GITI Tire：Don’t want merely to be a provider for products

GITI Tire (China) Investment Company Limited was founded in Singapore and started to enter China market in 1993. GITI has got the No. 1 place on production and sales volume for years, and its products are sold in more than 120 countries and areas around the world.

As a solely-invested enterprise that based on the china’s domestic market, GITI takes its advantage of production and manufacturing, as well as the global experience on operation to make itself perform excellent overseas. Recently, Gasgoo has just interviewed Chris Bloor, strategic planning director of GITI Tire about its production, management and development.

Gasgoo.com: Nowadays，Michelin、Continental and Bridgestone have conducted the new expansion plans, and some local companies also invested more than before. The competition in the domestic tire market heats up day by day. Compared to the competitors, what are the advantages of GITI?

Chris Bloor: There are many international players that are focusing on China. Because of the size of the market, everyone wants to eat off the table. So sure there is going to be competition. What is unique about GITI to be able to compete in this environment, the answer is really the combination of quality and value.

Everybody aspires to buy something but can't always afford to buy it. So you need to find a middle ground where you have a combination of quality and value which makes it affordable. How do we do that? The first place we are based in China, and have domestic production with the cost advantages. Second we spend a lot of time to get deep knowledge of the Chinese consumer. Then, the company brings in subject experts and best practice who engage in the study of R&D, sales, marketing and other areas from all over the world. To serve customers, we’ve got 18 distribution points to give a good level of logistics service. All that we've got as competitive advantage.

Gasgoo.com: How do you think about the own-brand companies? And what have you learned through the co-operation with them?

Chris Bloor: Well, the auto industry in China, Chinese-only brands, is still relatively young. There's a lot of JVs that are starting to bring technology into China, but the actual independent Chinese companies are still quite young. So they're still discovering the best ways to develop their vehicles, fine-tuning their production and managing their quality.

We really like to cooperate and share our experiences with them, try to help them co-develop their vehicles. In other words, don't just provide the tire, but try to understand what characteristics they want out of the car. The relationship needs to be a lot deeper between us .We want to work with the OEMs to surpass the expectations of their customers.

Gasgoo.com: What about JVs?

Chris Bloor: JVs often use international standards and processes to manufacture and choose their partners. So we just have to follow their international demands when producing our products.

Gasgoo.com: On the subject of JVs, in China there are currently more than 100 OEMs. Which ones are GT’s customers?

Chris Bloor: When we started in 1993, we have been number one in China in terms of total volume. Our tires are supplied to Shanghai GM, FAW-VW, Ford as well as Dongfeng commercial vehicles and Foton CMHTC.

Gasgoo.com: Last year GITI got the “2010 annual SUV tire award China”, so what specific steps GITI adopt in quality control and performance improvement?

Chris Bloor: Five manufacture bases of Giti are managed by the highest quality requirement from Giti HQ QA. We are the earliest tire company which is certified by ISO9001:2000 and ISO/TS16949:2002. Also we have passed ISO14001 Environmental management system certification and OHSAS18000 Work healthy and safety management system.

With safety emphasis as precondition, every Giti product pursues zero defects from raw material supply to batch check during manufacture, process management and control. For check during manufacture, we not only apply SOP management on manufacture techniques and operation standards, but also improve capability in visual inspection, X-ray inspection, uniformity and dynamic balance check. However the international OEMs don't tolerate poor quality. We would never have an ongoing relationship with an OEM from an international basis if our quality was not consistent.

Gasgoo.com: On the topic of cooperating with international customers, it seems that most of your products are concentrated for the low end market, is that correct?

Chris Bloor: We have a very broad catalog of products that we export, including low-end and high-end ones In the export market we have the Champiro HPY, a very high speed rated tire. We will be launching the UHP1, made in China in the third quarter of this year, for the export market.

Gasgoo.com: How many dealerships do you currently have in China?

Chris Bloor: We have over 10,000 sales points, 3,500 of which I would class as affiliate or reliance programs. Even though the majority of our sales are truck tires, we've accelerated very quickly in distribution programs for passenger cars.

Gasgoo.com: What measures do you take to manage your dealers?

Chris Bloor: We have a dealer support program. The dealer support program is there to professionalize the dealer. We've invested time and money in ways to educate the dealers so they can give good advice and service to the end consumer. It's part of our service network. It's not just about signs and stickers. It's about professionalism, knowledge and operation process. We do take our dealers' requirements seriously. But we also wish to prepare them for the future by professionalizing what they do, because the expectation of Chinese consumer is growing very quickly.

Gasgoo.com: Do you worry about your dealers shifting to another brand?

After you help them become stronger, more professional and gain a more stable customer base?

Chris Bloor: My view is if your program is strong enough versus your competitor, if what you propose to your dealer makes him more successful than another proposal, he'll stay with you. I believe that competition on us is really good because it makes you fit, makes you creative, makes you think ahead and keep alive. So competition is good. The prospect of losing somebody keeps you alert in refreshing the components or elements of any program you might propose. I view competitive pressure as something that makes us needs to evolve and make better the things that we propose.

Gasgoo.com: As an aftermarket leader in a tier company, what are your suggestions for the consumers?

Chris Bloor: We make information available via the web and have free phone technical advice service provided to end customers.

In fact, the average driving experience of a car owner in China is very low; this is why they do not have enough knowledge of their cars.

However, everybody in China is always careful about receiving information from a vendor, because a lot of people cheat you. So we try to play the roles of product provider, information provider and service provider–not just sell the tires and forget them. On one side you have the product, but on the other side you have the service around the product. It's part of the same thing.