STARCO is completing the range with heavy tires

With over 25 years experience in development and sales of tyres for forklift trucks and other heavy industrial machinery, Henno Plaggenborg is well prepared for his new task of developing the growing market for STARCO FLT and heavy-duty industrial tyres.

Since its establishment in the early 60’s STARCO has made a name for itself in the small tyre and tube market for internal transport, lawn & garden and small traction equipment applications, becoming the preferred partner for any tyre or machinery dealership in Europe.

In 2006, STARCO began to develop its own range of solid rubber FLT tyres, resulting in 2007 with the launch of the now well-known TUSKER tyre. TUSKER was designed by STARCO with the manufacturing initially being outsourced. TUSKER was a revolutionary tyre for the FLT market, giving better steering precision, a more comfortable ride, better stability and a longer service life. Yet, as STARCO CEO Peer Ejlersgaard explains, STARCO engineers were still not satisfied:

“It was difficult to find other manufacturers whose production technology and quality assurance processes could deliver a product that met the stringent STARCO specification and it was difficult to find manufacturers with the sustained production capacity necessary to deliver the product.”

From the experience of establishing four other factories, STARCO had already understood that the company could better control quality and logistics by handling manufacturing in-house, so the solution for TUSKER was obvious, the establishment of a new solid rubber tyre factory in Sri Lanka, which since opening in 2012 has delivered all TUSKER tyres, as well as the new UNICORN tyre.

With its own tyre manufacturing as well as four wheel manufacturing facilities worldwide, STARCO is now a serious and respected play in the wheels and tyres market, not only on the smaller product ranges which the company grew up with, but also on large wheels and tyres for agricultural and industrial applications. STARCO manufacturing facilities have won the accreditation and approval of a wide range of OE manufacturers as well as the trust and business of major aftermarket distributors worldwide.

As Business Development Manager for industrial tyres, Henno Plaggenborg is using the current CEMAT and forthcoming REIFEN trade shows to introduce himself and the company to OEM and aftermarket customers, and to present the latest industrial products from ATG (Alliance Tyre Group), the Galaxy Port tyre range and the established Kenda Kinetic K610, demonstrating that the growing product portfolio and focus on the industrial segment will give STARCO the opportunity to support industrial customers in new ways.