Tyre Press reports, “At its press conference at the EIMA agricultural show yesterday, Mitas a.s. announced that as of January 2015, it will replace the Continental brand name on its original equipment agricultural tyre products with Mitas branded products. The Mitas tyres it supplies will bear the ‘Mitas Premium’ name; this name is being given to a new product line of agricultural radial tyres for powerful machinery, and includes the HC 1000 and HC 2000 Very High Flexion (VF) tyres and Super Flexion Tyres (SFT).
The VF tyres launched in September 2014 represent Mitas’ latest innovation. “Mitas’ strategy is to build equity in a single brand, namely Mitas. From January 2015, all tractors and harvesters produced by major OEMs that were previously equipped with Continental tyres will be fitted with Mitas Premium tyres,” said Mitas CEO Jaroslav ?echura. “Mitas Premium tyres bear the same premium quality and technical characteristics as Continental tyres. Our OEM partners recognize this, and they accepted delivery and fitment of Mitas Premium.”
The tyre maker negotiated deliveries of Mitas Premium tyres to key agriculture machinery manufacturers such as AGCO, Argo, Claas, CNHi, John Deere and Same Deutz-Fahr throughout 2014. At Claas, newly-manufactured harvesters and tractors have already been equipped with tyres from the Mitas Premium product line since October 2014. Other OEMs will start fitting Mitas Premium tyres on machinery from now through to January 2015. In addition to the HC 1000 and HC 2000 VF tyre ranges, the Mitas Premium range available in European markets also includes the SFT IF (Improved Flexion Technology), CHO (Cyclic Harvesting Operation), SST (Silent Speed Tyre), AC 65, HC 70, AC70 T, AC85 Row Crop, AC90 Row Crop and Agriterra, and Mitas states will continue introducing new products into the Mitas Premium range.
“For example, the VF HC 3000 tyre for harvesters is under development. Mitas will introduce it at the beginning of 2015,” said Pavel Kott, Mitas’ agricultural The Mitas Premium product line will replace the Continental range produced by Mitas. The Czech manufacturer says it is “strongly investing in its own research and development,” and this has led to the introduction of several new products that are solely designed and manufactured under the Mitas brand, including VF and IF products for high-horsepower tractors and new generation combine harvesters.
Mitas has also extended the Mitas range of Super Flexion Tyres, which draw on the performance of Continental SVT. “We have been manufacturing Continental tyres since 2004, and we are confident that Mitas Premium has the same premium quality,” ?echura said. “We will be producing Continental-branded agriculture tyres until 2019, when the license agreement expires, but in long term main focus is on Mitas brand. Our aim is to launch Mitas Premium also for replacement market in the near future.”