Germany is one of the largest specialty tire markets in Europe. With all the major players being present in the country, competition has been very high. However, GRI has been able to continue on a strong growth journey by offering a good value proposition and ensuring that the end users are satisfied with GRI products, and their needs are fulfilled.
GRI focuses on selling agriculture tires through a distribution network, where the main customers are Agri machine (tractor)dealers, contractors and tire dealers, as well as contractor specialized companies that offer their services and machinery to farmers. “We have our warehouse in the south part of Germany and we deliver tires to all areas in the country. We also sell direct containers from Sri Lanka to the bigger distributors,” explained Teemu Tirronen, General Manager, GRI Germany.
With challenges in the global economy, especially in the logistics sector, transactional costs have increased significantly. To mitigate the resultant price changes, GRI took a forward-thinking approach in October 2021, where we started the wholesale business for agriculture tires in Germany. “The wholesale business has increased steadily, and we have been able to secure medium and small-scale customers, who are mainly contractors and Agri machinery dealers. With such customers have a better possibility to use our value proposition compared to big distributors who usually look solely at the price,” said Teemu Tirronen.
GRI is a Tier 2+ segment specialty tire supplier and has to compete with brands that have already been in the German market for many years. However, customer feedback for GRI tires has been extremely positive, where they highlight that the quality of GRI tires is at the same or even higher level than some of the other Tier 2+ brands. All-round performance on and off-road, and wide tread width of the Agri radial tires are some of the features appreciated by the customers.
On GRI Material Handling tires, Teemu Tirronen said, “We are currently supplying GRI material handling tires through our exclusive distributor, Pneuhage/Interpneu. They are one of the biggest tire chains and wholesalers in Germany. Pneuhage has plans to significantly grow their material handling tire sales in Germany with GRI tires and we support Pneuhage in their efforts in every way possible.” Supplying our Premium Plus ULTIMATE XT to KION for their new LINDE forklifts is also helping GRI to grow the aftermarket sales in Germany. GRI is also proud to supply our material handling tires to other prominent OEMs such as LIEBHERR, BLICKLE and CAT.
As GRI continues to strengthen its presence in Germany, the focus for agriculture tires will be on securing strong regional partners and enhancing the customer base of agricultural machine dealers and contractors. GRI will also work closely with our OEM partners and Pneuhage to grow our material handling business in Germany.
