Giti Tire and exclusive distributor Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS) have completed a programme of 12 customer roadshows throughout the UK. Showcasing GT Radial Performance Centres (GTPC), the events, which took place between August to October, were attended by more than 80 new and existing GTPC partners, the manufacturer states.
It’s been a year since Tyres & Accessories first met the recently-appointed head of Giti Tire’s new R&D Centre Europe. At the time, R&D director Stefan Fischer shared the tyre maker’s plans and showed off the still largely-empty premises where specialists would soon be hard at work. A lot has changed in 12 months: Upon returning to the Hannover, Germany-based facility, we saw it was well and truly up and running and, in the important area of original equipment development, even further established than originally planned.
Giti Tire’s Michael Kaletta (45) has died suddenly, following a heart attack on Friday 26 September. A small private ceremony attended by family, friends and many of his colleagues was held on 2 October. The company described itself as shocked and saddened by Kaletta’s untimely passing. Richard Lyons, managing director – Europe, stated: “At the […]
Giti Tire has launched the Runway Enduro SUV, a new tyre designed for highway use in the entry level mid-range sector. Angelo Giannangeli, Giti Tire marketing director for passenger car and light truck – Europe, explained that the tyre delivers to consumers a strong combination of performance and durability at a good price point. Giannangeli […]
It seems we have a new UK commercial vehicle tyre market leader – Hankook. As well as featuring “Industrial and Speciality tyres” from pages 58 to 69 of this September’s edition, this month we have also taken a detailed look at the development of UK truck tyre market. This meant speaking to high level contacts at various manufacturers, wholesalers and third-party analysts in order to produce an original analysis of the status quo. Our analysis was compared to a similar exercise Tyres & Accessories undertook in 2009 in order to give the overview some longer-term perspective. The results are published on pages 24 to 43 for your reading pleasure and engagement.
Raising more than £1,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care, GT Radial’s Le Mans 24 Hour Cycle Race team pedalled 169 laps of the 4,185m Circuit Bugatti. The team, comprising Brian McDermott, managing director UK for Giti Tire; Ellis Hadley, senior test engineer; Martin Gibson, senior test engineer; and Bertrand Saint-Supery, OEM EU technical director, covered a total of 707,265m to finish 340th out of 458.
The recession had a disproportionately large impact on the haulage industry. With many firms going to the wall and others trimming their fleets right back and running their tyres to death, this all had a similarly big impact on the truck tyre business too. Back in 2009 Tyres & Accessories observed that the combination of shrunken demand and aggressive competition from up-and-coming manufacturers (namely Hankook at that time) really shook the market up. Five years later, comparing the market then and now reveals that this “shake-up” trajectory continues well into the new decade, with both Hankook and Giti occupying significant market share positions that simply were not feasibly early in the new millennium.
GT Radial will be displaying 18 tyres at IAA Hannover 2014, of which 11 make their show debut including the recently launched GSW226 winter steer axle and GTL925 low platform trailer pattern tyres.
The GSW226 is the brand’s first specific ‘winter’ marked tyre, and carries the three peak mountain snow flake (3PMSF) symbol denoting all season capabilities and exceptional performance in severe winter conditions including snowy, icy and wet roads.
The ever-swelling ranks of TyreSafe gathered at St Johns Hotel, Solihull to launch the 2014 edition of Tyre Safety Month. Chairman Stuart Jackson, enthusiastically wielding an enlarged coin, demonstrated the well-established 20p test during his introduction of the “driving rain, driving safe” theme; the test is particularly relevant to this year’s tread depth focused theme of aquaplaning. In 2013 tyre pressure took centre stage, but with 2013-14 being the wettest winter on record, and October usually the wettest month of the year anyway, TyreSafe has chosen to present a core message informing drivers of the importance of tread depth in combating what is arguably the most spectacular and frightening road safety phenomenon – in addition to reinforcing other messages, such as pressure, Jackson adds.
Igino Schiavi has been appointed by Giti Tire as market analyst for Italy, with responsibility for passenger car and light truck (PCR) and truck and bus (TBR) positioning strategies. His main role will be to collect and analyse market data to benchmark the company’s GT Radial, Primewell and Runway tyre brands on both price and performance to ensure best product placement.
Top ten tyre manufacturer, Giti Tire has confirmed its first GT Radial original equipment homologation fitments for the European passenger car and light truck market. Both Renault Nissan and PSA Peugeot Citroen will fit the manufacturer’s tyres on European models, with the latter’s Peugeot Partner and Citroen Berlingo models running on GT Radial in Western European markets.
A quartet of riders from GT Radial are to tackle the Circuit Bugatti in the Le Mans 24 Hour Cycle Race. Brian McDermott, country manager UK for Giti Tire, manufacturer of GT Radial; Ellis Hadley, senior test engineer; Martin Gibson, senior test engineer; and Bertrand Saint-Supery, OEM EU technical director make up the team who will be training hard and raising funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
This year’s annual tyre manufacturer rankings have brought with them a number of key changes at the top of the table. The growth of Far Eastern manufacturers and Chinese companies in particular has long been observed, but 2014 sees Singapore-based Giti Tire break into the top 10 and Taiwan-based Maxxis/Cheng Shin Rubber retains its ninth position. Hot on Giti’s heels, 11th place ZC Rubber (producer of the Westlake brand) gained one place from its position in last year’s table. Indeed this part of the table is extremely close and, such is the competition at this level, if ZC Rubber had achieved the same figures as last year (assuming no-one else had done any better and excluding currency effects) it could have been in 10th position.
GT Radial has launched its new passenger car tyre for the mass market, the Champiro FE1. Angelo Giannangeli, marketing director – Europe for passenger car and light truck said that the tyre’s launch “is a huge statement of intent”. It will be available on European markets between September and October.
Giti Tire is returning to the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on 29 June after playing a key role in last year’s electric division victory by Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima and his ‘Monster Sport E-Runner Pikes Peak Special.’ Last year, Tajima switched from Falken to Giti tyres for the Pikes Peak event and set a new electric record of 9:46.530 last year after Giti Tire engineers hand cut tread grooves into the tyres after the road became wet from a 30-minute rainfall – a measure the driver said gave him much-needed grip. For the 2014 event, he will compete in a vehicle that is based on last year’s machine but incorporates a number of performance enhancements, including specially designed 17-inch GitiCompete GTR1 slicks (340/710-18) in place of the 20-inch version used last year.
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