Tyre Brands - A Consumers Guide

In the not too distant past, the decision of which brand of tyre to choose was relatively simple. You had a solid core of household brand names- Goodyear, Dunlop, Michelin etc. plus a few budget alternatives. However, in recent years, the tyre market has become much more sophisticated and now UK consumers have an absolute plethora of brands to choose from. Believe it or not, at the last count, there were a total of 254 different brands available in the UK (source: Tyre Industry Federation 2007). The aim of this article is to explain why the consumer has been provided with such a bewildering choice of tyres and to explain the manufacturers' thinking in creating such a situation.

There are a number of reasons why the number of tyre brands has grown. Firstly the tyre industry in other parts of the world, particularly Asia, has grown rapidly and all these manufacturers are now looking to export their goods to Western Europe. The UK has been more susceptible than most to the influx of tyres from the Far East as the UK contains the most economy oriented consumers in Europe. Also important has been the growth of the tyre wholesale trade in the UK, wholesalers being constantly on the lookout for new brands to represent. This, together with the growing importance of national retail chains such as Kwik-Fit, ATS, National Tyres etc., has led to an increase in demand for private brands, exclusive to one particular wholesaler or retailer.

The most important reason for the increase in the number of tyre brands, however, is the fact that the UK consumer has become much more sophisticated. Faced with increased competition, the tyre manufacturers have realised that they can no longer expect their premium brands to be all things to all men. The high technology-premium price leading brands are no longer capable of maintaining sales amongst the proportion of end users whose main priority is price. With the realisation that the majority of the economy priced tyres being imported from Eastern Europe and the Far East are of good quality, consumers who are not looking specifically for a premium household brand have been switching to alternative brands. The leading manufacturers, aware of the need to avoid a collapse in the price of their leading brands, have realised that they need to adopt increasingly complex multi-brand marketing strategies if they are to maintain their market share across all sectors of the market.

Continental were probably the first major tyre manufacturer to introduce a multi-brand strategy back in the late 1980s. They needed to do this because they possessed a number of brands which, at the time, were strong in some geographical areas but weak in others. This contrasted with global premium brands like Michelin and Goodyear. Continental were ridiculed for this strategy at the time but in they long term they were proved to be right and now all major players offer multiple brands to the market combining premium, mid-range and budget brands as well as private and exclusive brands aimed at specific distribution channels. To illustrate this let us take a look at what the five largest manufacturers are doing:

Bridgestone and Firestone are the two main brands offered by Bridgestone/Firestone UK. The Bridgestone brand is the most upmarket of the two brands, being targeted in the UK more at the high performance consumer. Firestone was historically better known by the general public than Bridgestone although this situation has gradually switched round thanks to Bridgestone's heavy promotional spending (especially on F1) as well to the gradual re-positioning of the Firestone brand as a mid-range product.

Other Bridgestone manufactured tyres you might come across are as follows:

Dayton (the company's main economy brand)
Europa (created for Firestone's network of wholesale dealers)
First Stop (a mid-range brand created specifically for the First Stop network of dealers, all independent dealers affiliated to Bridgestone/Firestone).
Norauto (production shared with Michelin)
Seiberling

Bridgestone also has a shareholding in the Turkish tyre manufacturer, Lassa.

Continental's two main brands are Continental and Uniroyal. Historically Uniroyal was the strongest of these two brands in the UK but this is now marketed as a second premium brand (positioned just below Continental). The Uniroyal brand continues to stress its historical marketing strength as "the rain tyre".

In addition to these two main brands Continental also produce the following brands. Some of these are well known Continental mid range and budget brands, others are brands sold exclusively through specific wholesalers and retailers. Also included are private brands owned by specific wholesalers/private brand companies but manufactured in Continental factories:

Semperit
General (US manufactured and particularly well known as a 4x4 tyre)
Viking (exclusive to Viking Express)
Gislaved (exclusive to Viking International)
Barum (economy brand)
Mabor (sold through Bond International)
America (private brand)
Comet
Country Star
Eurostar prpduction shared with Pirelli)
Eurostone (private brand - Nordisk Daek)
Eurotec (private brand - Meyer Lissendorf)
Global
Minerva (private brand - Deldo)
Platin
Road Star (private brand - Tyre Expert)
Speeding
Tyfoon (private brand - Intersprint)

Following a co-operation agreement with the Japanese manufacturer, Sumitomo Rubber, Goodyear now operates two premium brands in Europe, the house brand - Goodyear and the Dunlop brand. In addition, Goodyear possess a number of second line products, these being:

Fulda (mid range)
Kelly (budget brand)
Lee (budget brand)
Debica (budget brand)
Sava (budget brand)
India (budget brand)
Pneumant (budget brand)

Of the above budget brands Kelly is Goodyear's main economy line with Lee operating as the main out-and-out budget line. Debica and Sava are also widespread economy/budget lines originating from the company's acquisitions in Poland and Slovenia respectively. The India and Pneumant brands originate from the Dunlop co-operation.

Other exclusive and private brands manufactured by Goodyear include:

Arrowspeed (Kwik-Fit)
Challenge
Delta
Flamingo (van den Ban)
Hermes
Power 2000
Seal
Star
Tecar
Trident
Voyager
X'Start

In addition to Europe's leading brand, Michelin, the French manufacturer market four other car tyre brands. These include the BF Goodrich brand which is the market leader and a premium brand in the 4 x 4 sector. Goodrich car tyres are also sold as an economy line. Also marketed by Michelin is Kleber, a mid-range brand and Riken, best known as an economy high performance tyre. At the extreme budget end of the market, Michelin sell the Kormoran brand, manufacured in Poland by the company's Stomil-Olzstyn subsidiary. In the truck tyre market, Michelin also own the Hungarian brand, Taurus.

Other private and exclusive brands manufactured by Michelin include:

Accis
Ambassador
Electra (Sinton Tyres)
Eurotyre
Norauto (production shared with Bridgstone)

Pirelli markets two economy brands in addition to the premium brand, Pirelli, these being Ceat and Courier. The Armstrong brand of 4 x 4 tyres is also owned by Pirelli as is the Metzeler brand of motorcycle tyres.

Other Pirelli manufactured brands include

Eurostar (prduction shared with Continental)
Point S

Despite the multiple branding strategies of the world's largest manufacturers, the majority of the world's tyre brands are still manufactured independently (although many manufacturers operate using technology bought from the leading producers.

The tyre brands of other leading tyre manufacturers are as follows:

Cheng Shin (Taiwanese manufacturer)

Maxxis
Cheng Shin
Austone (shared with Cooper)

Cooper

Cooper
Avon
Austone (shared with Cheng Shin)
Cheng Shan
Dean
Euromaster
Henley

Hankook

Hankook
Atlas
Aurora
Kingstar

Kumho

Kumho
Marshal
Milestone
Roadchamp
Tyrechamp

The follwing brands, common in the UK, are all manufactured by independent manufacturers:

Camac
Deestone
Fate (Fateo)
Federal
GT (Gajah Tunggal)
Lassa (BRISA)
Matador
Nexen
Nokian
Silverstone
Toyo
Yokohama

NB: The above information was, at the time of writing, accurate to the best of our knowledge. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know and we'll correct the information.