GPX Reports an “Enormous” Sales Increase

According to GPX International Tire – one of the world’s leading industrial and agricultural tyre specialists – the company has recently particularly focused upon its presence in Asian markets, and executive vice president Neil Ganz reports “a huge growth in sales” has taken place there. As a result the company chose to once again exhibit at Singapore’s Tyrexpo Asia in order to further expand the growing customer relationships forged in this part of the world.

Two key themes lay at the heart of talks between Tyres & Accessories and GPX at their exhibition stand in Singapore. The first of these related to innovations GPX foresees in the industrial tyre segment; the other, understandably, focused upon the company’s new European “strategic partnership” with Trelleborg.

Because industrial tyres are exposed to intense levels of stress and wear during activities such as the handling of scrap metals, the employment of highly durable compounds and specialised tread designs are necessary in their construction. GPX International tyre, which has produced and marketed a range of solid rubber tyres under the “Brawler” brand name for several years, claims it can deliver such qualities. A further specialised feature that GPX recently launched is a special two-part tyre construction; the central part of the tyre features a wheel adaptor ring that enables it to be interchanged between vehicles simply by changing one ring for another, added company general manager Phil Fitzgerald. The plain tread solid “Brawler HD” and the “Brawler Solidflex HD“ in 25-inch size are now both available in variants utilising this adaptor disc.

In regards to the “strategic partnership”, announced between GPX Tire International and Sweden’s Trelleborg in March, when speaking with Tyres & Accessories Mr. Ganz said the deal brought with it the promise of “strong medium-term growth.” It is hoped that within the next two years alone European sales will treble. And the fact that the Swedish company will become the distributor of the “Galaxy” pneumatic tyre brand in 25 European countries does not at all signal a withdrawal from Europe, Ganz makes clear. On the contrary – it would have been very expensive to separately develop a comprehensive distribution network for the European agricultural, forestry industrial and earthmover tyre replacement markets. Trelleborg, however, already has close to 200 sales agents firmly established in these markets. In the future Trelleborg will also look after its US-partner’s numerous OE activities within Europe. In the meantime GPX itself will continue to market its solid rubber tyres in Europe, Ganz added.

At the end of the day, whether the company’s ambitious goals for the European market can be fulfilled depends upon the global financial and business crisis. Lately capacity at GPX International Tire’s factory in China – its factory in the US closed last July – has been scarcely sufficient to meet Trelleborg’s needs for the production of Galaxy tyres. In addition, the third expansion phase at the factory taken over from Starbright (in Hebei Province, China) has just recently been completed. Supplying markets should therefore pose no problem, said Phil Fitzgerald. On top of this, GPX is currently further building up its solid tyre sales team in Europe. And lastly, the general manager discloses that the company’s new harbour tyre will be introduced in Europe from June. All in all the company sees the future – despite the crisis – to be absolutely stable.