Visited Yukho, General Manager of Kumar Tyres

1. Yokohama Tires The past few auto shows were all based on the theme of environmental protection. What is the theme of this year's exhibition?

Answer: The theme for the exhibitors of our 2012 Beijing Auto Show is eco-friendly and energy-saving. This theme has not changed. I think that the theme of environmental protection and energy saving has nothing to do with time. For our company, this theme is unchanged. However, we have a strong brand of sportswear, and the ADVAN brand has long been firmly rooted in the hearts of people.

The difference between this year's Beijing auto show and the past is that we have fully put forward our brand publicity slogan - "Mutual Change". Let me explain what it means.

In many ways, including our lives, our environment is constantly changing. Our corporate activities are faced with an ever-changing environment and we hope to make qualitative changes. This is "evolution." In the face of "changes," corporate activities can continue to "evolve." Therefore, we also hope to gradually improve the development of eco-friendly energy-saving tires and sales of tires.

The brand slogan of “Quality Evolution”, which we speak of, and the spirit of the Chinese National Track and Field team participating in the London Olympics that are constantly undergoing trials, hard training, and improving the level of competition have a very high degree of identity. Therefore, we become The official sponsor of the China National Track and Field team.

We hope to convey what we call the “transformation forward” brand spirit to the visitors to the auto show and the media friends.

2. In the ever-growing Chinese tire market, what are the new goals for Ukoma tires?

Answer: China's auto market has grown very rapidly and will continue to grow in the future. Our company is basically a "growth route." Yokohama Rubber Group proposed the "GD100" medium-term plan. The first year of its third stage is 2012. Yokohama Rubber China's third phase of its business plan aims to increase sales by more than two times to more than RMB 12.4 billion compared to the second phase of the previous period.

In the future, we will continue to serve as a firm rooted in China and continue our business in China.

3. With regard to the composition ratio of the number of tire sales so far by Yokohama Tires, how much are OEs and REPs?

Answer: The composition of OE and REP is half and half. However, we have found that when replacing tires, there are many consumers who choose to buy new cars with original tires and brands. Therefore, we will work hard to sell more original tires for new cars to automakers.

4. Please introduce the main products of this year's Beijing Auto Show Yukoma.

Answer: Our main exhibiting products are new products that we will market this year.

One is Wei Chi AE-01, which is a new product of the BluEarth Wei Chi series following the Wei Chi-1 product that was launched in March this year.

Another new product to be launched on the market is the GEOLANDAER series G055.

These two new products are eco-friendly and energy-saving products. They all use our company's unique “Orange Oil Formula” and use nano-blend rubber technology. We will gradually market and sell these two products in the second half of this year, so stay tuned.