The light truck tire segment, which has been Atturo Tire Corp.'s "home base" for most of the company's existence, is now serving as a launching pad into other product segments, according to Michael Mathis, Atturo's president.
Atturo is broadening its product portfolio with the goal of “growing our brand and our business,” he says.
Atturo entered the muscle car tire market in late-2021 with the launch of the AZ850 Muscle.
One year later, the company entered the powersports segment with the Trail Blade X/T SxS and the Trail Blade Boss SxS — both designed for all-terrain, side-by-side vehicles.
Meanwhile, Atturo continues to expand its specialty trailer tire and light truck tire offerings.
The idea is to capitalize on natural “crossovers” between product lines and customers, says Mathis.
Natural synergies
“As we’ve penetrated the light truck tire market, we’ve run into instances of synergies between that market and other markets,” says Mathis.
“One of the best examples is the crossover between pickup truck owners and muscle car owners.”
Atturo’s research shows that around 50% of muscle car owners also own a light truck, he says.
“So here’s a customer base that already knows Atturo from light truck ownership and is open to the brand for its muscle cars. This is an area where we have found a match between our core product and the other vehicle that customer has in his garage.”
Atturo identified the same connection between pickup truck owners and specialty trailer owners.
“If you have a trailer, you have a vehicle to tow it that we’re providing tires for,” notes Mathis.
“And we did the same thing when we went into the powersports market. If you own a side-by-side, you also own a trailer and light truck to tow that unit around.
“There are synergies between different product categories that we can capitalize on and that leads down the path of addressing more markets.
“And that also leads to yet other opportunities for broadening the Atturo product range, broadening our customer base and adding more of what I would call strategic, aftermarket SKUs.”
At the same time, Atturo is expanding its menu of “everyday, complementary replacement tires.”
An example, according to Mathis, “would be to take a (popular) original equipment tire and build a different tread pattern into it” for aftermarket consumption.
“One of the fastest-growing OE sizes is 275/50R22. The traditional fitments on that are 22-inch options for the Chevy Silverado, Cadillac Escalade and Chevy Suburban. I think Dodge also uses that fitment.
“Last year, we took that size and instead of building it in a highway tread, we built that with an all-terrain tread. It’s been one of our most successful SKUs, year-to-date.
“This has created greater profit potential for our dealers and a more unique offering that stands out among the myriad of highway tread tires that are available in that size.”
Simplicity wins
Other factors are driving Atturo’s product expansion strategy, as well, says Mathis.
“The most obvious one is simply the opportunity to do more business by having more products in more categories to address a larger dealer and consumer base. One of the fastest ways to do that is to build out our product catalog.
“At the same time, we want to stay true to our brand and to promote the idea that we’re not trying to be a commodity product.
“The other part is that as we continue to expand our distributor base — in order to get that shelf space and make sure our distributors have a wide enough variety of Atturo tires to justify inventory — we need to offer” more traditional, commonplace products and SKUs, he explains.
“There are a lot of brands that only have that aftermarket-type product and don’t have that OE fitment tire. Every day, dealers are changing 265/70R17s. We want to make sure dealers have an Atturo they can sell every day.”
Mathis says that while supply “has been a rollercoaster for the last few years,” Atturo’s inventory is in what he calls “a healthy place.”
However, monitoring inventory fluctuations has never been more critical.
“As we’ve seen an uptick in business over the last several months, we’re seeing some SKUs go out of stock again. But that’s a reflection of the improved business environment.”
Atturo brand tires are manufactured in four facilities in Asia.
“We’re building tires in Thailand and Taiwan and a limited number in China,” says Mathis, who adds that the factories “are nimble and can support us when we want to build a SKU that has relatively modest or even infrequent demand.
“We’ve been able to source the capacity and we’ve been able to work with partners that will produce these specialty, targeted tires for us.”
One niche that Atturo will continue to aggressively pursue is last-mile delivery van tires.
“A handful of these SKUs have been among our best-sellers. It’s a segment that continues to grow.”
It also offers plenty of profit opportunity for dealers who know to service last-mile fleets, says Mathis.
“A lot of these fleets are not your traditional TBR-type fleets (that have sophisticated tire management programs. They’re subcontractors to Amazon or your local plumber who’s converted from an old van to a Ford Transit.”
In contrast to other tire suppliers, Atturo has purposely shunned creating an associate dealer network for its customers under the Atturo brand.
“Atturo doesn’t have a national associated dealer program, but what we can do is support a distributor that has a local program for its dealers.
“We have a handful of distributors that have their own house programs. This allows Atturo to partner with our distributor in support of their relationship with that local dealer. This is part of our commitment to the independent distributor and dealer channel.”
The decision to not offer its own program under the Atturo umbrella “was born out of our start, when we had a limited catalog and were more of a niche brand than we are today,” says Mathis.
“Our goal is to deliver a tire that will enable the distributor and dealer to make a great margin and allow the consumer to walk away with a tire that outperforms its price point. So rather than trying to force distributors and dealers to hit periodic volume targets or a particular product mix or forcing them into inventory situations they didn’t have demand for, we wanted to give them a tire they could make money on.
“There are a lot of distributors and dealers who are so conditioned on those programs and that back-end money.”
But, Mathis says, there are just as many dealers who are looking for simplicity.
“If a dealer has to make his month-end number and every customer who comes in through the door is going to be pushed to buy a certain product, it does a disservice to the dealership, as well as the consumer,” he explains.
“My belief is that consistency in margin is what leads to volume. We have unique SKUs and our marketing has elevated the Atturo brand from a small-volume private brand into something that’s more nationally recognized.
“We’re focused on those local, independent distributors and dealers and giving them a product that’s not available to every dealer or outlet. That’s what keeps everybody coming back.
“The marketing we do is a differentiator for us,” says Mathis.
“We’ve taken the approach from the start of presenting our product directly to the consumer, so they go into their local dealer and ask for it.
“Events are a huge part of what we do. On average, we’re at 20-plus consumer events a year with a crew, display vehicles and tires. We also do a handful of dealer-focused events. We do a full mix of print, digital and outdoor advertising. And we’ve run a series of TV commercials on cable.
“We’ve put a big effort into raising brand awareness on a scale that’s really bigger than Atturo’s market position. Customers aren’t just coming in and asking for Atturo. They’re insisting on Atturo.”
