Kenda “Excited about Labelling”, Constructing Factory
Kenda Rubber has confirmed a passenger car tyre factory alongside its existing Yun-Lin plant in Taiwan is “on target” to enter production in the second quarter of 2011 and reach a daily capacity of approximately 5,000 tyres in 2012. According to company sales and marketing representative, Eric Yang, “The factory will be adjacent to an existing factory Kenda owns in Taiwan. The radial addition will allow Kenda to make products that will satisfy mainly the domestic market along with countries that carry tariffs or duties on Chinese-made tyres. The line of tyres that will be produced from the new factory has not been fully determined, but the KR 17 Kenetica (which is sold mostly in the United States) along with the new KR 28 Klever A/T (to debut in the last quarter of 2010 in the US), which will most likely be patterns we will first introduce the new factory.
“With Kenda’s main research and development department located in Taiwan, this will allow further advancement in technology with our radial tyres. By adding radial tyre manufacturing in Taiwan, it shows that Kenda continues to be one of the most versatile tyre manufactures in all of Asia.”
Discussing the forthcoming labelling regulations in Europe at Kenda’s booth in Hall 3 at Reifen, Yang said Kenda was “excited” by the potential “separation from other Chinese manufactured tyres” that the regulations could offer. The company has noted the success experienced by another Taiwanese brand this year; Maxxis’ success equates to a positive outlook for Kenda too, again playing up the differences between recognisable brand names and tyres from the region with a less glowing reputation. By the next Essen show, Kenda is optimistic that the standardised label will have a positive effect on the company’s product sales.
At this year’s show, Kenda was promoting its new asymmetrical high performance tyre, the Vezda AST (also known as the KR-26). Available in 11 sizes, from 15” to 18” and with speed ratings of V, W and in the case of the 18” tyre Y, the Vezda AST’s inside shoulder is designed to help improve water expulsion, while four outside ribs provide better cornering ability. The company also displayed the slightly slower speed-rated Kaiser (KR-20) in this segment.
In addition to passenger, light truck and SUV tyres, Kenda’s representatives said Essen is “a good place to launch tyres from the winter collection”, as opposed to Sema, which it suggests is more summer-focused. The company’s Polar Trax (KR-19) and Icetec (KR-27) tyres were amongst the main subjects of conversation, especially the latter; a new studless winter performance tyre with a silica-based compound aimed at the Scandinavian countries. The tyre had six initial sizes between 14” and 16”, but was expanding to between seven and ten sizes soon. The Icetec features square shoulders to shorten braking distances, enhanced siping for grip on icy surfaces, deeper grooves for improved snow traction and wear resistance, and a tread pattern to increase snow expulsion. Both winter tyres feature the Rubber Manufacturers Association and the Rubber Association of Canada’s Mountain/Snowflake icon, indicating that they meet a standard for winter season performance set by these organisations.
Alongside the new factory, Yang continued, Kenda has recently been completing “a reorganisation of our brand. In conjunction with SBC Advertising located in Columbus, Ohio, we recently came out with a brand new website. The new website not only allows users to navigate to Kenda products they are looking for, but the opening home page allows users to see the overall size of Kenda.”
Yang mentioned that one point to come out of the company’s time at Essen was that some people “do not know how big Kenda is”. Yang concluded, “we have been making tyres for almost 50 years and have successfully sold tyres in several [segments] such as bicycle, motorcycle, wheelchair, lawn and garden, and trailer”, in addition, of course, to the ranges previously mentioned.
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