The beast from the East
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The third best-selling truck tyre brand in the UK hails from China. CM discovers the secrets behind its meteoric growth Words: Will Shiers If you were asked to name the UK's three best-selling truck tyre brands, we've got a fair idea what you'd say: Bridgestone, Michelin and Continental, perhaps? Well, you'd be wrong! If we told you that the third spot is held by a Chinese tyre maker, would you be any the wiser? Probably not — after all, how many people realise that GT Radial, the UK's third best-selling truck tyre brand, and parent company Giti Tire hail from China?
"We aren't just another Chinese company," says Giti Tire Europe marketing director Peter Foulkes. He explains that Giti is China's largest tyre manufacturer and operates six factories in the country and two in Indonesia. It has testing facilities throughout the world and a 300-strong R&D team.
But it's the firm's approach to the European market that really helps to differentiate it from some of its Chinese competitors. Before it sold its first tyre, it embarked on two years of product testing on UK roads. This allowed it to develop a range of patterns and tyre sizes specifically for UK operators. "We wanted to get it right from the start," says Foulkes, "and at any point there were 2,000 tyres on test on Europe's roads."
During these two years it also set up a 180-strong network of multibranded independent truck tyre dealers in the UK and Ireland, and took on a dedicated sales team. With all this in place, it was ready to sell its flagship GT Radial and Primewell brands in the UK on 1 April 2009.
It might have launched on April Fool's Day, but the meteoric growth that Giti Tire (UK) was about to experience was no joke. It had a simple business plan, which was to win 10% market share in five years. It achieved 13% in just three years. But how did it manage this level of growth in such a short timeframe?
Foulkes is the first to admit that the timing helped considerably. When the first GT Radial tyres were sold, the UK was already in recession and fleets were looking to manage costs better. He explains: "We came to market with a competitively priced product. We were a credible argument for fleets." He says that the first customers mainly bought trailer tyres. "And I don't blame them either; we were an unknown quantity at the time. But afterwards they came back to buy driveand steer-axle tyres."
Rubber shortage In 2010 there was a world rubber shortage, caused by a combination of a bad harvest and a ramp-up in demand from China. It resulted in long lead times for European truck tyres. "But we had plenty of stock," says Foulkes, who wasted little time cashing in on the European-wide shortage. "We have a close relationship with other markets, so were able to exchange stock to fulfil UK orders."
It's all very well finding new customers, but the real challenge is ensuring that they become repeat business. Foulkes says: "They returned because they appreciated our quality, and our good cost-per-kilometre."
Initially, GT Radial has proved most popular with small operators, but now Giti has its sights set firmly on the mid-sized fleets. Foulkes is confident that its newly launched GT Assist CV roadside service assistance programme and an ever-expanding product range will help. Last year it teamed up with Bandvulc to introduce its first retread tyres, and later this year you can expect to see the GT Combi-Road (aimed at regional and long-haul operations) join the product line-up. A range of fuelefficient tyres are also in development.
Having wrestled the number three spot from Continental, does Foulkes now have aspirations to overtake Michelin and Bridgestone? "No, we just want to sit at the top of the medium tier," he explains. "The premium tyre brands have been making truck tyres for 100 years, and we don't want to be Michelin. We don't class them to be competition anyway, based on them having different routes to market.
"We want to continue doing what we do, and we'll see where the growth takes us in the marketplace." • PETER FOULKES Peter Foulkes joined Giti Tire Europe in 2006, just as the company set up its European operation. Previously he was employed by Goodyear Dunlop, where he worked in the truck division. Before that he held a variety of roles during a 12-year stint at Iveco.