AKRON (March 3, 2010)—The newly expanded International Tire Exhibition & Conference has added Balkrishna Industries Ltd. (BKT) of Mumbai, India, as a corporate sponsor.
“We are extremely pleased to have BKT as a major sponsor of our 2010 event,” said Bob Simmons, ITEC executive director and founder of the show and a Crain Communications Inc. vice president and group publisher. “Our new program includes independent retail and commercial tire dealers and other businesses involved in the wholesale, commercial, off-the-road, farm, retreading and recycling segments of the industry,” he added, “so this is a good fit for both BKT and ITEC.”
Rami Bitran, general manager of BKT-North America, said the company “is proud to participate in ITEC as a major sponsor.
“We view ITEC as a natural extension of how we want to participate in the tire industry. ITEC continues to grow, and in just two years BKT has grown market share from zero to double-digit numbers, and our goal is to use ITEC as a visible forum to promote and continue that growth.”
The ITEC trade show and conference is a biennial event co-produced by Rubber & Plastics News and Tire Business, its Akron-based sister publication, both Crain publications. It originally started in 1994 as an event for the world's tire manufacturing industry but has been expanded this year to encompass all aspects of the tire industry—with a special emphasis on sales, marketing, tire design, development and manufacturing to tire distribution, reuse and recycling.
BKT, an OTR tire maker, supplies the agricultural, construction, industrial, earthmover, ATV and turf care market segments from three manufacturing plants.