Yokohama attempts to build truck tyre business in Europe

By David Shaw, ERJ staff

Hanover, Germany -- Yokohama Europe GmbH is one year into a ten-year programme to build a truck tyre business in Europe. The company has employed Sedat Atilgan as Senior business development manager for truck and bus tyres with the task of winning up to five percent of the European market by 2017. The date is the 100th anniversary of the founding of Yokohama Rubber Company in Japan on 13 Oct, 1917. it was the first tyre company in Japan at the time.

Atilgan has spent his first year developing contacts with fleets, tyre service companies and working with OE truck makers, to develop a range of tyres suited specifically to European conditions. The company also has rought in a Japanese tyre engineer, Keita Rachi, whose job is to co-ordinate with the factories in Japan and Thailand to produce the right tyres for this market.