Say Pirelli and the first things you think of are high performance cars and stylish marketing. However, Pirelli’s truck tyre of the business has received renewed attention in recent years, especially in light of last year’s takeover of Pirelli by ChemChina. A key part of that acquisition was based on the belief that, while Pirelli is the undisputed technology leader of that relationship (especially in terms of car tyres), ChemChina’s group of companies is known to be at its strongest in the commercial vehicle or “industrial” side of things. Since then, there have been renewed efforts to develop Pirelli truck tyre position in the UK, Europe and globally – a position that is likely to be augmented by addition production capacity (via the ChemChina group companies) in China as well as their brands. Set against this backdrop, Pirelli recently highlighted its partnerships with well-known truck fleets – notably Travis Perkins group here in the UK, a company it has supplied for 20 years.