One Year On – Effiplus Introduction Fairing Well

One year after Techking’s Effiplus passenger car radial was launched in at Reifen China 2009 in Shanghai, the company known for its OTR and latterly its truck tyres has news of further expansions in the range. While the Effiplus line up consisted of just 20 specification 12 months ago, today there are over 100, with a number of sub-specifications. Speaking in an interview at the end of 2010, Techking marketing and sales director James Wang brought us up to speed on the latest product developments – including the new second life truck tyre warranty – the company has to offer.

But first, how has the introduction of the Effiplus fuel efficiency-orientated passenger car tyre range been received in the market? As far as the adoption of the brand in international markets is concerned, Techking reports that the first Effiplus distributors have now been appointed with one of the early successes being in the UK & Eire zone. In addition to this British Isles distributorship, Techking has found partners in Italy, Spain, Sweden and Norway and is therefore on track for its first year target in terms both of the numbers of Effiplus partners is has and the volumes of the new car tyres being sold.

Techking expands product range, introduces truck tyre incentives

The next target markets on the company’s list are said to include Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, Kuwait, Qatar and Australia. That said, James Wang shied away from revealing too much concrete information regarding the company’s currently progress in this area, rationalising that growth been expectedly modest at this stage and that the company is most interested in sustainable growth: “We have to be realistic about the fact that we can’t just work with anyone.”

However the company has experienced something of a paradigm shift over the last few years. Techking is increasingly distancing itself from any associations with being a “cheap Chinese tyre manufacturer” that customers may draw from the fact that the company is based in People’s Republic’s number one tyre capital city, Qingdao, Shandong Province. Instead the tyre manufacturer is increasingly positioning itself on the basis of its overall quality/value proposition rather that its price entry point. On this basis the company is said to be “happy to plan sustainable growth with the right partner.”

Looking back over 2010, Techking’s staff reflect that the OTR tyre lines the company has primarily been known for until recently have continued to receive recognition from the industry, with certain OEMs including Liebherr reportedly returning to it for repeat business. And owing to the fact that OEMs have and always will call for demanding standards of quality, brand and delivery, it is some compliment that this is the case. But it is also worth pointing out that at this stage at least these OE contracts are not necessarily the largest contracts. They do however offer good marketing value and with OE customers responsible for occupying around 10 per cent of Techking’s OTR tyre sales they do still offer a valuable destination for the company’s products.

Like passenger car tyres, Techking’s truck and bus radial range is also relatively new to the global tyre market. And once again the company continues to look for the right distribution partners to support this proposition. Once more the company reports “moderate growth” but remains satisfied in taking a measured approach to growth and is not in a hurry to choose who to work with next.

Techking to offer second life truck tyre warranty

Nevertheless as far as product promotion is concerned the company is offering two relatively unique claims amongst its peers. Firstly there is the decision to freeze the prices of its truck and bus operation. In addition, such is the confidence it holds in its products, the firm is offering a “second life” warranty for its latest (second generation) range of truck and bus tyres. The latter move clearly signals the company’s intentions to promote Techking truck and bus tyres as both a retreadable and a multi-life product. It is also a further sign that the company is again seeking to distance itself from those Chinese tyre manufacturers that sell on the basis of price rather than value.

Another innovation in Techking’s truck tyre line-up is the tyremaker’s ENT underground truck tyre. Unlike other mining-orientated products, this tyre does not feature a completely bare and smooth contact patch, but rather has a purpose-built tread design developed with the rigours of the mining industry in mind. This targeted product is already said to be in use in Asian zinc mines.

Techking’s latest innovation in the EM/OTR segment is its TTMS or “total tire management system.” This system, like comparable products offering by some of the leading premium tyre manufacturers, centres on realtime measurements of tyre pressures and temperatures. All this data is fed back to control room computers via GPRS for analysis. While the system was on display on the company’s exhibition stand at the recent Reifen China event, the technology is also already being put through its paces in real-life application tests in China and Indonesia.

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