Kenda Rubber turns 60, heads to eUniversity

GREEN, Ohio — Anywhere there's sunlight, you'll find a Kenda product, according to CEO Jimmy Yang.

To say the company has grown a lot in 60 years is an understatement.

Kenda Rubber Industrial Co. Ltd. started with 50 employees. Today, the Taiwan-based company employs nearly 50 engineers in Ohio alone. Kenda has more than 13,000 employees at four R&D centers and more than 20 manufacturing and assembly facilities worldwide.

To honor its 60th anniversary, the company invited customers, partners and media to tour the Kenda American Technical Center (KATC), one of the largest tire research and development facilities in the Akron area.

At the April 27 event, Yang looked back on Kenda's history, highlighted its newest products and announced the launch of Kenda eUniversity, an educational website.

In 1962, Chi-Pao Yang, Jimmy's father, founded Kenda in the countryside of Yuanlin, Taiwan, to produce bicycle tires and tubes. Jimmy Yang said Yuanlin often was considered the "Akron" of Taiwan because of the number of rubber manufacturing facilities there.

Chi-Pao Yang's guiding principles were honesty, quality, service and innovation. The company calls the principles "guideposts" that have directed Kenda ever since.

Kenda now manufactures tires for automobiles, bicycles, wheelchairs, powersports, trailers, golf carts and lawn and garden equipment, in addition to steel wheels and roofing products, around the world.

"It takes an unwavering adherence to strong values and quality products as well as dedicated, passionate and knowledgeable team members to earn the privilege to celebrate 60 years as one of the world's leading tire manufacturers," Jimmy Yang said.

Yang serves as the global CEO of Kenda Industrial Rubber and president of American Kenda Rubber.

"In conjunction, we are thrilled to debut several innovative new product lines engineered and designed in our American Technology Center, as well as our eUniversity platform, all of which further demonstrate our commitment to better serving our loyal customers, the industry and the communities in which we operate for the next 60 years," he said.

When talking about the company's history, he touched on a few small moments that stuck out, such as in 1978 when he and his wife moved to the U.S. to expand Kenda in North America.

There also was the time professional golfer and Northeast Ohio native Ben Curtis called him while he was golfing. Curtis, ranked 396th in the world, did the improbable and won the 2003 British Open Championship. Curtis only had one sponsor when he won: Kenda. Yang said the win boosted the brand's name recognition, especially at a time when the brand was breaking into the U.S. automotive tire market.

Soon after, Yang was on the golf course when Curtis rang to let him know he had won and to thank him for being his sponsor.

"Now, I knew he won the British Open, but he had the courtesy of calling me," Yang recalled, joking that there isn't a much better way to look cool on the golf course.

As Kenda established itself in the U.S., it got some help through a joint venture with Cooper Tire & Rubber. When that ended, Kenda began to invest heavily in its own research and development.

Today, Kenda operates technical centers for R&D in Taiwan, China, Germany and the U.S.

Kenda has operations throughout the world, including eight tire manufacturing facilities in Taiwan, China, Vietnam and Indonesia, and six wheel manufacturing and assembly facilities in Europe and eight in the U.S.

"We are truly an international company," Yang said. "Across nearly every terrain, in nearly every part of the world, Kenda has helped customers get where they need to go."

The America Kenda Rubber headquarters is near Columbus, Ohio, in Reynoldsburg. KATC is situated 15 miles south of Akron.

The KATC opened in 2015 and recently finished its build-out. Yang noted that the project began with a grant from economic development agency JobsOhio and the company has invested $20 million so far.

Inside the KATC, Kenda can destroy a tire in just about any way you can imagine. The most recent additions include a dynamic footprint analysis machine and an indoor "wear" machine — that looks like large treadmill for tires.

Tom Williams, vice president of engineering at Kenda America, said they use the machines together to measure a number of characteristics of a tire. They are just a few of many machines.

"These are all ways to do very controlled, very refined testing … so we can design that best product for a premium performance at a value price," Williams said.

Williams is the mastermind behind the KATC site build-out. After seven years of rebuilding and expanding a 1978 multi-tenant building, hiring the team and finding (or building) the machinery — all while revamping its light truck tire line among other projects — he said the KATC finally feels like it is complete.

"Now, we'll settle down, take a breath and really start fine-tuning the research side of tires and stop focusing on new equipment and start focusing on long-term growth," Williams said.

The KATC develops tires for the North American market, assists in the design of European products and seeks to improve the overall development process.

The KATC team measures everything in a precise way to allow them to accurately simulate all sorts of situations. Kenda uses this for their tires and those of their competitors.

In the KATC compounding rooms — think of chefs baking a cake — the team can create and test any rubber compound "recipe." Often it starts with achieving engineering goals and then refining the compounds to meet cost goals.

"The tire research team has revolutionized the tire design process," Yang said.

The team uses all the data it gathers in custom computer modeling systems to design and test tires in a virtual environment. Kenda has said that the modeling is extremely accurate and has significantly sped up development time.

"Our materials team here has mastered the ability of taking high-performance products and developing the formulation that delivers at a competitive cost," Yang said. "And our development team and the contributions of the KATC team brand and create a finished tire design that competes well with the dealers of the industry."

Kenda manufactures its tires for the U.S. market in Vietnam. The company said all four technical centers work closely together and with the production facilities.

"When we talk about premium products, this is how we do that," Brandon Stotsenburg, vice president of the automotive division of American Kenda, said. He called the Kenda process a "constant cycle of development and testing."

Kenda's automotive tires are aimed to fit a unique place in the market, offering the quality of a top-tier tire but at a more affordable price. Kenda said this offers tire dealers a large margin to work with when making a sale.

Stotsenburg noted that the KATC was able to refresh and introduce its second-generation off-road light truck tire line in just seven years — the last of which is the Klever M/T2.

Kenda displayed a number of products across several segments during the event.

The Klever M/T2 KR629 will hit the market in the summer, Yang said. Kenda unveiled its second-generation mud-terrain tire at the 2021 SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

The M/T2 improves upon the previous version — the M/T — in terms of mud, rock and loose material handling, as well as improving wet and dry handling and cornering, the company said. The tire will launch in 30 sizes up to 37 inches.

Kenda, who sponsors racers in DOT-certified tire racing, said it will feature the M/T2 on the track this year. During the last five years, Yang noted, Kenda-sponsored drivers and tires have two championships, over 20 wins and 40 podiums.

Kenda will launch two mountain bike tires: The redesigned and aggressive Karama 2 and the Rush, a cross-country tire featuring the lowest rolling resistance of the brand's mountain bike tires. The company is also continuing its sponsorship of the Gators Bike Park in Columbus, Ohio, "to inspire a next generation of riders," according to Yang.

In the lawn and garden segment, Kenda designed a non-pneumatic tire designed for zero-turn mowers. Yang said the tire will last longer and offer less downtime, which will benefit commercial mowing businesses. Kenda also developed a new tire for wheelbarrows, wagons and carts.

Kenda controls about 80% of the golf-cart tire market, especially for OEMs, Yang said, and the company will launch a new tire aimed at those carts being used off the course.

"Over the last 20 years, the golf cart has become more than just a golf course vehicle. It has evolved into a personal transportation vehicle," Yang said.

Retirement communities, theme parks, airports and resorts, he said, all use these vehicles, and Kenda wanted to design a tire designed for on-road purposes.

"We are the first to design steel-belt, radial quality golf cart tires," Yang said.

The company's steel trailer wheel production facility in Elkhart, Ind., is growing, Yang said. He added that the company is working with the local economic development board to grow the economy for on-going projects and to create more job opportunities in the area.

The Kenda eUniversity launched May 4 to educate customers and channel partners across all the segments Kenda serves about the company's history, products and processes.

"This will be the go-to place for learning all about us and our remarkable tires, wheel and rubber products," Yang said. "Our customers and brand ambassadors will have access to short, fun and educational e-learning classes, giving them key information to make their job easier and to help them understand our company and products."

The company said the website will be regularly updated with new content aimed to help dealers better sell Kenda tires.

"Our future is bright," Yang said. "We look forward to the next 60 years."