Double Coin promotes winter, low profile products at CITExpo

This year was the first time Double Coin Holdings was present at CITExpo as an exhibitor, and vice-president Liu Xue Jun told Tyres & Accessories that the company had met with a good mix of end users, dealers and wholesalers during the show. The Shanghai exhibition was used as an opportunity to meet new customers and to show off the company’s new range Double Coin brand winter truck tyres. “Winter tyres are a new product for us,” commented Mr. Liu. “We’re going to promote these, along with our new 295/60 low profile tyres.”

Double Coin Holdings boasts a long history and is able to trace its lineage back to the TaChung Hua and Tsen Tai Rubber Factory, entities established in the 1920s. Liu Xue Jun refers to Double Coin as “the number one brand in China and a company with more than 80 years history,” and shares that development at Double Coin Holdings these days is increasingly focused on overseas markets. The success of this international focus can be seen in the brand’s popularity in developed tyre markets. The Double Coin brand is distributed by Kirkby Tyres in the UK and Ireland, while Dutch wholesaler Inter-Sprint represents the brand in a number of other European markets. The brand is also a strong seller in the US, where it is marketed by the China Manufacturers Alliance, LLC.

Currently Double Coin Holdings has an interest in four factories within China. Shanghai-based Double Coin Heavy-Duty Radial Truck Tyre Co. is the only one of these wholly owned by Double Coin; this facility, which entered service in 1991, has the capacity to produce 2.8 million light truck, truck, industrial and OTR tyres a year. Double Coin (Rugao)Tyre Co. Ltd, in Jiangsu Province, is a joint-venture plant capable of producing 2.5 million all steel truck radials and 100,000 all steel OTR radials per annum. Construction of the joint-venture Double Coin (Chongqing) Tyre Co. Ltd plant in Chongqing began in September 2007, and the plant now boasts an annual production capacity of 1.2 million all steel truck radials. The newest plant, Double Coin Group (Anhui) Warrior Tires Co. in Anhui Province, will produce passenger and light truck tyres under the Warrior brand name; this joint-venture with Michelin and Shanghai Huayi (Group) Co. will have a first phase annual capacity of 6 million tyres and the plant’s anticipated top end capacity is 15 million units per annum. Total investment in the facility is said to be RMB 3.5 billion (£340 million).

When the Michelin name was brought up, Liu Xue Jun alluded that Double Coin Holdings foresees a day when its level of global recognition may compare with that of its French counterpart. “The Chinese market is very large and China is developing fast,” he said. “Chinese companies are becoming more global. For example, Michelin is not just European, it is international. I think in several years many Chinese companies will also need to have this mentality. Therefore, in my opinion marketing is very important.”