Magazine for the professional tire industry
Issue link: https://mtd.epubxp.com/i/714120
MTD August 2016 By Joy Kopcha T ire World of North Carolina LLC is looking to expand its wholesale used tire business. Mick Smith and Martin Gabalda already sell bundles of hundreds of tires in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. It's only natural their next market would be — Latin America. Actually, it's not an entirely new world for Tire World. e Greensboro, N.C.-based company used to ship used truck tires to dealers in the region, but low-cost imports interrupted those sales. It's hard to sell used tires, even if they're from top-tier manufactur- ers, when new low tier tires cost less, the men said. But they see a new market, so the company is trying Latin America again, and Smith and Gabalda set up a booth at the seventh Latin American & Caribbean Tyre Expo in Panama City to meet potential customers. "ey're looking for light truck tires here, 16-, 17- and 18-inches," Gabalda said as he and Smith greeted visitors to their booth. ey're certainly not the only ones testing the market. "We might as well get down here," said Mike Levenda, a sales manager for Alligator North America Inc. He and Blendi Bega were showing the company's lineup of tire valves and tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS). And they were a bit surprised by all the interest in TPMS for trucks. V. Krishnaram, CEO of Emrald Resilient Tyre Manufacturers Pvt. Ltd. in India, returned to the show for the first time in five years. e industrial tire company has sales offices in Belgium and Dubai, and wants to expand to the U.S. as well as Latin America. Krishnaram said he'd like to open offices in Atlanta, Ga., as well as either Panama or Peru. Among Emrald tires' applications are at sea ports and on airplanes, he said. "Latin America has great potential. Latin America needs a quality supplier. ey've been infested with cheap products." He said dealers were asking different questions during the July 2016 show than they had previously. ey used to ask about price first. is year, price wasn't even part of the conversation. "I feel this market has great potential for a product like ours." Comments like those support the work Gus Lima has done to build this show over the past seven years. Lima is CEO of Latin Expo Group LLC. Commied to keeping this expo focused on tires, he hasn't allowed auto parts suppliers to set up shop. Instead, he's added a separate expo for them. e Latin Auto Parts Expo was held in the same convention center a month before the tire expo. "Latin America is a good place to do business," said Lima. "ere's a need. Everyone who walks through the door has been veed as a tire dealer or a company that deals in tires, such as construction with a lot of equipment. We call them. We don't just look at the internet. We have a team in Miami that does the veing. "A lot of people tell me 'at SEMA there are 106,000 people.' But how many are going to buy tires? Does anybody know? I Focus on industry 'Latin America has great p Expo brings global tire industry to Panama Chinese tire companies play a big part in the expo. Gus Lima designed the three-day show with them in mind, knowing tariffs on their products in the U.S. would make Latin America a prime market. Marcelo Ancora, general manager of Elgi in Brazil, talks to a customer about the company's commer- cial tire equipment. 64