LAS VEGAS — Crown Industrial, a Qingdao, China-based tire industry supplier and off-take/private-brand tire distributor, is planning a major push into the North American market in the coming years with a revived and expanded Xcellent brand.
The brand, spearheaded in the U.S. by industry veteran Steve Hutchinson's Tire Brands America distribution company, launched in 2020 but was stifled by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and then left in limbo by Hutchinson's untimely death in early 2022.
Stepping into the void is Crown Industrial — or more specifically — CrownTyre International, which trademarked the Xcellent name in 2014 and sells it in other global markets. Crown's other major brands are Gremax, which is being sold North America, and Suntek, currently not sold in North America.
Underscoring Crown Industrial's commitment to growing its tire distribution business is its hiring of a number of tire-industry veterans to key management roles, including:
- Mike Rytokoski, CEO and general manager, consumer products, whose resume includes nine years with Goodyear as a vice president in both the Asia/Pacific and EMEA regions.
- Jaap van Wessum, president EMEA, who brings 15 years of tire-sector sales/marketing experience with Goodyear, Cooper Tire and Apollo Tyres Ltd. to the job;
- Robert Day, national sales manager, who brings 13 years of automotive aftermarket experience, including time with Fury Off-Road Tire and Linglong Americas, to his role at Crown; and
- Ronald Daniel, sales manager, whose 20-year industry career includes time spent with Treadmaxx Tire Distributors, American Tire Distributors and Southern Tire Mart.
These executives — along with consultant Jack Bidding, who worked behind the scenes after Hutchinson's death to secure the rights to the Xcellent brand for the U.S. — discussed Crown Tyre's goals for the brand with Tire Business during the 2024 SEMA Show in Las Vegas.
The company's reborn sales initiative will focus initially on the light truck/SUV market segment, with an emphasis on the off-roading/overlanding sector. To that end, Crown Tyre featured the Xcellent Roadbreaker X/T, an extreme all-terrain tire featuring a tread design with large open voids and "aggressive" sidewall sculpture, at its booth at SEMA.
The tire line features "Tri-Force" technology for added durability and stability and launches with a five-year limited treadwear warranty and a 50,000-mile mileage warranty.
Crowntyre recently began accepting orders for this product.
The X/T complements the firm's Roadbreaker A/T, but with more aggressive off-road traction capabilities. The new line is being produced in Thailand by Jiangsu General Science Technology Co. Ltd.'s subsidiary there.
Crowntyre executives said the company will pitch the Xcellent brand in the U.S. as a Tier 2 quality product but with Tier 3 pricing.
Business will be conducted primarily via containerload shipments, the executives said, although the firm, headquartered in Qingdao, operates a warehouse distribution center at its U.S. headquarters in Garland, Texas, which does business as Xcellent Tire & Wheel Inc.
That warehousing space will be used primarily to complement and backfill customers' containerload orders.
In addition to the light truck/SUV tire lines that Crowntyre/Xcellent Tire are featuring, the company offers limited lines of radial truck/bus tires and specialty trailer tires under the Xcellent brand.