jumped at it. So I got involved in a lot of different acquisitions, as the company was growing, doing a lot of acquisitions. So I worked marketing, finance, I got involved with the due diligence team, the integration teams in acquisition, I got involved with big IT projects. Quite frankly, I did whatever I could to keep learning. My wife thought at the time was probably insane. In fact, I think she probably thought she made a really bad decision to partner up with me, because you spend all that time trying to acquire knowledge and experience and learning, quite frankly it doesn't take you anywhere, you end up stuck as you're building all this knowledge. And luckily she stuck with me, and we had to move a number of different times, we had to take a lot of risks, and somehow she saw something in me to continue to do that, and it all worked out. So I came here to Titan in 2010 as a CFO, and then in January of 2014 I became the president, spent three years in that role, and then became CEO in January of 2017. So about 12 years total at Titan.
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Bob Goff18:56
And like I said, you're talking about getting things ready for the next five years, so sounds like you've got a few more years left in you.
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Paul Reitz19:02
Absolutely, man. I don't know what else I would do with my time. It is all encompassing. That's one thing I will say from the outside looking in: you're constantly working, which I mean in a good way because it's required of the job, and I love that part of it. Every time I'm on a plane, when I'm sitting around with free time at home, I have a tendency to pick up my computer and get back to work. You got to be in communication. And I got a great group of people around the world that are doing a good job, you can't take it for granted. So I need to be there working as hard as I can with them. So I plan on keeping doing this for a while, and maybe after that I'll start playing golf six, seven days a week, but not quite yet.
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Bob Goff19:47
Yeah, you got some time for that. Well, hey, thank you for your time. We appreciate the visit. I appreciate it. Good seeing you. Thank you. Thanks. Well, that's all the time we have now for Muddy River News this week. I'm Bob Goff. Have a great week.