Ralson Tire North America Inc. is now shipping commercial truck tires to the U.S. as it builds its domestic distribution network.
The company, which made its U.S. debut at the 2022 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show, is making its Ralson and Accelus truck tire lines available to distributors and dealers.
Ralson Tire North America is already receiving positive feedback about the products' quality and performance, says Brian Sheehey, the company's senior vice president.
Ralson brand products – which are “more application-based,” according to Sheehey - are designed for full-service commercial tire dealerships that buy directly from the company.
The company plans to sell Accelus tires through wholesale-distributors that reach smaller dealerships.
The Accelus lineup includes “the bread-and-butter of what any commercial tire dealer of any size would sell – a core of maybe 40 SKUs in regional, pickup and delivery and steer/drive/trailer tires," says Sheehey.
“With Ralson, we’ll produce anything the customer wants,” says Manjul Pahwa, managing director of Ralson Tire North America’s parent company, Ralson Tyres Ltd.
The company's brand segmentation is “very simple and rational, so (distributors and dealers) don’t have to worry about carrying too many sizes, since shelf space is at a premium,” says Sheeley.
“We’ve seen companies introduce new products and move into the U.S. with one brand and their distributors (end up) competing with their dealers, which can drive the margin opportunity for dealers out of the equation. We do not want our dealers and distributors to compete against each other with the same brand.”
Ralson and Accelus brand tires also come with different warranties, says Sheehey.
All Ralson brand products come with a seven-year, three-retread warranty, while all Accelus brand tires have a six-year, two-retread warranty.
Both brands are manufactured at Ralson Tyre's factory in India, which Sheehey says is “the newest truck tire plant in the world.”
The facility, which spans slightly more than one million square feet and has the capacity to manufacture one million truck tires per year, started production in May 2022. (Located near four ports, the plant will be able to produce four million units annually, according to Pahwa.)
“Between May 2022 and the first quarter of this year, we tested product in-house and via field evaluations,” says Pahwa.
Ralson Tire North America's original U.S. distribution plan was to sell only by container, “but we realized that in order to better service our customers, we needed local distributors and dealers.”
The first batch of Ralson and Accelus brand tires hit the U.S. in March 2023, says Jim Mayfield, president of Ralson Tire North America.
“That was a container of what we call ‘seed tires.’ We sent them to customers we had been talking to. Now we have multiple containers on the water.”
Establishing a position
Ralson Tyres was founded in the 1950s as a bicycle parts manufacturer and graduated to producing bicycle tires in the 1960s, according to Pahwa. “Over time, we became the largest bicycle tire manufacturer in India and one of the largest globally,” he says.
As the company grew, “we entered other product categories. Around 10 years ago, we started toying with the idea of building a new business and started developing (commercial truck tire) technology. From there, we began looking at multiple markets for the product. The U.S. market was prioritized as one of our entry markets."
The next step was construction of Ralson’s plant, a process that started before COVID-19 and continued through the pandemic.
“Now is as good of a time as any” to establish a position in the U.S. market, according to Pahwa. “We’re not a factory operation. We’re trying to build long-term relationships with end users and our dealer partners.”
Mayfield says Ralson Tire North America is growing its sales team. “We brought Brian onboard in October 2022. We’re recruiting other people. We have to have boots on the ground and people who can sit down with dealers and work with their people to sell the quality of our product. We’re a brand that’s fully committed to the U.S. market.
“We’re having conversations with distributors and dealers across the country,” he continues. “We also know that having excellent customer support and the infrastructure in place to service distributors and dealers will be very important.
"We’re starting that process and are putting a team together” at Ralson Tire North America’s base in Franklin, Tenn.
The company is using “third-party warehousing” at the moment, says Mayfield. “We have tires located within a couple of hours of the Nashville area, which is a good, central location to reach the majority of the eastern U.S.
“We’re also investing in marketing. We have a significant presence on social media and will continue to utilize that. And we’ll be back at the SEMA Show this year.”
