Dynamic Tire: Value-tier brands popular in current economy

WOODBRIDGE, Ontario — Dynamic Tire Inc. specializes in distributing opening-price-point tires and that strategy has been to its advantage, especially this year when customers are more cost-conscious.

"We are quickly seeing the shift to the opening-price-point product, just given the economy, carbon tax up here, high interest rates, the housing market, so forth," David Pulla, interim president, said.

"Consumers are definitely looking to stretch their dollar a little bit further. We've definitely seen a shift in the truck market to opening-price-point for sure. A lot of trucking companies are pulling trucks off the road as it's slowed down and even new truck sales have been reduced here."

Pulla said he has seen dealers opting to carry value-priced tires more so now than in the past five years. Consumer tires also had a very strong start to the year for the wholesaler.

"We've been doing extremely well with significant increases," he said.

The Woodbridge-based tire wholesaler distributes a quiver of brands, including Diamondback, Dynamo, Galaxy, Mirage, Primex, Road Rider, Rovelo, Sailun and Triangle. The company offers factory-direct container shipments and local warehousing.

It stocks everything from passenger to OTR tires for customers across Canada at its 400,000-sq.-ft. Toronto-area warehouse.

"We specialize in affordable products so we take pride in inventorying and distributing product that is of equal quality and performance to the premium brands, just at a more affordable price point.

"At this time, when the economy is taking a little bit of a nosedive here, the products we carry actually thrive. So we've noticed a significant uptick in business on the P/LT side for sure. That would correlate to the trucking market as well," Pulla said.

He said the company had a strong start to the year, compared with 2023, as dealers depleted their inventories from last year.

"We've found dealers in the Canadian market were faced with excess inventory. Everyone was conducting their orders at about 125%, which led to ... excess inventory in early 2023, which made them a little gun-shy in ordering in vast volumes. So year-to-date, we're definitely off to a strong start," he said.

"I think dealers have been able to work through a majority of their inventory for the past year, so we've seen good turns at the moment."

He said truck tire sales, which represent about 30% of the business, definitely picked up. But he has also seen a "significant increase" in ag, OTR, forestry and construction tire sales, as well.

"In forestry I think we're stealing market share because the actual market has slowed with a lot of forest fires in Canada and excess wood inventories."

He expects the upbeat sales trend to continue through the year.

"I would say it'll probably remain status quo for the time being — for the next six to eight months … at least in the truck category," he said.

Dynamic is the exclusive importer and distributor of the Triangle brand in Canada and has seen demand for the brand grow over the past year.

"We're making a big focus right now on featuring one of our brands, which is the Triangle tire brand, where they are just launching dual markings for OTR products for dual applications, where previously it was specific to either an earthmover or a loader. ... So I would say that's the most hot topic in our category," Pulla said

"We've done a pretty good job with elevating that brand in the marketplace and building demand for it. For example, we take great pride in our exclusivity but also the fully automated (Triangle) factory, all the product testing. ... We're able to add a strong marketing presence, leverage our sales team in the Canadian market.

"What we do at Dynamic Tire is we sell the value of our organization where we have an extensive sales team that has tremendous experience, a team of passionate enthusiasts in the tire industry, and we double that with the innovative technology, the new products that Triangle has launched. We back it with consumer confidence, with an industry leading warranty protection plan and, again, we offer tailored marketing solutions, whether we're doing co-op with some of our dealers or just hitting the right spots concerning advertising and driving awareness toward the product and the brand that sells."

Dynamic is also the exclusive distributor in Canada for Rovelo-brand truck tires; Galaxy- and Primex-brand construction, ag, industrial, forestry and OTR tires; and Mirage-brand truck and passenger tires.

"Our strategy is really tailored around exclusive brands where we can control the market. ... We are focused on sustaining and strengthening our reputation as Canada's leader in specialty products," he said.

"We're able to develop product lines and add new models pretty easily. We have a pretty vast assortment that has good market coverage and that's in all categories of business," Pulla said.

Pulla said he sees a lot of competition in the wholesale market.

"Really it's coming down to having the right product and inventory at the right times at the right price point," he said, adding, "We're going to continue to really specialize. That's our niche and we want to grow and develop there.

"The agricultural segment is a big focus of ours. Traction radials as equipment gets larger and has more horsepower, that's going to be a bit of focus of ours and catering to that network. That would be a highlight for me.

"Ag has been off to a pretty strong start so far this year. That would correlate to us selling quality product at an affordable price point," Pulla said.