Hankook Prepared for First Appearance at Moscow Auto Salon

Hankook Tire says it is excited to announce its first appearance at the Moscow International Automobile Salon. The company’s reports that its exhibition space (booth 430 in hall 12 for those of you planning to visit) has been custom designed for this show and reflects the growing importance of the Russian and CIS markets for the company’s future business strategy.

Describing its activities within the aforementioned region, Hankook Tire notes that during the past five years it has managed to more than triple its sales volume within Russia & the Commonwealth of Independent States, selling a total of almost 1.3 million units in 2009. Enlivened by these growth rates – Hankook calls them ‘unparalleled’ – the Korean manufacturer has set out an ambitious plan to gain a market share of seven per cent by the year 2014. This figure represents a further doubling of its sales within the region. To reach this goal Hankook has already started to expand its local dealer network, which will count a total of 29 cities by the end of 2010 in Russia alone.

 “Hankook Tires economic success in the CIS results from our hard and passionate efforts to develop high quality products tailored to meet our customers’ needs”, said Jin-Wook Choi, executive vice president and COO of Hankook Tire in Europe and the CIS-region. “Our record-breaking figures from the first half 2010 to a large extent were driven by the excellent business performance in the emerging markets such as the CIS region. This shows us that we chose the right strategy.”

“Each market has specifics of its own we need to address”, added Chang-Won Park, Hankook Tire vice-president and managing director for Russia and the CIS region “The CIS market is especially demanding due to its wide climate range and various road and vehicle conditions. At Hankook Tire we take great pride in developing cutting-edge products which fit the market requirements and make our customers happy.”

At the Moscow show Hankook will present two new winter tyres; the studdable Winter i*Pike LT for vans and light trucks and the studdless Winter i*cept evo for passenger cars.