In the Seventies' (1970's) there were seven or eight
tire manufacturers in the USA who produced various
kinds of tires, including specialty tires. Labor
cost in USA during that time, increased every year,
which then boosted the cost of the products. At this
key point in time, Asian countries began to develop
their industries, and first started to get into low
cost products such as bicycle tires, wheelbarrow
tires, motorcycle/scooter tires and lawn & garden
tires.
During these days, Greenball Corporation played a
significant role as importer in bringing more and
more of the above mentioned products from Asia into
the US market. US manufacturers did not seem to be
competitive; their prices were not at a stage to
compete with the Asian manufacturers; as a result,
the American producers began exiting this field of
these specialty tires.
As the auto industry grew and advanced rapidly in
the late 80's, market demand for auto tires surged.
US manufacturers then switched their focus to auto
tire production. Asian manufacturers found it
feasible to get into these markets for conventional
tires such as trailer tires, forklift tires and ATV
tires at this time. Among several importers, Greenball again played an integral role in getting
these tires developed in Asia and then introducing
them to the US. This was a major source of
Greenball’s growth for Greenball’s second decade of
business.
Around the early 90's, the OE manufacturers in the
US market began requiring that tire suppliers supply
them tire and wheel assemblies. Greenball started to
source wheels (as well as tires) from Asia. GBC also
developed a domestic wheel source to accommodate the
more time sensitive cases as well. The availability
of wheels helped Greenball to expand our business
into the "trailer manufacturing" field, such as
cargo trailers, horse trailers, and utility trailers
on a national level. This trailer market uses radial
special trailer tires as well as conventional bias
tires. It was necessary for Greenball to have this
line of products in order to provide a full range of
services to this industry. Consequently, the
“trailer” line led Greenball to deal with
large-sized tire manufacturers; this, in turn,
allowed Greenball to further add larger size tires
(such as farm equipment or OTR tires) into our
product line.
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