It’s tough to compete with a tire brand that successfully combines quality, price and a commitment to customer service.
Sailun has made a splash in the Canadian market by offering quality tires at everyday affordable pricing. While their family of products includes a number of brands including Sailun, Blackhawk, RoadX, Rovelo and Ironhead, the common denominator is quality and value.
“When you combine our value proposition, coupled with the quality of our product and the high level of customer service, we’re hard to beat,” says James McIntyre, VP of Sales, Canada, Sailun Tire. “We believe we offer the most value and best customer experience in the marketplace.”
While the Sailun brands are well known around the world, the products that make their way into Canada have been designed and engineered exclusively for our market.
“We have a North American product team, and we do the majority of our research and development work in North America,” McIntyre explains. “So even though the tires are made overseas, they’re designed here in North America, specifically for the needs of North American drivers.”
Advanced technologies
The company has made advancements in manufacturing technologies that are a direct result of their investment in research and development. One of these technologies is known as liquid-phase mixing, which is revolutionizing the capability of rubber compounds. In short, liquid-phase mixing results in tires that last longer, are more cut-resistant, more wear-resistant, and cooler running.
Sailun also does a lot of tire testing, and McIntyre says Sailun’s tires can go head-to-head with the more established brands, and “hold their own.”
“We know, from objective tire testing, that we offer the best value in the tire industry today,” McIntyre adds. “That’s why we’re so successful, and that’s why we’re doing so well with our tire dealer network.”
McIntyre argues that it’s time to get over the idea that factories are located in Asia. Sailun has plants in Vietnam, Cambodia, and China, but so do many of the established tire brands.
“It’s no longer about the country of origin,” he adds. “Most manufacturers make tires in Asia. Our plants are state-of-theart, and we’re a quality manufacturer, so it really doesn’t matter where the tires are made, because they’re designed and engineered here.”
Get what you pay for
Most consumers would agree that the adage, “You get what you pay for,” applies to pretty much everything in life, including tires. So how can Sailun offer a quality product, made in advanced state-of-the-art facilities that competes head-to-head with some of the more established tire brands, but at a fraction of the price?
Ron Dolan, President of Sailun Tire Americas (STA) explains. “The costs to produce a tire are very similar,” he says. “Where the difference comes into play is when we talk about marketing dollars. When a tire company sponsors a major sports league or is the ‘official tire’ of some big event, that’s expensive.”
Dolan adds that some other companies have massive overhead and huge staff numbers. “In contrast, we’re a very lean organization,” he says. “We take great pride in our work ethic and we maximize our efficiencies with a focused team.”
That small team includes industry veterans who know the tire market, understand the manufacturing part of the business, and have decades of experience working with tire retailers to deliver the sales and the satisfaction everyone in the supply chain expects, including the end user who drives away on Sailun tires.
“We’ve hired some of the best talent in the industry,” Dolan notes. “Everyone on our team is passionate about what we do.”
Selling the industry
Rather than market the Sailun brand to consumers, Dolan and his North American team are focusing their efforts on educating tire retailers, and helping the people sitting behind the counter to better explain and sell Sailun’s brands to end users.
Convincing the men and women behind the counter isn’t difficult, McIntyre says. “Once they try the product on their own vehicles, or they test drive vehicles on a track equipped with our tires, most drivers can’t tell the difference between a Sailun tire and a higher-priced product from another tire manufacturer. The only difference is price. The consumer ends up paying 25% less, on average, and that’s a significant savings.”
For 2022, Sailun is ramping up efforts to educate retailers, and to equip them with the information they need in order to have an intelligent conversation with consumers about the value Sailun offers in the market.
“We have a heightened focus on retail development this year,” explains David Pulla, Manager of National Sales PLT Division, Sailun Tire. “The retailers that are part of our network aren’t simply investing in a tire to stock on their shelves. Rather, we’re offering an entire package that includes our expertise and our efforts to increase product knowledge and awareness, along with our marketing initiatives at the store level.”
McIntyre adds, “We’re really going to focus on our dealers and make sure all our efforts are concentrated on making it easy for them to sell a tire to a consumer.”
Partnering with Sailun
Pulla is quick to point out that Sailun not only offers great value for the end-user, but that a partnership with Sailun means retailers enjoy exclusive territories. “By approaching the market with a multi-brand strategy, we’re able to offer our partners a variety of premium products and work closely with them to satisfy the demand of their clients,” he adds.
Sailun stands behind their brands with comprehensive warranties that offer extra peace of mind, both for the consumer, as well as the retailer. The 3-Point Warranty provides customers with the following benefits: Coverage for Defects in Workmanship and Materials; 30 Day Trial; 7 year/3 Retread Guarantee; Road Hazard Replacement Program.
“In 2022, we’re focused on becoming trusted advisors to our distributor partners, and on providing them with a well-rounded toolkit for their automotive retailers,” Pulla says.
For more information about how you can take advantage of Sailun’s commitment to tire retailers across Canada, please contact [email protected] or call toll free: 1-855-499-3240.
