By Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat

China’s largest tire manufacturing company Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd. is aggressively expanding its presence in the Philippines with at least 25 percent growth target this year focusing on the robust replacement market with possible expansion in the country.

Johnny Sy, president of New Century City Marketing Corp. (NCCMC), exclusive distributor of West Lake, the brand of Zhongce Rubber tires, told Manila Bulletin Business at the company’s 25th Anniversary celebration they have already appointed 400 dealers nationwide to aggressively pushing West Lake into the top three tire brands in the country.

“In celebrating our 25th year milestone, we are thankful to our dealers for making West Lake one of the top brands in the country,” said Sy, who also praised the company’s excellent advertising and marketing teams.

Sy also raised the possibility of the company in partnership with the Zhongce Rubber to finally put up a manufacturing plant in the country in the future.

“We are not yet planning for a local manufacturing operation, but we will be looking into that in the near future,” he added.

At present, West Lake accounts for 5 percent share of the local tire market that is dominated by American, German and Japanese brands.

“We hope to be in the top three brands as soon as possible,” he said.

With the support of Zhongce, Sy believes they can achieve their goal to make Zhongce the largest in the country. Both companies have partnered in the business for the past 15 years already.

Despite strong market competition, Sy said they are banking on three factors that would push West Lake’s growth — competitive and reasonable price, after sales service, and good marketing and advertisement. “We are very positive because the Philippines is a developing country and the gross domestic product is growing very fast so it is not just the economy that is growing but also the number of cars,” he said.

Richard Li, general manager of Zhongce Rubber, said the Philippines is a good market and that they have a good growth forecast.

According to Li, the company will be investing in “flagship stores” for its performance tires which he said will be focusing on the replacement tire market.

Li noted that while the current car sales are down, this has not affected the huge tire replacement market. Its tire supplies to the Philippines are imported from its plant in Thailand and China.

“We do not compete on price but we always ensure safety, reliability and value of our tires,” Li said.

Li also echoed Sy’s sales forecast of 25 percent growth from 10-20 percent growth in the past years.

NCCMC, which was founded in 1993, is one of the top importers of tires in the Philippines. Its business encompasses a full range of automobile tires such as passenger car tire, SUV tire, truck bias tire, truck radial tire, off the road – radial & bias, industrial tire, and motorcycle tires. The company currently has 300 to 500 active reseller and dealers nationwide.

NCCMC was appointed as the Exclusive Distributor for Westlake tires here in the Philippines.

Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd. (ZC-Rubber manufacturer of Westlake Tires) was founded in 1958 and is the largest and fastest growing manufacturer for passenger tires, SUV tires, truck and bus tires, off the road tire, industrial tires, motorcycle tires and rubber products in China. Is currently ranked No. 1 tire manufacturer in China, No. 10 tire manufacturer in the world by Tyre & Accessories magazine with sales revenue of $3.22 billion.

With an extensive product range, covering all sectors of the car tire market, Westlake is continually investing in developing its production capacity, range and brand offer to become a leading force in the quality tire segment.

ZC-Rubber has become the largest and fastest-growing tire manufacture in China, as it opened its new production plant in Thailand with annual capacity of 5 million pieces of passenger car and light truck – marks another step toward Internalization. To provide safer and more valuable tire for worldwide customers, it already set up oversea R&D centers and subsidiaries in Europe, North and South America.