Over the last 20 years, agricultural tyre business has not been very important for the Continental group, and at times, the whole segment was in question. Later they got over this with off-take-agreements, when Eastern European companies were allowed to produce tyres with the logo of the prancing horse, in order to maintain market representation. Has this all gone by now? It seems so, because since they have been producing agricultural tyres in Otrokovice’s new plant where some new machines have been installed, price and quality go together again, hence Werner Flebbe’s (55) managers in Hanover feel to be able to cope with the world-wide competition. However, Otrokovice is just a production site from where the agricultural tyre section can order, but it is an important one. Today, Continental certainly is the group’s first choice, offering the widest assortment and being distributed most efficiently. But already, the Barum brand, with its impressive variety, is being called a “volume brand”, and incidentally, in the radial tractor tyres segment, including the 75 series, it bears a remarkable resemblance to the Continental Contact. While Conti tyres are being sold throughout the whole trade, it was Flebbe’s idea to distribute Barum tyres in Germany only through some core dealers. Six big dealers (Wennekamp, Vergölst, Ihle/Günzburg, Schwarz, Semex and Brock/Weilerswist) have been given the exclusive right to promote Barum tyres, which means that they can sell to both trade and consumer. However, Hanover went a step further: The Uniroyal brand, which could have been placed very easily on the German market, has been offered exclusively. In an interview Thorsten Bublitz, responsible for marketing and sales of Conti’s agricultural tyres, assured, that by now Meyer Lissendorf has nearly all important sizes available, and it is planned to offer the complete range, with 68 sizes altogether, in September.