New Nexen President Opens Middle East Office in Dubai

No sooner had Travis Kang been appointed to the position of President of Nexen Tire (on 5 January), than he set off on visits to strategic markets such as the US, France, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, China – reportedly visiting each a few times. After one such week-long visit to the Middle East markets, he made a proposal to company executives: “After seeing the market of Middle East, I truly believe Dubai is the bridgehead for the new market. Let’s open a branch there immediately.”

Nexen Tire Dubai covers the strategic markets of Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Iran and North African markets. The Dubai branch opened in August, just four months after the initial proposal was made.

With exports accounting for almost 80 per cent of total sales, Kang says the company is planning to strengthen overseas sales even more: “Also I will respect independence of each overseas sales subsidiaries and branch offices, for example, there will be no such thing as bulldoze sales from the headquarter. If our overseas organizations have quota pushed to sell the tyres, they might have to lower prices which could lead to losing the confidence from the buyers.” But not at the expense of its brand: “Since now we can assure excellent quality, we will focus on strengthening branding. When someone recommends our tyres, we must at least let the person know that there is a brand as such and choose the products,” the South Korean Maeil Business Newspaper quoted Kang as saying.

In addition to the Dubai opening, other examples of Nexen’s increased focus on international replacement markets is the opening of its Latin America branch in June 2009, which is already in operation in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Nexen Tire Latin America covers the sales activities in the strategic markets including Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Now, having opened the Dubai branch in August, Nexen Tire has a total of 10 overseas subsidiary companies and branch offices.