Japan-based Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. (Yokohama) will consolidate its various off-highway businesses into one single entity under its Grand Design 2020 (GD2020) medium-term management plan. This new entity, named Yokohama Off-Highway Tires (OHT), will merge the Alliance Tire Group (ATG), which Yokohama bought four years ago, and its worldwide off-the-road (OTR) tyre businesses.
The consolidation will result in a closer integration of Yokohama’s brand power, high quality and global sales network with ATG’s high growth potential, diverse product lineup and superior cost competitiveness.
In order to meet a wide range of customer needs in the global OHT market for tyres used on construction and industrial vehicles, as well as agricultural and forestry machinery, Yokohama’s unified global entity will offer the full range of OHT, from small forklift tyres to ultra-large radial off-the-road (ROTR) tyres. The entity’s new leadership team will reportedly be distributed between Tokyo, Boston, Amsterdam and Mumbai to handle various markets.
As a first step, Yokohama Rubber’s OTR tyre business in the US will be combined with Alliance Tire Americas Inc. (ATA) on January 1, 2021. The combined entity will be named Yokohama Off-Highway Tires America Inc.
Meanwhile, integration plans for the rest of the world are being finalised and will be communicated in the near future.