Global Top Tier

President Cho Hyun-sik (center) of Hankook Tire delivers a speech at the “Hankook Tire Experience Day 2016” event held at BMW’s Driving Center on Yeongjong Island on March 22.
President Cho Hyun-sik (center) of Hankook Tire delivers a speech at the “Hankook Tire Experience Day 2016” event held at BMW’s Driving Center on Yeongjong Island on March 22.

 

South Korea’s leading tire maker Hankook Tire Co. held the Hankook Tire Experience Day 2016 event at BMW’s Driving Center on Yeongjong Island off Incheon, west of Seoul, on March 22, announcing to jump into a global top tier brand. Based on this, the company aims to grow into a global top tire brand by 2020. As part of its strategy, it said it will supply original equipment (OE) tires to German luxury automaker BMW for its flagship model - the new 7 Series.

Starting with the Mini in 2011, Hankook Tire currently supplies OE tires to BMW’s five models from 1 to 5 Series and also to its sport utility vehicle (SUV) models X1 and X5. The Korean company is hoping to supply OE tires to all BMW line-ups. Moreover, the company is supplying OC tires to three premium German automakers BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi as well as Porsche. 

Hankook Tire plans to complete the construction of the Hankook Tire Techno Dome, its new central research center that will play the role of enhancing its tire manufacturing technologies, by the end of the year. 

At present, the company is strengthening its brand portfolio and brand power by meeting the needs of customers in 180 countries around the world and implementing a multi-brand strategy that satisfies the needs in every market. For this, Hankook Tire has eight regional headquarters all over the world, and two manufacturing facilities in Korea, three in China, one each in Hungary and Indonesia in order to develop tires that suit local areas. It is also expected to complete the construction of its manufacturing facility in Tennessee, the United States, later this year.

In addition, the company launched its new global strategic tire brand, Laufenn, in November 2014. The Laufenn brand offers consumers seeking value, quality and style a wide range of quality products to meet a variety of driving conditions. Beginning with Americas, Hankook Tire has released the Laufenn in China, Middle East, Southeast Asia and Europe in 2016, and it will strengthen its global expansion in the future.

Through an “inorganic growth strategy” in the auto sector, the company plans to grow into a global tire and automotive component producer by 2020 by watching trend changes in the auto industry and monitoring market trends. 

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