A new Kumho tyre designed with low rolling resistance and fuel savings in mind has been released in the UK. The Kumho Ecowing ES31 is available in 38 sizes, and Kumho Tyre UK says almost 70 per cent of these sizes carry an EU tyre label rating of ‘B’ for fuel efficiency – this is, it adds, – an “impressively high margin by any standard.”
15 months after bidding got underway, Qingdao-based Doublestar and its consortium of Chinese banks and investors bought 45 per cent of the South Korean tyremaker Kumho Tire over the Easter weekend. Whatever other clauses are written into the deal, following the release of shares issued for the purpose of the sale, Kumho Tire’s creditors will own a 23.1 per cent shareholding in the tyre maker, down from 42.01 per cent. This makes the Chinese tyre firm controlling shareholders in South Korea’s Kumho Tire.
Sale agreement or receivership – according to creditors, 30 March remains the deadline for Kumho Tire. Yonhap News Agency writes that Lee Dong-gull, chairman and chief executive officer of the Korea Development Bank, has ruled out an extension to this deadline. This means that should its labour union not agree to Qingdao Doublestar Tire’s purchase of a 45 per cent share in the company, from Monday 2 April Kumho Tire will be bankrupt and placed under court receivership.
Korea Development Bank (KDB), the main creditor of Kumho Tire, has plans to put a no-strike clause in Doublestar’s current bid to buy Kumho.
It won’t be a Good Friday for Kumho Tire if an agreement between its creditors and the labour union representing its workforce isn’t reached by the end of this week. Friday 30 March is the deadline set for a formal consensus regarding the sale of a 45 per cent share in the tyre maker to China’s Qingdao Doublestar Tire for KRW 646.3 billion (£421.7 million).
The Kumho Crugen HP91 has been selected as an original equipment fitment on the latest generation BMW X3. The tyre of choice is a 245/50 R19 105W XL version – these are supplied direct to BMW’s American plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where the X3 is produced. From there the completed cars are shipped across the Atlantic for sale in the European market.
Having previously been ruled out of the running to buy Kumho Tire, Qingdao, China-based manufacturer Doublestar Tire is once again in pole-position to buy the South Korean tyremaker. “Doublestar Tire is the best option in view of a fast restoration of Kumho Tire and its corporation in China and the minimization of our losses”, Kumho’s creditors said in a widely reported statement.
Kumho’s 4×4 and SUV tyre range has been further enhanced by the addition of the Crugen HP91 and Crugen KL33 SUV offerings. While there are numerous Kumho 4×4 products from which to choose, the majority of requirements will be covered by these new on-road products, plus the cross-functional new Road Venture patterned MT51 and established KL71. Between them they cover everything from such top end SUVs as the Range Rover and BMW X5 to the ever-popular Land Rover Defender. Because this is an SUV-orientated feature and because they are Kumho’s latest products, here we focus on the HP91 and the KL33 SUV.
Consumers are increasingly likely to research their tyres online pre-purchase, regardless of whether they complete an e-commerce transaction. Peer review website Tyre Reviews has therefore become an influential destination in the car tyre market: discussing Tyre Reviews’s audience, owner, Jonathan Benson, states that 94 per cent of Tyre Reviews visitors are engaged in the tyre buying process, with its users predominantly “high earning, well educated, male automotive enthusiasts looking for the best possible product for their vehicle.” In 2017, the site delivered 25 million pageviews to tyre buyers, and claims to have influenced around “one-sixth of UK tyre sales.”
Kumho has introduced its latest eco tyre, the Ecowing ES31, to the UK market, joining its high performance Ecsta range. The new tyre will gradually replace the established KH27, and is available initially in a total of 38 14 to 17 inch sizes, almost 70 percent of which carry a B label grade for rolling resistance. The sizes including all the key fitments for such best-selling small and medium-sized hatchbacks and saloons as the VW Polo and Golf, Fiat 500, Audi A1, A2, A3 and A4, BMW 1 and 2 Series, Peugeot 208 and Renault Clio.
Kumho Tire Co., has reported net losses of 88.56 billion won (US$81 million) for 2017, up significantly from 37.9 billion won a year earlier, according to the Yonhap news agency’s translation of a regulatory filing on the matter.
Changrin Suk has been named the new president of Kumho Tire Europe. The 59-year old succeeds Charles Kim, who served in this role since March 2015 and has now left the company.
At the start of the year both Kumho and long-term UK distributor Micheldever announced that the two parties would stop working together at the end of May. The upshot is that from the second half of 2018 Kumho will being distributing its car tyre products itself. It’s too early to talk about this in any more detail and this month’s car tyre feature is somewhat more product orientated, so here’s a run-down of the South-Korean tyremaker’s UK 2018 car tyre range.
Kumho Tire has been attempting to downsize for a possible sale, according to the Korea Times. At the same time, the Korea Development Bank (KDB) is threatening to withdraw support for Kumho Tire unless the tyremaker can agree restructuring terms with its trade unions. And this in turn could trigger receivership.
Following the news that Micheldever and Kumho Tyre are ending their 15-year distribution relationship, Kumho Tyre (UK) Ltd. (KTUK) has confirmed that the cooperation will end in May 2018. After that date, KTUK will itself be responsible for distributing Kumho branded car, 4×4 and van products in the UK (excluding Northern Ireland).
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