Tyrepress China has learned that the owner of the Barkley brand is looking for partners in Europe. According to Lisa Zhong, the brand owner, the products requiring European distributors include truck tyres, agricultural tyres, and radial and bias OTR tyres.
The ‘new look’ Barkley range will be shown at The Tire Cologne next week. With a refreshed corporate identity, including a restyled barkley-tyres.com website, Barkley will exhibit at the trade fair (Hall 7.1, Stand E-020, E-028) along with its latest truck, agricultural and OTR tyres.
A pair of new winter products have entered the Barkley truck tyre range for European markets. Brand distributor Heuver Tyrewholesale shares that the Barkley BLW12 and BLW18 Wintergrip feature a modern, wide tread that offers excellent traction. The extra millimetres in the pattern are said to help “significantly reduce wear and tear” and improve working lifespan.
Heuver Tyrewholesale has called 2016 a particularly successful one. Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the company increased turnover by five per cent over 2015, despite a difficult market with considerable pressure on prices. It also invested in people, online tools and its warehouse to expedite dealing with customer requirements, all of which resulted in what Heuver terms an intensification of customer contact.
There’s around 5.5 million Finnish speakers in Scandinavia, and each and every one of them can now peruse Heuver Tyrewholesale’s web shop in their native language. The launch of the www.heuver.fi site is the opening shot in a campaign to gain a greater foothold in Finland, a market where Heuver foresees great opportunities for the Barkley brand.
Last year, Heuver Tyrewholesale announced its intention to place greater emphasis upon the agricultural tyre segment, and backed this statement up with the rollout of the Barkley brand, a range the wholesaler holds distribution rights to throughout all of Europe, including the UK. In response to customer demand, Heuver Tyrewholesale has now expanded the Barkley range through the addition of a new, wider BLA01+ tractor tyre sizes.
Heuver Tyrewholesale reports that the four exhibition days at Reifen 2016 were a “great success” for the company. The Netherlands-based wholesaler placed a strong focus on Aeolus and Barkley at the show – Barkley, still a relatively new brand for Heuver and a Reifen newcomer, gained its own show stand, while the Aeolus tyre range was represented in a large, open exhibition space shared with Heuver.
It is now half a century since Mans Heuver entered the tyre business, swapping his job as truck driver for that of tyre dealer and opening a small shop in Den Ham, the Netherlands. Over time he and his two sons, Jan and Bertus, transformed this business into a large wholesale operation bearing their name, Heuver Tyrewholesale. But while the company is looking back on its history throughout the course of this year, Heuver Tyrewholesale is also looking forward to the future. This year sees the wholesaler renew its focus on the agricultural market and increase its efforts with OEM partners.
In 2015 Heuver Tyrewholesale increased turnover by 18 per cent. According to the company, this growth represents a major step towards Heuver’s objective of doubling turnover. There firm was also successful online, where Heuver Tyrewholesale realised growth of 14 per cent via its online channel. In terms of brands, Aeolus and Barkley are said to have made a major contribution to the overall result.
Heuver Tyrewholesale will give particular attention to the Aeolus and Barkley brands at Agritechnica in Hannover (10-14 November). Aeolus exclusive to Heuver in certain European markets, while the Barkley brand is fully exclusive across the region. Heuver will be located in Hall 22 A14a.
After obtaining regional exclusivity, Heuver Tyrewholesale has begun sales of the Barkley agricultural range in Europe, including the UK. The Netherlands-based wholesaler expects sales interest due to the variety of fitments available and the price/quality ratio on offer (Heuver Tyrewholesale says it extensively tested the brand before taking it on), and anticipates that Barkley will play an “important” role in Heuver’s exports to Eastern and Southern Europe, as well as to Scandinavia.
Heuver Tyrewholesale is to showcase three messages at Autopromotec: that the company delivers “almost all A brands”; secondly, that it has a strong range of own import brands for many European markets; and last but not least, that a new brand called Barkley is being added its existing range. In Bologna, Heuver will be displaying a selection from its range of truck, agricultural and earth-moving tyres. Heuver’s stand is located in Hall20-C45.
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The Barkley brand’s official website (Photo: Barkley)