Sailun reports rapid growth, busy Reifen Show debut

Sailun reports that it has been enjoying a period of strong establishment across Europe as well as a successful time in Essen this June, when the Chinese brand made its Reifen show debut.

According to Sailun Tyres (Europe) managing director, Martin West, Sailun will be communicating the results of its labelling tests to its passenger car tyre distributors over the news few weeks, with details relating to winter and slow moving products first and truck and bus products after that. West explained that Sailun is exercising a degree of caution with regard to what it says relating to its labelling performance so as not to fall on the wrong side of the rules in borderline cases. To avoid any misunderstandings, West continued, the company has opted to select the lower grade in such situations. Asked what levels the company could achieve, West explained that the company’s research and development department have confirmed that the technology to produce a BB tyre is in place, but any tyre performing at this level would of course have a befitting price attached. 

Growing quick

Now that the majority of coverage gaps in the best known markets have been filled, West explained that the company is doing additional business in some markets outside what might strictly defined as Europe. For example, as well as some of the North African markets bordering the Mediterranean, Sailun is now seeking to expand its presence in Eastern Europe and Russia. Volume may be centred on Western Europe, but the Baltic states and Turkey also opportunities. Russia is another particularly key market in this respect.

According to West, Sailun is on the way to selling 1.5 million passenger car tyres across the region during 2012 and is “growing quick.” West also revealed that Sailun’s Vietnamese product facility is scheduled to go on-stream in the first quarter of 2013, something that brings with it a range of product volume and development opportunities

Before the Vietnam factory even gets on stream, the company has announced that it is release 13 Terramax CVR sizes into Europe by August. At the same time the company is updating its truck range, while the 4×4 range is growing throughout the next 12 months. The latest product on show in Essen was the prototype UHP ZSR car tyre, which points to the company high performance aspirations.

Exhibition strategy

The Sailun stand was positioned in a prominent location in Hall 6.  Before the event, company representatives reported they had asked to be moved to Hall 3 where some of the best known brands are located and where there are traditionally larger numbers of visitors passing through. However on reflection, Sailun wrote in a post-show statement, with the Infinity and Eternity branded stand next to Sailun, the Hall 6 location is said to have “worked perfectly”. The reasoning behind this conclusion centres on the quality of visitors to the stand, which was said to be “exceptionally good”. According to the company, those stopping by were people with a specific and serious professional effort to visit the stand and there were very few “freeloaders”.  

As a result the quality of connections made was described as “excellent” as was the seriousness of the ensuing discussions.  According to Sailun, there were many introductions and details of new distributors for new regions and alternative options for existing covered regions were taken. In addition, there were opportunities for strategic development discussions and meetings to take place within the two enclosed meeting room areas.

The stand’s meeting room space was described as an “improvement and enhancement” from the stand the company exhibited at Autopromotec in Bologna, Italy last year.  Perhaps partly as a result of this the company held 37 face-to-face business development meetings with existing or prospective distributor partners during the course of the four day show. In addition, over 130 quality contacts were made.

New personnel

Back in February Sailun Tyres (Europe), which is headquartered in Birmingham, UK, announced the expansion of its operations team with the appointment of a native Italian-speaking marketing executive, Gianluca Parise. Parise joined the Sailun team following substantial planning and research experience in a variety of roles based in Italy, and a more recent role as a market analyst at Boots the Chemist in Nottingham. Parise is a graduate in Engineering Management and is currently studying for an MBA from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

As Martin West, managing director, Sailun Tyres (Europe), commented at the time: “We have recently appointed three high-quality, professional Italian distributors for our passenger car, light truck and truck product portfolio and we need to continue to offer very high service and support levels. Gianluca will be able to add a number of skill sets to help us to maintain and improve our customer service levels and to grow the Sailun market share, not just in Italy, but across the whole of Europe.”

The European office now numbers roughly half a dozen people, with the headcount growing. Engineers from the manufacturer are also said to be visiting customers more frequently and even OTR tyre development is being talked about. But it is early days yet.