Emerald launches solid skid-steer tyre range with World Wide Tyre Marketing

Emerald Resilient Tyre Manufacturers Pvt Ltd has launched a new range of solid skid-steer tyres at the IMHX 2022 exhibition in association with the company’s UK distributor, World Wide Tyre Marketing (Fork Truck Tyres Ltd).

According to the company, Emerald is the largest Indian solid and pneumatic tyre manufacturing and exporting company and was proud to launch the new range, which is available both with and without apertures.

The new tyres come in an initial range of three sizes 30×10-16; 31×10-20 and 33×12-20. These tyres replace comparable pneumatic tyre sizes 10-16.5 and 12-16.5.

Speaking on the occasion of the launch, John H Grey, managing director of WWTM, said that since his joining hands with Emerald two years back, he has insisted on developing these three key sizes for the skid steer market segment.

Dinu Daniel, Emerald Tyres head – sales and marketing of UK & European operations, added that these three key sizes would not only open more doors for Emerald products in UK, but would also help improve their existing strong position in European markets as well.

Additionally, Emerald took this opportunity to showcase 10.00×20 and 12.00×20 pneumatic industrial tyres in IND04 patterns, which have also been added to their range recently. These are aiming at large forklift trucks.

To put all this into context, Emerald has come a long way since entering the European market 14 years ago. While the company may have entered the continent as a budget option in certain markets, the business now occupies a strong position in key industry niches and is present in every major market in Europe.

All tyres are made at the company’s four tyre production factories in a single location. The four factories produce pneumatic tyres, solid tyres, rims and tubes and wheels respectively. Such is the flexibility of the company’s production base, that Emerald has become able to produce very specific solutions within the industrial tyre market niche. And that has led to increased demand.

The new skid-steer tyre for example is designed to supersede existing pneumatic fitments along with their inherent puncture-related problems. As a result, Tyres & Accessories understands that the company is entering this particular niche with orders equivalent to roughly 11 per cent market share of this particular niche. Not bad for a standing start.

Emerald’s European office, is seen as a particular strength that brings with it direct market access and warehousing simply unavailable from other competitors. In addition to the general European market access, the company is increasingly offer specific market sales support. In the UK this is headed up by KK Singh, someone who brings with him extensive industry experience from truck, industrial and agricultural tyre market roles in the UAE, UK and European markets. He joined the company in 2019 and is now supporting Dinu Daniel in the company’s expansion into other European markets.

Emerald’s European expansion plans focus on key Western European markets such as German, France, Italy and the Benelux markets. Rather than create its own fitting business, the plan is to support the strong dealers it partners with in each market. The fact that Emerald makes industrial tyre presses as well as the associated fitting tools, really lends support the strategy since distribution partners can find everything they need to make their businesses successful under one roof.

John Grey: “Emerald fit the cradle to grave strategy”

According to Worldwide Tyre Marketing MD John Grey, his company’s partnership with Emerald works because Emerald fits Worldwide’s cradle to grave/sustainability strategy. For example up to 70 per cent of many industrial tyres are remouldable, something that Emerald provides via its industrial tyre remanufacturing facility in South Africa. Tyres remanufactured in South Africa are then sold in Asia and Africa, but not in Western Europe on account of the environmental footprint associated with shipping the remanufactured products back again.

As Tyres & Accessories learnt earlier this year during a tour of Worldwide Tyre Marketing’s Manchester headquarters, recycling and sustainability are key themes for this particular industrial tyre business. One innovation is the company’s plans to fully recycle end-of-life industrial tyres, giving what was once simply a waste product a new lease of life. Progress toward that end is being made, with new compounds being made and an increasing number of distributors opting to send their scrap industrial tyres into this programme.

Economically, Worldwide and the Fork Truck Tyres businesses are doing exceptionally well, with the accountants reporting that sales have increased in 2022 compared with 2021.