American Pacific Industries Inc.

Is American Pacific Industries a manufacturer?

API designs all of its tires in-house but outsources production to partner factories in India, China, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Who owns American Pacific Industries?

It is a family-owned private company led by founder and chairman Jeff Kreitzman.

When was API founded?

In 1982, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

What brands does API own?

Gladiator, X Comp, Zenna, Pegasus, Advanta, Hartland, and O'Green, plus customer private label programs.

Where is API headquartered?

Scottsdale, Arizona, with its product engineering office in Qingdao, China.

How many tires does API sell?

More than 16 million tires annually, roughly half under its own brands and half as private label production for other companies.

Kreitzman entered the tire business as a teenager selling retreads at swap meets, opened his first retail store at 18, and worked at wholesale distributor Empco Industries before founding API in Scottsdale in 1982 to get closer to manufacturing and design.

The company built its early reputation on high-performance and off-road tires priced below the major brands, developing the Gladiator name into its flagship light truck and off-road marque and X Comp as the competition-influenced extreme line. Premium road tires came under Zenna, passenger coverage under Pegasus, and the full-line Advanta brand went to exclusive distribution through U.S. AutoForce.

API invested early in dedicated engineering rather than buying factory-catalog designs, staffing a product development office in Qingdao that works directly with its partner plants. That structure let it offer distinctive patterns at import prices, a formula that grew volume to tens of millions of tires annually.

In a March 2026 Tire Technology International interview, Kreitzman described the current environment as unlike anything in his career: new US tariffs on Asian-made tires reshaping sourcing decisions across the industry. API's multi-country factory base in India, China, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam gives it more routing options than single-source competitors, and it continues to launch product, including the Gladiator Armor 4S all-weather tire.