Kenda has strengthened its global team with two new appointments, bringing exceptional sales support to Europe and adding extensive engineering know-how to the Kenda European Technical Centre (KETC). Michael Eckert joins as senior sales manager, Engin Ünal as senior engineer, effective 1 August.
Davanti has unveiled a major distribution deal with Dutch wholesaler Tyre Trading International (TTI) at Equip Auto in Paris. The British tyre brand, which is now distributed in more than 60 countries globally, inked the deal offering next-day delivery across France, Germany, and the Benelux countries at the event.
The latest Davanti Tyres project, the Protoura Sport, made its Far East debut at CITExpo in August. We caught up with Michael Eckert, sales director for mainland Europe, at the show. He told us that Davanti was currently testing the Protoura Sport prior to submitting the tyre to product certification firm IDIADA. “Volume production will probably then start before the end of this year, and the first Protoura Sport tyres should arrive in Europe in March or April 2020.”
Davanti launched its new Wintoura winter tyres at Autopromotec 2017, marking the company’s initial step forward into the sector. The range of winter patterns is the result of three years of design and development that culminated at the Test World Oy testing ground in Finland. Peter Cross, general manager of Davanti Tyres says, “Three years from an initial concept to production is a long time but it has been well worth the wait…
Two years after the brand’s launch at Autopromotec, and after two years of development, Davanti is bringing four new winter patterns to the Bologna show later this month. The Davanti team exhibiting at Autopromotec will also be larger, following the recent appointment of two key team members.
Davanti’s first full year has seen the brand engage in a broad and intensive range of sales and marketing activities, led by a rapid fire trade show appearance schedule. Interest in the brand has been quick to ignite in its UK home market. The company’s management has consistently said the wildfire-like growth of Landsail – distributed by Grouptyre member and Davanti Tyres sister wholesaler Oak Tyres, and manufactured, like all of Davanti’s current products, by Qingdao Sentury Tire – in the UK has not been the focus; according to them Davanti wants to grow in a more controlled, brand-driven manner. So far the company has certainly more than fired a warning shot across the bows of other brands operating in the highly competitive aspirational mid-range sector of the UK market, while Davanti’s recent appointment of European sales director Michael Eckert, formerly of Sailun, Hankook and Michelin in his 21-year career, demonstrates its seriousness about growing into continental Europe. So this was an excellent time for the company to host its first dealer event; a three-day Product Experience trip at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.
It is little over a year since Davanti’s launch at the Autopromotec show, and within this short space of time the brand has gained a foothold in the UK and Irish tyre markets. Now the team behind Davanti have their sights on Europe, and to help establish the brand there have appointed Michael Eckert Davanti’s European sales director.
Sailun Tyres has launched two new passenger car tyres developed particularly for the European market in an event held in the Brittany village of Lohéac, France. The tyres both appear in the company’s Atrezzo PCR line; the Atrezzo Elite asymmetrical high performance tread and the Atrezzo Eco, designed as a more eco-friendly alternative to sit below the Elite in terms of size profile. Compared to their predecessor, the 90-size SH-402, the tyres both have patterns in keeping with current market trends. During the presentation of the two new tyres, Sailun also gave details of its first all-season tyre, the Atrezo 4 Seasons, which has also been launched in five sizes. The event follows Sailun’s collaborative events in Lohéac and Val d’Isère with its French distributor DistriCash, though this time the manufacturer was “standing alone,” in the words of Sailun Jinyu (Europe) managing director Martin West, with guests attending from across Europe.
Tyre manufacturer Sailun showed its commitment to the US market by bringing online its tariff-beating Vietnam plant earlier in the year. Now, at an event co-hosted by distributor DistriCash in the picturesque Brittany village, Lohéac, France, the manufacturer has demonstrated its growing response to European markets’ performance demands with its latest ultra-high performance tyre, the Atrezzo ZSR.
April reports of the Sailun Group’s move to raise capital of “up to 1.2 billion yuan” (c. £114 million) through the private placement of shares is just the latest positive step in the development of a name still in its adolescence. While the merger with Jinyu in 2012, only its tenth year in existence, placed the company alongside larger manufacturers in China, overseas developments have followed, with a large factory in Vietnam online since February. Developing a European base has also come quickly, with Sailun establishing an office headed by managing director Martin West in Solihull by 2010, who has worked quickly to build partnerships with local wholesalers in the various European markets. Meeting West in Solihull, Tyres & Accessories asked how corporate growth has informed Sailun’s approach to the European market.
Sailun Tyres has expanded its European team with the appointment of Michael Eckert as senior product marketing manager (Europe). Eckert has more than 18 years’ tyre industry experience that covers various roles at Michelin and, most recently, Hankook. These positions include a number of senior roles related to truck tyres, racing and motorsport teams and responsibility for original equipment.
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