Get ready for the Giti and GT Radial brands

Made in America

Get ready for the Giti and GT Radial brands

By Bob Ulrich

Giti Tire (USA) Ltd.’s new consumer tire plant in Richburg, S.C., will not officially hold a grand opening until next year. It is also two years away from reaching its full capacity of 5 million tires annually.

But the facility is already producing Dextero tires for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. And beginning in the fourth quarter, it also will be manufacturing GT Radial tires for independent tire dealers.

In support of Walmart’s America at Work initiative, Giti (pronounced “GT”) and Walmart held a pre-opening celebration at the tire plant on Oct. 4, 2017. Their U.S. partnership goes back to 2012, when the Giti

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signs a green tire he made in the new Giti tire plant.

Tire Group began providing Walmart with the Dextero DHT2, an opening price point all-season tire made in Indonesia. The Dextero Touring DTR1 tire came along in 2016. Giti also has partnered with Walmart in Brazil, Canada and China.

By the end of the year, the Giti Manufacturing (USA) Ltd. facility will have manufactured at least 200,000 Dextero-brand tires for Walmart. Eventually, 100% of Walmart’s Dextero tires will be produced by Giti in the U.S.

The plant is located on 1,600 acres in Chester County, S.C. “We have the ability to double this building very easily,” says Hank Eisenga, vice president of manufacturing.

‘New’ brand in 2018

Giti will introduce the Giti brand into the North American market in the second half of 2018, says John Aben, senior vice president of OE and consumer sales. Already a successful brand globally, Giti tires designed for the domestic market will be produced in South Carolina.

Where Giti will be positioned versus the GT Radial brand in the U.S. has yet to be determined.

“We’re still talking about it as a company, even though it will be OE on Volkswagen in 2019,” says Aben.

“We are in a good position because we have so many options,” says Julianto Djajadi, executive vice president for business operations in North America. “The market is probably changing faster than ever before, and we have to look at many factors and... considerations.” Djajadi says the team is talking with customers and some of its key stakeholders, “and based on their input then we’ll make and plot our next move.”

Earlier this year, the company announced the Giti ComfortA1 all-season tire will be original equipment on the 2019 Volkswagen Passat, which will be manufactured in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Plant details

The state-of-the-art, 1.6 million-square-foot tire manufacturing plant will cost more than $560 million. It includes a separate building for testing next to the plant.

“We’re putting automation in this plant that’s a higher level of automation than any other facility we have in our footprint,” says Hank Eisenga, vice president of manufacturing. “We’re doing that in a way where we can target specific areas for automation but still keep the human element in other areas.” Giti’s four-year-old R&D Center in Uniontown, Ohio, will be moved to South Carolina.

“Our mission is to really tune the product that we are selling to the requirements of the customers and consumers who are going to be using these products here,” says Hamid Aboutorabi, director of the R&D Center. “And who is better (qualified to) understand those needs than engineers who have worked on tire development in this market?” ■