Maxxis Wins Peugeot 207 OE Contract

Maxxis has been awarded an OE contract to supply the Peugeot 207, building on the company’s OE efforts in the Far East and North America. Maxxis has already established itself as a supplier to all the major car manufacturers in the Far East, including Ford, General Motors, Renault, Honda and VW, but the recent news marks the company’s biggest success in Europe. Maxxis also supplies Ford and General Motors in North America.

According to the company, Maxxis’ decision to establish a technical centre in the Netherlands three years ago goes a long way to explaining the company’s listing as an approved supplier to Peugeot. The new contract will see Maxxis supply “a tyre” for the Peugeot 207, which is built at the PSA assembly facilities in Poissy, France and Trnava, Slovakia. The contract commenced at the end of October and covers an annual volume of 500,000 tyres (2,150 tyres per day).

“To understand and better serve the Asian market – and in turn grow our market share – we set up technical centres in Taiwan, Shanghai and Xiamen in China and started on a small scale, initially with OE contracts for just a couple of models, before developing larger volumes,” says Maxxis International UK’s managing director Derek McMartin.

“When we decided to break into North America, we established a technical centre in Norcross in the USA before replacing it in 2006 with a new, larger facility in Suwanee, Georgia. From small beginnings we currently supply approximately six million tyres a year to Ford and GM. Now we are taking this same approach to opening up opportunities with the major vehicle manufacturers operating in Europe, first investing in a technical development facility to underline our intention to do the job properly, and then making inroads with OE accreditations, as this is a proven way of growing our business internationally.

Maxxis clearly views the latest news as the first part of a long-term OE strategy and told Tyres & Accessories that it is already in negotiation with “some of the major global volume brands that are represented in Europe.”