India's SUN-TWS hires industry vet Ken Cooper to head U.S. sales effort

DALTON, Ga. — Sun Tyre & Wheel Systems (SUN-TWS), an Indian producer of specialty tires, has established a U.S. sales company in Dalton and hired industry veteran Ken Cooper to oversee it.

Up to recently, the company — which claims to be among the five largest manufacturers of off-highway solid and pneumatic tires in the world — had a relatively minor presence in North America, Mr. Cooper said, selling through a handful of existing importers/wholesalers.

• This article appears in the Sept. 30 print edition of Tire Business.

Since being recruited by Chennai, India-based SUN-TWS to coordinate the establishment of the American sales company, Mr. Cooper said he's been active building a dealer/distributor network across the U.S.

Most business is being conducted as container-load factory-direct shipments, he said, although the company has established a warehouse in Dalton to complement those shipments and is planning to open a second warehouse, in Phoenix, later this year to assist customers in the western U.S.

SUN-TWS is focusing initially on pneumatic and sold tires under the Numa and Talon brand names for the materials-handling and construction sectors, he added.

SUN-TWS — a division of Sundaram Industries Ltd., which in turn is part of India's TVS Group — operates three factories in India and three in Sri Lanka, including one near Colombo that it bought in June 2018 from Starco Group.

The company also produces tires under other brand names under contract-manufacturing terms, Mr. Cooper added.

Mr. Cooper brings over 34 years of industry experience to this new position/company. Most recently he was executive vice president of Professional Industrial Tire Co. Inc. (Pro Tire) for three years. Prior to that he was the director of North American aftermarket sales for Trelleborg Wheel Systems Americas Inc. for 11 years.

He also was southeast regional manager for Solideal Tire for approximately seven years and prior to that was the founder and president of Southern Industrial Tire Co. in the northwest Georgia area for 12 years.