TOYO Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd. has established and started operation of its tyre sales subsidiary in Thailand , early this April.
The Bangkok-based Toyo Tire (Thailand) Co. Ltd. (TTT), which has a paid-in capital of 100 million Bhat (estimated 320 million yen – a 100% capital contribution by Toyo Tires Group), will oversee original equipment (OE) and passenger vehicle aftermarket tyre sales with local sales channels, scheduled to begin in April and July, respectively.
According to Toyo, it has positioned Thailand as a vital strategic market in South East Asia, being the largest car market in the region, citing that the country has incurred a year-on-year increase in February of over 40% in terms of volume of cars sold.
The company has sold their brand tyres through local distributors in Thailand and the TTT is expected to further capture a greater share of the demand in the country.
It said, it will further boost its sales of tyres mounted onto new vehicles to local car makers. And with SUV*2 and pickup trucks comprising over half of the cars owned in Thailand, the cmpany also plans to aggressively promote sales of light truck tyres, which even among Toyo’s products are particularly popular in North America.
The 11-employee TTT will sell tyres imported from Japan along with tyres supplied by Toyo Tyre Malaysia Sdn Bhd. (TTM), which is expected to be completed in May 2013.
Toyo said it is in the process of building a global supply system centered in three key regions: North America, Japan and Asia. Among these, Asia is positioned as the most important market for boosting the sales growth foundation of the tyre business unit.