STARCO to develop solid tyre distribution network in Asia

21-23 March 2017 STARCO participates in the Asian exhibition TyreExpo. Besides displaying the solid tyre product ranges, the team will give information about the Sri Lankan factory excelling in flexible production of high quality solid tyres. The purpose is to develop the company’s distribution network for solid tyres through partnerships in Asia.

“We have good distribution in the Russian including CIS-countries, South African and the European markets. Both in terms of the collaboration with leading original equipment manufacturers and national distributors. I see our high quality as a good insurance for new customers and a great stepping stone for developing our distribution network in Asia with these competitive ranges,” says Richard Todd, Chief Executive Officer at STARCO, who joined STARCO in 2009 and was COO when establishing the Sri Lanka factory.

STARCO has more than 55 years’ of experience in wheels and tyres and design, develop and deliver complete wheel solutions for a wide range of applications – from the smallest wheelbarrow or trailer, to large agricultural or industrial machines and implements. Complementing to the other three wheel and tyre factories, STARCO opened the Sri Lankan solid tyre factory in 2011. Ever since the factory has increased capacity.

“Our factory is extremely flexible compared to our competitors. Our customers experience no minimum order quantity by size, specification or color. They have very flexible delivery terms, dedicated customer service and the possibility to work with automatic stock and replenishment,” explains Todd.

STARCO recently announced a phase out of its traditional replacement market. This does not mean, however, that solid tyres will be unavailable in the replacement market:

“Going forward, we are focusing on a structured and strategic collaboration with our OE customers and distributors to make our solid tyres available in the replacement market. Today, we already have non-European OE-customers in other segments where their European manufacturing and assembly sites are a key distribution channel for us,” explains Henno Plaggenborg, Segment Director for Industrial Vehicles at STARCO. “Together with the customer, we make a more lean process to benefit both parties – and the end-consumer too. It is now time to expand the strategy into the FLT market.”

Tyrexpo Asia 2017 is the region’s most established one-stop exhibition for tyres, tyre repair equipment, tools and tyre accessories and attracts close to 5,000 visitors from more than 100 countries.

“We see a great potential in Asia, particularly the Middle East, and look forward to learning even more about the potential partnerships as well as discussing business opportunities,” states Plaggenborg.

SOLID TYRES BY STARCO

All ranges are designed, developed and manufactured by STARCO:

• STARCO Tusker – a three-layer design perfect for demanding fork lift truck applications.
• STARCO Unicorn – a two-layer design ideal for general fork lift truck applications.
• STARCO Gecko – a two-layer design based on STARCO Unicorn, designed for challenging weather conditions and extreme surface conditions´.
• STARCO Makhna – a two-layer design based on STARCO Unicorn, perfect for free rolling material handling applications such as luggage trailers.

To supplement the solid tyre range STARCO offers Kenda’s premium pneumatic forklift tyre Kenda Kinetics K610 . This tyres ensures high reliability, great resistance and excellent traction.