YHI Looks to Eastern Bloc and South Africa for Expansion

Automobile tyre-maker YHI International started its aggressive overseas expansion only in the 1990s and yet it already has presence in nearly every continent. Not content with its achievements, it is now focusing on faraway reaches like South Africa.

Up until the 80s, YHI could claim only Singapore and Malaysia as the markets for its tyre distribution business. But the company realised that it had to expand beyond these two markets for further growth. That’s why, in the early 1990s, YHI started to make inroads into China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australasia.

More recently, Japan and the US were added to the list. And to boost profitability, YHI also decided to venture beyond just tyre distribution. YHI’s executive director, Tay Tiang Guan, told Channel News Asia: “In 1996, we decided to go into manufacturing so that we can play the world market. So we have already expanded our customer base. Except for the continent of South America, we are almost in every part of the world now. So looking forward, we are now concentrating our effort in developing countries like India, Russia, eastern bloc and South Africa.”

Mr Tay continued: “We are setting our own factory in Malaysia to take advantage of AFTA. So we are very bullish in the ASEAN region, particularly as the economy is picking up.”

YHI was recently ranked 65th in the Singapore International 100 Ranking organised by IE Singapore.