TOKYO (May 12, 2008) — Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. has established sales subsidiaries in Brazil and Thailand to coordinate growing tire sales in Latin America and the Pacific Rim.
The new unit in Brazil, Yokohama Rubber Latin America Comercio Ltda., is based in Sao Paulo and will coordinate Yokohama Rubber's sales activities throughout Latin America, where sales have grown consistently the past five years.
The new unit will be tasked with stimulating further sales growth and support marketing activities focused on high-performance passenger tires.
With the opening of the Sao Paulo office, Yokohama Rubber said it will close a representative office in Panama. The new office will oversee about 10 employees by next year.
Yokohama's new Asian sales office in Bangkok, Thailand, will be the marketing and technical service base for replacement tires in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and West Asian countries. It will control purchasing functions for Yokohama manufacturing and sales companies in Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan in an integrated manner.
The office also will look to expand replacement tire sales in ASEAN and West Asian countries in part by promoting brand/sales channel policies and enhancing tire technical services mainly in the area of high-performance tires.
Yokohama also noted it chose Thailand because its largest Asian manufacturing/sales company is in Thailand—Yokohama Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) Co. Ltd.—and Thailand is home to a growing number of vehicle assembly plants for the international vehicle makers.
The new company also controls purchasing functions of manufacturing and sales bases in Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam, and multiple businesses product manufacturing and sales bases in Thailand and Taiwan.
The company said it hopes to reduce costs and accelerate delivery speed by establishing a regional purchasing organization and enhancing cooperation with the purchasing department of the headquarters.