Giti Tire
GiTi Tire (Europe) reports that it is aiming to increase market share in Portugal with a new distribution structure for the GT Radial brand. From this month Tiresur, which already controls the brand’s Spanish distribution, will be responsible for the passenger car, 4×4 and light truck tyres, while SEA will continue to control the commercial vehicle segment including medium and heavy truck and bus tyres.
GiTi Tire has appointed Andrew Brady to the position of Product and Pricing analyst and Ashleigh Warren as European Marketing assistant. The newly filled positions will strengthen the company’s head office team, with both recruits assuming responsibilities across the relevant product portfolios in the company’s four main brands; GT Radial, Primewell, Runway and Dextero. Brady brings more than a decade’s worth of tyre industry experience with him, while Warren is new to the sector, having previously worked for a business software firm.
The flagship European brand of GiTi Tire, GT Radial may have been selling truck tyres into European markets for less than half a decade, but it has come a very long way in a short space of time. In one of its major markets, the UK, the company believes it now holds third place in terms of market share, saying that it now outstrips big players Hankook and Continental with upwards of 13 per cent of the country’s one million truck tyre unit sales. It believes it holds the global number four spot in the TBR segment. The latest step forwards – unveiled first at the CV Show in Birmingham and then to a wider European audience at Reifen 2012 in Essen, Germany – has been the introduction of the company’s REE Tread development, a hot cure retreading programme, with the GTR990 regional trailer pattern in size 385/65R22.5 representing GT Radial’s first commercial vehicle retread tyre. Significantly, the tyre uses the Chinese brand’s own made-in-China casings and is manufactured by “a renowned retreader located in the south-west of England”, in the company’s words.
Stapleton’s Tyre Services is offering a 32GB iPad every week until Christmas as part of a Primewell Key Dealer promotion. Any Primewell Key Dealer ordering at least 12 tyres during a single week from the Ultra High Performance, High Performance, Comfort and Van tyre ranges will be automatically entered into a weekly draw that runs from 1 October to 14 December 2012.
So far GT Radial has launched 12 new tyres in 2012, and intends to introduce a further ten before the end of the year. Two of the tyre maker’s latest products are on display at the IAA Commercial Vehicles show this week – the GAR820 steer axle tyre and GDL617 drive axle pattern.
During his keynote address to the US-based International Tire Exhibition and Conference on 18 September, Giti Tire executive chairman and PT Gajah Tunggal Tbk director Dr. Enki Tan shared that China’s tyre market faces a number of changes in the coming years. He referred to the growth of the middle class and increasing numbers of younger consumers in China; he said that incomes in China are rising – workers’ average wages are expected to rise from five per cent of the US average to 25 per cent – and opined that the most significant change will come through the Chinese government’s target of raising domestic consumption to reach 61 per cent of the country’s GDP by 2022.
For the first half of the 2012 financial year, Giti Tire Corporation has reported revenue of RMB 2.06 billion (£205.0 million), a year-on-year decrease of 7.0 per cent. The Giti Tire Pte. Ltd. subsidiary says this decline was a combined effect mainly attributable to decrease in sales volume and increase of average selling price. Lower sales mainly reflected a slowdown in China related to the construction and property sectors, coupled with measures undertaken by the Chinese government to restrict credit availability. The export market decrease was largely brought about by the financial crisis in European markets, Giti Tire Corporation added.
Unlike the passenger car tyre side of the business, which had been established and built up over several years before GiTi opened up its UK operation, the truck tyre segment had to be established from virtually nothing. Now the company claims a unit market share that puts it close to third in the UK.
With GiTi Tire having launched 12 new tyres in 2012, and with 10 more due before end of the year, the company has announced that it is taking six of its latest truck and bus tyre products to the IAA commercial vehicle show in Hanover. Two of the new GT Radial products – the GAR820 steer axle and GDL617 drive axle patterns – will form the foundation of six product debuts in hall 16, stand A43.
GiTi Tire has appointed Gillian MacRae as finance controller – Europe. The company says that the McRae’s appointment will strengthen its management team. She will be responsible for the planning, monitoring and management of company business plans, with an initial focus on UK and German markets, across all four main brands: GT Radial, Primewell, Runway and Dextero.
The GT Radial Performance Centre (GTPC) programme for independent garages is to receive a series of enhancements as the brand’s manufacturer GiTi Tire and its UK distributor Micheldever Tyre Services commence a significant three-year growth plan. Micheldever chief executive, Paul Fox claims the enhanced GTPC programme is “the most exciting brand proposition in the UK tyre business today” at its launch at GiTi Tire’s European Technical Centre, MIRA.
Peter Foulkes has been promoted to the position of marketing director Europe – Commercial Tires at GiTi Tire. According to the company, Foulkes has played a leading role in the rapid expansion of GT Radial and Primewell sales in the European truck and bus tyre market.
Immediately preceding the Reifen 2012 show at which its GT Radial brand had an impressive Hall Three stand, GiTi Tire held its Dealer Conference at which future growth plans were discussed for the GiTi Group’s full portfolio of products. Managing director Europe, Richard Lyons said that its European operation will continue to grow profitability in 2012 and 2013 by gaining volume share in mature markets and achieving breakthroughs in emerging countries. Speaking at the GiTi Dealer Conference at Reifen 2012, Lyons stated that these goals would be achieved in unprecedented economic times by the continued introduction of high quality products with premium performance, a first-class level of service and an improved value-proposition.
Inspired by a “strong product offering”, large UK wholesaler Micheldever Tyre Services has appointed Matt Horscroft to the newly created position of GT Radial brand manager. GT Radial's distributor in the UK, Micheldever has forged a strong relationship with the GITI Tire-manufactured brand. GT Radial general manager UK, Brian McDermott has described Micheldever's commitment as “unquestionable”. In return, Micheldever said that GT Radial’s commitment to quality – demonstrated recently at MIRA (see Tyres & Accessories’ June edition for details) – and comprehensive new product programme had inspired the creation of the role. Horscroft has over 22 years in the sector with manufacturer and distributor experience gained in sales, marketing and purchasing roles.
The UK’s major centre of excellence for vehicle research and development also houses the world’s ninth biggest tyre company, GITI Tire’s European Technical Centre; in May Tyres & Accessories joined representatives of the company and its UK dealers in visiting the site for a demonstration of its current high performance passenger tyre range. With an eye for the spectacular, the company’s test drivers at MIRA demonstrated the performance characteristics of current products such as the Champiro HPY, fitted to a BMW M3, and the Champiro HPX on an Ariel Atom for fast laps showing the tyres’ dry handling ability. Attendees at the event, which included representatives from the company’s exclusive UK distributor Micheldever, also tried for themselves the Champiro 228 on the wet circles track, and the Adventuro M/T off-road tyre in Mira’s 4×4 testing track. Contrasting with the high performance demonstrations was an amusing competitive element featuring a Fiat Panda, a parking cage and the unmistakable smell of burning clutch.
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