GRI tracking growth with Dutch acquisition, US appointment

Amsterdam – Sri Lankan off-road tire manufacturer GRI has made its fifth global acquisition in the past five years with the purchase of Dutch tire distributor Klumpenaar Industriebanden.

Founded in 2010, Klumpenaar has been engaged in the material handling tire aftermarket service and distribution business, said GRI in a statement 29 Nov.

Prior to the purchase, Klumpenaar had been a “full importer of GRI tires” into the Netherlands since 2018.

“The European market has always held exciting growth prospects for GRI, and the Netherlands has been a focal point,” said managing director Prabhash Subasinghe.

“We have been associated with Klumpenaar… and we see immense potential to grow our business even further in the Netherlands,” he added.

Klumpenaar will be integrated into GRI’s distribution and aftersales business, GRI Fit.

The acquisition, GRI expects to “make a significant impact in providing exceptional service to our customers.”

The news of the acquisition came a day after GRI appointed a new US sales director with the aim to support growth in North America.

GRI named Michael Connor, “a seasoned professional with in-depth experience in speciality tires”, to oversee the sales, marketing, operations and customer service efforts in North America.

The tire maker said the appointment was part of its effort to step up capacity building with the aim to “aggressively capture greater potential in the market.”

“The US is a significant market for us, and Conor joins us at a time when we are… to pivot the company into a new trajectory of growth,” said GRI managing director Subasinghe.

Conor has more than three decades of experience in the speciality tire sector, having worked in various capacities in multiple companies.

Notably, he has held key positions such as president and CEO Global Tire Supply, LLC; director of original equipment sales GPX International, Inc., and director of OE BKT Tire America.

Immediately prior to GRI, Conor worked as regional operations manager at McCarthy Tire Co.

GRI has been on the growth trajectory in recent years and recently completed phase two of a $100 million expansion project at its speciality tire production factory in Colombo.

With the recent upgrades have doubled GRI’s production capacity to 60 tonnes per day to support the growing demand for the company’s agricultural tire range, which was launched in 2018 across the US, Europe and Australia.