Trax Reports Successful SEMA Show

For the third consecutive year, the UK’s Trax JH Ltd displayed its products at the major US based SEMA show in Las Vegas. With the USA now also moving to lead-free balance weights, the company reports that visitors to November’s show expressed significant interest in the Trax range of quality steel adhesive weights, with agents and distributors now in place to take advantage of this move to using non-lead materials.

When Tyres & Accessories spoke with Trax managing director John Hallé several months ago, he shared that following California’s ban on lead weights in January 2009, US based manufacturers introduced the lead-free weight solutions they make for OE customers into the aftermarket. These products, however, were not well received. “The shops are not happy with the lead-free steel solutions,” Hallé explained. “They said they’re not universal enough – what may work on a Ford, for example, may not work on a Japanese car. We believe our designs offer much better universal solutions.”

Following the show, Trax international business development manager Martin Blakey advised he was delighted with the response the company’s balancing weights received: “The Trax brand is getting established in the USA and Canada. Our attention to quality and using special adhesive tape, made in Germany, and for fitting at sub-zero temperatures is the right solution for the North American markets.”

Last year Trax established a subsidiary in the US, Trax JH USA Inc., and holds stock to service the North and Central American markets at its Florida headquarters. During SEMA the company also shared information on franchising opportunities manufacture its new steel clip-on weights. Trax says that it has received international interest for this unique idea to locally manufacture what it claims to be the most advanced steel balance weights found anywhere in the world. 

 “All the big automotive weight manufacturers have huge plants making hundreds of millions of products and shipping them all round the world,” commented Hallé regarding the franchising opportunity Trax offers. “There are markets where supply from the UK isn’t practicable. We’re not going to be supplying Indonesia or South America, for example. We can supply the components, we can supply the machinery, and they can make the weights themselves in Indonesia, or China or wherever. We’re the only company offering this.”