Toyo Tire will use its Serbia plant to strengthen its local production-for-local-consumption model for the European market. Its new medium-term plan calls for ¥340 billion in strategic investment, including new plants, with the aim of stabilizing supplies to Europe and strengthening the brand.
Toyo Tire, whose net sales and operating income for the fiscal year ended December 2025 reached record highs, expects higher sales in the fiscal year ending December 2026 and has incorporated ¥340 billion in strategic investment into its new five-year medium-term management plan. The company has outlined multiple new plant projects, including a plant for truck and bus tires, signaling an aggressive approach.
With raw material costs rising as the situation in the Middle East deteriorates and uncertainty continuing over U.S. tariff policy, President Takashi Shimizu (清水 隆史) said the company would execute the plan while assessing developments. The United States, Serbia, Malaysia and Japan have been identified as the four candidate regions for new plants, with construction in locations close to the markets they serve as the basic policy.
In Europe, the company significantly revised its sales structure, including consolidating its local sales operations in Serbia. By using the Serbia plant as a local production base, it plans to shorten delivery times to Europe from the previous five months to two weeks and improve supply-demand visibility. Going forward, it aims to earn customers' trust through a local production-for-local-consumption model, while also considering the possibility of re-establishing sales bases in Germany and elsewhere in the future.
An R&D center will be built alongside the Serbia plant, with completion targeted for year-end. The company has also announced efforts to strengthen its development structure based on its new "THiiiNK" technology platform and shorten tire development times. While off-road tires and other products in the North American market are driving performance, the Japanese and European markets are also regarded as important to realizing the medium-term plan.