American tyre maker Goodyear is interested in starting production on the Romanian market, yet it would rather wait for an opportunity to team up with a local producer.
"We are always open to such an opportunity," Jarro F. Kaplan, Goodyear EMEA (Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) division president told Ziarul Financiar.
"We found a suitable place for production activities in Eastern Europe. We had the opportunity to join forces with local producers in Poland, where we found Debica and in Slovenia where we found Sava," Kaplan says. He added the Romanian market was not offering such a possibility at the moment, yet any opportunity that might come up would surely be considered.
"The Romanian market has a high development potential, especially when it comes to focusing on high-quality, high-performance tyre makes," Kaplan said.
He explains the high performance models account for only 10% of the Romanian tyre market. "Such tyres actually make up 55% of the entire market in Western Europe, so that there is room for growth," the Goodyear official added.
Goodyear's Romanian sales went up more than 10% last year, Kaplan says, totalling over $20 million. "The growth will be even higher over the next few years, the more the automotive market develops, as the new cars will need tyres."
Goodyear Romania country manager, Octavian Velcan, verifies this trend. "We logged our biggest growth on the premium segment last year. The Romanian market is constantly maturing, so that we see consumers opting for quality products, which is the driving force behind our growth," Velcan says.
Goodyear estimates to have gained about one third of the imported tyre market in Romania.
Its archrivals on this market are French producer Michelin that bought two factories held by the Tofan Group in 2001, Continental, which is running productive operations in Timisoara and imported brands such as Pirelli.
Goodyear, one of the leading tyre makers in the world, has been operating on the Romanian market for 15 years.
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