Continued investment in new products and the Falken Fanatic associate dealer program is accelerating Sumitomo Rubber North America Inc.’s (SRNA) growth.
SRNA unveiled a number of new products — including its first all-weather tire and the next-generation of its popular WildPeak A/T A3 light truck tire — during this week’s 2023 Falken Dealer Invitational event in Cascais, Portugal.
"We have some real impactful stuff for you," Rick Brennan, SRNA vice president of strategic planning, told representatives from many of the largest tire distributors and dealers in North America, who together, make up 80% of the company's North American sales.
First, SRNA unveiled the Aklimate, a new all-weather tire that will be available in 53 passenger sizes and 35 CUV/SUV sizes, 14 of which will hit the market in September. “We’ve created a mega-line to cover as much of the market as we could," said Brennan.
With the Aklimate, “we’ve done a lot of things to achieve snow performance without losing tread block rigidity," explained Brennan, who added that the all-weather segment makes up about 8% of the U.S. touring tire market and 16% of the touring tire market in Canada.
The Falken Aklimate features a new, proprietary compound formula designed to enhance wet and snow traction, as well as wear resistance, optimized sipe depths; wide shoulder blocks; a high-edge component pattern design; and more.
“As we move forward, you’ll see even more improvements, especially as (the tire’s) compound technology improves," said Brennan.
Meanwhile, SRNA is building on the success of its WildPeak A/T 3W light truck tire with the launch of the new WildPeak A/T 4W, which will be available in 98 sizes. (Ninety-one sizes will be ready by January 2024.)
"We've done what was needed to give you a product that's a step up from the (WildPeak A/T 3W) and we're convinced this will be well-received by the market," said Brennan, who added that the WildPeak A/T 3W “is probably the most critical product we’ve ever replaced.
“We’ve tried to keep the wide stance-appeal of the 3W and we’ve changed the cosmetics of the shoulder with more staggered blocks. From a visual standpoint, the 4W looks really good."
The new WildPeak A/T 4W also features several performance enhancements. “The 3W has been a great tire, but a few of the areas we wanted to improve (included) handling, plus wet and snow (performance). And we’ve done that with the 4W.”
Rounding out new Falken brand consumer tire offerings is the Azenis RS820. Twenty-six Azenis RS820 sizes will launch during the second quarter of 2024, while 45 sizes will roll out during the third quarter of the year. An additional 17 sizes will be available the following quarter.
Brennan told dealers that with the Azenis RS820, SRNA has "been able to push the envelope quite a bit from where Falken has been with summer UHP tires."
SRNA also introduced several new commercial truck tires, including the Falken RI121 spread-axle trailer tire, during its event in Portugal. The RI121 sports a round shoulder profile for enhanced resistance to wear, as well as wave groove walls that offer increased resistance to rib erosion and other features. The tire will be available this December in the following sizes: 295/75R22.5, 255/70R22.5, 11R22.5 and 11R24.5.
The RI121 is performing extremely well in fleet evaluations, Brennan told dealers.
Also new from SRNA is the Falken SI011, an all-weather drive tire, which is currently available in size 11R22.5. Two more sizes — 295/75R22.5 and 285/75R24.5 — will hit the market during the fourth quarter of 2024.
In addition, the BI837, a new closed shoulder, regional highway drive tire for light off-road and gravel applications, will be available in two sizes — 11R22.5 and 255/70R22.5 — in September 2023, with another size, 295/75R22.5, coming online in November of this year. Two more sizes — 285/75R24.5 and 11R24.5 — will be available in January 2024. Features of the BI837 include wide grooves to minimize stone retention, 28/32-inch tread depth and more.
SRNA's product planning and development teams "are working their behinds off to provide you with the tires you need and want," Brennan told dealers.
FAST growth
SRNA officials also reported on the growth of the company’s Falken Fanatic associate dealer program, which now includes, according to SRNA officials, more than 14,000 members.
In an exclusive interview with MTD during the 2023 Falken Dealer Invitational, Darren Thomas, SRNA’s president and CEO, credited the Fanatic program’s growth to SRNA “taking the initiative to put 30 well-trained individuals on the street who are going to make 10 sales calls per day. Thirty times 10 is 300 and you’re going to sign some percentage of those.
“This is exceptionally hard to do” and has required some reallocation of resources. “When we turned on the FAST (Fanatic Associate Sales Team), we annihilated our budget for advertising and promotion. We pulled it away from consumer and we put it into independent tire dealers, who ultimately sell to those folks.
"You can’t manufacture that type of expansion of distribution at wholesale. It takes brick-by-brick and now we’ve been doing this for four or five years, the math is prevailing and it has simply exploded our business. We’re putting all of our money there.”
When asked if SRNA has made recent enhancements to the Falken Fanatic program, Thomas said “We change it every day. Keeping it simple is one method that works. Always visiting dealers and always signing people up and understanding (that) attrition is part of it is another strategy that works. Without question, our FAST team maintains our relevance in the marketplace, no matter what pressures are out there.”
Thomas called Falken “the premier independent tire dealer’s brand. It’s a brand they can count on (for) margin. They can count on some amount of protected distribution. It’s a brand they understand when the consumer searches for the product online, they’re not going to be embarrassed by low retail price.
“If a tire dealer wants to sell a brand that’s easy, he’s not going to make much money on (Falken.) If a dealer wants to work to sell a brand and be rewarded, that's our brand. The message that’s most important, as it relates to the Falken brand, is we are going to be unwavering in our support of small, independent tire dealers.”
‘Back to life’
During the 2023 Falken Dealer Invitational, Chris de Rosales, SRNA’s director of market intelligence, provided an overview of the U.S. tire market.
"In the last three months, we've seen PLT shipments come back to life," he said. “We’re starting to see sellout come back to life. What’s driving that is vehicle miles traveled. This is what’s creating resilience in the market.”
SRNA, de Rosales added, also is seeing inventories within the industry stabilize. "Inventories have now made their way through a normal cycle. It’s not all doom and gloom. We’re seeing better trajectories,” although the struggling TBR tire market is on track to experience a 16% drop in 2023.
Last year “was almost an anomaly” when it came to commercial truck tire shipments. “Now, we’re correcting” and numbers “are regressing to pre-pandemic levels,” he told dealers.
Dealer reactions
Dealers at the event in Portugal told MTD that they are excited about the new products SRNA unveiled.
"We're seeing a lot more of the all-weather product," said Paul Levengood, president of CJ's Tire & Automotive Inc., a 17-store dealership based in Birdsboro, Pa. "I think it was a good decision for Falken to enter the all-weather segment. I believe the Aklimate will do well for us."
Levengood also praised SRNA’s sales team. “In our industry, it’s unfortunate that the concept of a (tire) salesperson has been lost. But Falken has retained a lot of tire people.”
An all-weather product “is something SRNA needed to have,” said Joe Moore, vice president of purchasing for Point S.
“And the WildPeak A/T A3 has been such a great product for a long time. I trust they’ve done their homework to take it to the next level” with the roll-out of the WildPeak A/T 4W. “I like the changes they’ve made.”
"We're still seeing a lot of all-terrain LT tires, so the WildPeak A/T 4W will be a good opportunity for us," Tom Fanning, who represented Southern Tire Mart LLC at the event, told MTD. “And I think it was smart for (SRNA) to come out with a spread-axle tire.”
The company, he said, “is a fantastic niche player. Their customer service is top-notch and they have well-placed products and programs. We consider Falken to be in the top of its tier and they have the horsepower of (parent company Sumitomo Rubber Industries) behind them.”
Editor's note: Stay tuned to www.moderntiredealer.com for MTD's full-length interview with SRNA President and CEO Darren Thomas.
