OE aspirations as Westlake prepares to move upmarket

Last week, ZC Rubber hosted a dealer conference and driving experience event for European dealers at the Nürburgring Nordschleife that provided its European partners an opportunity to personally experience the performance of two flagship tyres. The company also spoke about the path it intends to take with Westlake and Goodride.

A strong family resemblance between these flagship tyres, the Westlake ZuperAce Z-007 and Goodride Solmax 1, is visible in their respective tread patterns. Akos Barcsik, vice president of ZC Rubber Europe GmbH, confirms that the “basic technology of Westlake and Goodride is the same.” But ZC Rubber intends to depart from this ‘peas in a pod’ approach to products. Barcsik tells us that the next generation of Westlake and Goodride tyres will “be based on a new kind of concept” that involves greater brand differentiation.

As well as performance in wet conditions (Photo: Tyrepress / Stephen Goodchild)

Elaborating on this new approach, Barcsik recalls that in the past ZC Rubber experienced conflict in the market when one brand of tyre cannibalised sales from another. “The emphasis with Westlake is driving comfort and we view Goodride as the sportier of the two brands, but while the names are different, the products have been the same.” This will no longer be the case: “In future we will separate the brands.”

Leo Liao, who as ZC Rubber’s deputy general manager of international business oversees the European market, explains that each brand will fulfil a different role in years to come. “Our emphasis for Westlake will be on retail business and original equipment, and the focus with Goodride is regional wholesalers and online business.” Liao states that the tyre maker will work with “only three brands” in Europe, with ZC Rubber reserving the Trazano brand for larger importers. Going forwards, all three will offer unique patterns to avoid competition between the brands.

Leo Liao, ZC Rubber’s deputy general manager of international business (Photo: Tyrepress / Stephen Goodchild)

OE success at home & abroad

Last year, ZC Rubber sold around 6 million PCR tyres and 820,000 TBR tyres in European Union markets. It sold a further 3.55 million PCR tyres between January and June 2023, a year-on-year growth of 35.4 per cent. With 513,500 tyres sold during this period, TBR sales rose 48.2 per cent year-on-year.

These increases contrast strongly with other manufacturers’ experiences: The European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association recently announced that its members’ replacement consumer tyre sales declined 12 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2023, while sales of their replacement TBR tyres were 23 per cent lower than in the first six months of 2022.

Leo Liao tells us that ZC Rubber’s five-year goal is to sell 10 million PCR tyres annually and 1.2 million TBR tyres in EU markets. For the consumer tyre segment, this represents average annual year-on-year growth of 10.75 per cent. Of course, the company doesn’t only expect to sell more tyres in the aftermarket – the plan is to build up original equipment business within the region.

In its home market, ZC Rubber already serves as a supplier of original equipment tyres to major car makers such as BYD, Geely, MG, Changan and Haval, delivering nearly 9 million original equipment tyres a year in the domestic market. These brands hope to repeat the success achieved by Korean car makers and seize a sizeable chunk of the European market, and when their vehicles arrive in showrooms many will wear Chinese tyre brands.

Success at home with brands such as Haval may open the door to European OE deals (Photo: Tyrepress / Stephen Goodchild)

OE centre in Germany

Martin Wells and Jörn Tietjens are tasked with growing ZC Rubber’s original equipment business in Europe. Wells looks after the OE business as general manager of the ZC Rubber Technical Center in Hannover, Germany, while Tietjens is engaged at the facility as OE and key account manager. The centre, which is situated near facilities operated by Linglong and Giti Tire, serves as a R&D facility as well as a point of communication with OEMs. It also supports PCR and LTR development for the replacement market.

ZC Rubber currently considers the performance of its flagship consumer tyres to be on par with the premium manufacturers’ second or third brands, but success with European OEMs requires – at the very least – a qualitative move into tier two territory. Brands such as Yokohama and Hankook serve as role models.

“Who would have thought when Hankook entered the European market that the company would one day be where it is now,” comments Jörn Tietjens. As already mentioned, ZC Rubber has selected Westlake as the brand that will bring its European original equipment ambitions to fruition, and Tietjens tells us we may see this happening from 2025/26. This means we can look forward to some changes of note in the upcoming generation of Westlake tyres.

ZC Rubber invited its European partners to the Nürburgring (Photo: Tyrepress / Stephen Goodchild)