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NEW ORLEANS REVIEW
GRI to Develop Franchisee Network in the US Market from 2017
where it stocks the tread rubber after shipment from the Malaysia based manufacturing base.
In order to further strengthen its distribution in the US market, the sales subsidiary is also looking for a location to open a new warehouse in the Southern part of the US. “The third warehouse would most likely to come up in Florida, South Carolina or North Carolina in the
next quarter,” Mata stated.
GRI is extensively promoting Goodway’s Supercool branded rubber in the Central and Latin American market also. The company says it supplies almost 100,000 pounds to these markets, in addition to which the company commenced supplies to Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia and Honduras in late 2014.
Ray Mata, Sales Manager, GRI based at the Texas office
Low cost Chinese tyre brands continue to trouble the retreading industry around the world. The overwhelming presence of new Chinese tyres continues to pose challenge to the retreading industry, and retreaders are coping with them in their own way. They draw new strategies with changing market conditions to remain competitive in the business of retreading. Uruguay based retreading company Reco Puma imports a significant number of old casings from far-off Japan but with the small Uruguay market
flooded with new low cost Chinese tyres, that business has almost gone.
“We use to import old casings from Japan every month and retread them to sell locally, but with new Chinese tyres flooding the Uruguay market, that business has reduced to merely 20 per cent,” said Antonio Corbi, Director, Reco Puma. Interestingly, a high 16 per cent duty is levied on the import of Chinese tyres but the Uruguay market continues to import them in large quantities.
General Rubber, Inc (GRI), part of the Malaysia based tread maker Goodway Rubber, is keen on developing a franchisee network in the US market. “A franchisee network would help develop our brand in the US market and also helps us in understanding the requirements of the market better as we work more closely with our clients,” said Ray Mata, Sales
Manager, GRI, based at the Texas office. “We will start working on it from 2017,” he added. “We believe that a franchisee network will go a long way in establishing the brand among the retreading industry in the US.”
GRI supplies around 400,000 pounds of rubber into in the US market every month. It has two warehouses in Texas and California,
Reco Puma Coping with Low Priced Chinese Tyres in Uruguay
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