Fresh from exhibiting at the Hillhead show in Buxton in June, Gripen Wheels UK director Ray Coulson has reported that the company’s rapid growth is continuing in 2010 despite the fallout of the recent recessionary period. According to Coulson, sales for the first six months of 2010 grew fast enough to equal the full year sales total the firm accrued in 2009. While your first instinct might be to suggest that such growth must have come from a low base in preceding years, when you consider that the firm has been operating in the UK for less than three years and that the whole tyre business has faced significant challenges during this period, it would be churlish not to take notice of the rate of the company’s expansion.

Asked what’s behind the recent impressive growth at Gripen, Coulson explained in a recent interview with Tyres & Accessories that increased take up of new accounts and improved product mix were at the root of the strong sales performance. Prior to 2010, Gripen UK’s was largely reliant on sales of imported budget brands in relatively small (as far as OTR products go) sizes. This year has seen the company source and deliver a complete collection of premium brand products and adjust its offering to include the larger (and more valuable) sizes of OTR product in addition to the budget and smaller sized tyres it has always sold. Together these two factors mean that, before the seventh month of 2010 is concluded, sales are already ahead of the company’s full-year 2009 result.