HALSTEREN, Netherlands (Jan. 18, 2010)—Israel's Alliance Tire Group has hired Goodyear sales executive Manuel Pintado to be president of Alliance Tire Europe B.V.
Pintado previously was head of industrial, farm and OTR tire initiatives for Goodyear's Europe, Africa and Middle East region.
“With the commissioning of our India facility and the acquisition of the Galaxy and Primex brands during 2009, the Alliance Tire Group is well positioned to emerge as a leader in the global off-highway tire industry,” said Alliance Tire CEO Yogesh Mahansaria. “Manuel's appointment is another important step in this direction, and we are sure the group will benefit immensely from his leadership in Europe, which has been historically the most important market for the Group.”
Europe accounted for about half of Alliance's global sales of $226 million in fiscal 2008.
Alliance opened the Halsteren office Dec. 1 to handle the company's European activities, which stand to grow measurably this year as Alliance integrates responsibility for the Galaxy and Primex brands it acquired in December from GPX International Tire Corp.
To facilitate this, Alliance secured European rights to the brands from Trelleborg Wheel Systems S.p.A., which had obtained them from GPX in early 2009.