BLUEFIELD, W. Va. (Sept. 23, 2011) — King Tire Service Inc. has become Continental Tire the Americas' first U.S. Conti LifeCycle retreading licensee, opening a retread plant today in Bluefield.
King Tire's 25,000-sq.-ft. retread plant employs 16 and will be capable of producing 60,000 ContiTread truck tires annually, according to Conti.
“We chose to become a ContiLifeCycle licensee so that we could offer something very important to our customers — performance,” King Tire Owner Sam King said in a prepared statement.
“Continental is the first to offer a product that we feel performs the same from the new tire manufacturing all the way through the useful lifetime of the casing,” he said. “This high level of technology, along with Continental's great customer service and support, is exactly what we've been looking for, and we think our fleet customers will feel the same way.”
Bluewell, W. Va.-based King Tire previously was allied with Michelin Retread Technologies. King Tire employs 150 at six locations in West Virginia and two in Virginia along the I-77 and I-81 corridors, selling both commercial and passenger/light truck tires, including the Continental and General brands.
“King Tire is recognized by its customers as a premier provider of commercial truck tires, both new and retreads, along this important highway corridor,” said Paul Williams, Conti's executive vice president for truck tires in the Americas, who lauded the dealership for its reputation built over the past 40 years.
Conti is in talks with selected truck tire dealers across the U.S. and eastern Canada to expand the ContiLifeCycle network, Mr. Williams said, and expects to complete several additional licensing agreements before year-end.
“With our turnkey solution including these premium products, marketing support and competitive pricing, we are also confident that we have an attractive package for dealers looking for a manufacturer to be their business partner in retreading — not their competitor,” Mr. Williams said.
Conti rolled out the LifeCycle concept in March, pledging to build a network of retreaders in the U.S. and Canada to help develop a line of proprietary ContiTread precured retreads. Conti will supply King Tire and other licensees with tread rubber from a plant in Morelia, Mexico.
The expanded retread strategy is in addition to Conti's existing license agreement for Conti-branded precured ringtreads with Marangoni Tread North America Inc.
Conti and King Tire debuted their relationship and the converted retread plant today at a gala event attended by regional fleet customers.