STARCO joins the Kenda Group
Today, the European wheel and tyre supplier STARCO becomes part of the Kenda Group. STARCO will continue to operate as it does today, and the 2020 strategy remains unchanged. Besides a good cultural, organisational and strategic fit, both companies see significant long-term opportunities.
Kenda has been a STARCO supplier since 1982 and the relationship between the two parties has been strengthened and developed ever since. Over the last 12 months a series of meetings determined a clear willingness from both Kenda and STARCO to take the partnership to another level.
“We recently launched our Focus on Europe strategy. The acquisition of STARCO is a natural step to more quickly establish a platform, which gives Kenda better access to the market in this region,” Jimmy Yang, Vice Chairman of Kenda Rubber Ind., Ltd., President of Kenda USA. He continues: “Kenda has a strong market share in the USA in trailer, lawn and garden, golf car and utility vehicles. We would like to grow our market share in these areas through the acquisition of STARCO, who is one of the leading players in this area in Europe.”
The STARCO Executive Management team will report to Kenda USA. The two companies see many strategic and operational opportunities. Besides a good cultural, organisational and strategic fit, there are significant long-term synergies, and opportunities when it comes to engineering, market insight, supply chain and shared customer portfolio. The aim is to benefit from these synergies and unleash the joint potential, growing both companies in North America and Europe.
“I see various opportunities. For instance, both companies get a stronger global presence, improving the distribution chain and gaining further market insight. Kenda gains new opportunities in Europe and STARCO in the US. This will allow us to serve customers globally,” states Richard Todd, Chief Executive Officer at STARCO.
STARCO will continue to operate in the same segments and markets as today and plans to maintain current supplier base and hence offer the same broad and strong product offerings. “Existing supplier partnerships will remain key and the plan will be to continue to develop these relationships even further” adds Todd. Long term becoming part of the Kenda Group will strengthen STARCO’s product portfolio and global service capabilities to customers.
“By joining forces, we believe we can achieve global market leadership in various market segments – today we serve some of the same OEMs and we believe our service and offering to them will become even better,” elaborates Yang.
STARCO’s specialist knowhow about various applications, polyurethane expertise and wheel design, combined with Kenda’s high level of tyre development, will give the group a unique position in the market.
“We have been discussing strategic and operational opportunities for quite some time. The plan is to share market knowledge to strengthen our position, grow market share and perhaps even enter new markets together,” says Todd.
STARCO does not plan any organisational changes or redundancies related to this acquisition.
The executive teams and key people from Kenda will join STARCO’s yearly strategy meeting with the middle management in late October in Germany. Here strategy and 2018-plans are on the agenda.
“It’s very exciting – and we all look forward to starting this new journey together,” says Todd.
The acquisition is communicated internally and externally today. The numbers of the deal are not official but the companies state it is within usual price levels for this industry.
About Kenda Tires
Since it was founded in 1962, Kenda has operated under the core values of Honesty, Innovation, Quality, and Customer Service. Over the years, Kenda has continued to develop and expand its product offering to meet changing market demands. Today, Kenda is one of the world’s leading tire and tube manufacturers for automotive, motorcycle, bicycle, ATV/UTV, wheel chair, golf car, lawn care equipment, trailer, skid loader, and agricultural vehicles. With factories all over the world, Kenda is able to provide quality products to suit a wide variety of applications.
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