Publicly listed tire maker Goodyear Indonesia (GDYR) is eyeing a bigger share of the country’s growing sports utility vehicle (SUV) market by introducing a new midsize SUV tire.
The new product, called Wrangler TripleMax, will be launched in November. It is expected to double the size of the company’s SUV market to around 10 percent in 2017, up from the current 5 to 6 percent.
“The SUV has become a sexy market for us as it has seen a constant growth within the Asia-Pacific region in recent years, including in Indonesia,” Arfianti Puspitarini, Goodyear Indonesia’s consumer product and trade marketing manager, said during the Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS) in Tangerang, Banten, last week.
Puspitarini even said that SUV cars “were like a second living room”, especially for people living in big cities like Jakarta.
Sales of SUV cars, such as Daihatsu Terios, Mitsubishi Pajero Sports and Toyota Fortuner, increased 15.28 percent year-on-year to 131,966 units throughout 2015.
Their share accounted for 13 percent of overall car sales of around 1.01 million units last year, according to the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo). Entering 2016, the SUV segment made up 22.1 percent of total car sales of 267,228 units in the first quarter.
Goodyear claims that the Wrangler TripleMax, which was also launched in Thailand and the Philippines last month, would optimize a car’s braking system, with a two-meter shorter braking distance compared to competitors in the midsize SUV segment.
Goodyear Indonesia sales and marketing director Yedi Yunadi Sondy said the new product would fill in the market of the company’s previous product, the Wrangler HP All Weather, which was sold for between Rp 700,000 (US$53.35) to Rp 1.5 million each.
It sells premium SUV tires as well, with price tags ranging from Rp 1.2 million to Rp 2.2 million each, that cater to high-end vehicles, such as Nissan Terrano or Mazda CX7.
The company’s first-quarter financial report showed that it booked $40.6 million in revenues, 2.9 percent lower than the first quarter of 2015. More than half of the revenues came from domestic sales, which surged 8.3 percent year-on-year.
The report also showed that it managed to cut various business costs that led to $629,344 in net profits in the January to March period, overturning the $205,864 of net losses that it posted in the same period last year.
During a May interview in Jakarta, Goodyear Indonesia corporate secretary Wicaksono Soebroto said the company had decided not to expand to other export markets this year.
On the contrary, it plans to strengthen its domestic market following a slight recovery in the country’s economy and the government’s goal to boost infrastructure projects nationwide.
“Those infrastructure projects certainly need lots of trucks [to transport building materials]. We can also provide more tires for them,” said Goodyear Indonesia managing director Allan Loi.
Its overseas markets currently consist of those in Southeast Asia, Oceania and in other countries. It suffered from a 78.39 percent plunge in annual sales in Oceania last year, mainly because of an 80.13 percent decline in Australia.
At present, Goodyear has 89 outlets in 27 provinces across the country, with 26 outlets located in the Greater Jakarta area.
