Kyoto Japan Wants to Improve European Standing

Kyoto Japan Tire Corp. Ltd. was right on time to launch two new products at this year’s Reifen exhibition. The Chinese manufacturer which is headquartered in Japan (and used to have production facilities in Japan as well) was exhibiting in Germany for the second time now and has put a lot of faith into its two new tyres. First there is the “Kyoto Maxima 714” which will be settled in the high performance tyre segment, explains Dagmar Ochmann-Klimkowski who is running Kyoto’s European Office.

Currently the Maxima 714 is only available in one size (215/45 R17 W) but there will more sizes in due course. Furthermore, the manufacturer, which produces about 4 million tyres in its two factories in China, has now launched the “Maxima 715” for the middle market segment. There are already seven sizes between 13 and 15 inches, aspect ratios of 70, 65 and 60 and widths between 165 and 205 available for the current summer season.

Kyoto Japan currently engineers yet more new products, explains Mrs Ochmann-Klimkowski, but they won’t be launched before the coming summer season. In particular the company wants to put an emphasis on the development of tyres for the profitable SUV/4×4 market segment. In this segment the portfolio is relatively small, featuring two patterns in six dimensions in total. Kyoto Japan will also focus its engineering capacities on the development of commercial tyres in the near future. About 1.5 million out of the 4 million tyres that are produced in China annually by Kyoto Japan are commercial tyres. So about two thirds are passenger car tyres. However, manufacturer expects a stronger market potential for its commercial tyres the, says Mrs Ochmann-Klimkowski.

The manufacturers’ continued interest in broadening international distribution can be seen from its continuous presence at important international tyre exhibitions such as Reifen, Brityrex, Tyrexpo Africa and CITExpo (Shanghai). Although Kyoto operates through national wholesalers right now there is no distribution partner in the UK.