Dealers speak out on truck tire market. (Truck tires '89)

Dealers speak out on truck tire market

Low profiles -- the truck tire trend of the 1980s.

Entering this decade, the low profile medium truck tire was practically non-existent at either the OE or replacement level.

As the decade comes to a close, however, they make up approximately 36% of the replacement radial medium truck tire market. Low profile penetration of the OE radial market is even slightly higher.

These are Modern Tire Dealer estimates based on information from a variety of industry sources.

But what do independent truck tire dealers have to say about low profiles?

MTD asked 2,000 key independent truck tire dealers about developments such as low profile tires and radialization in the marketplace as part of our 1989 Truck Tire Dealer Survey.

We also asked them about the makeup of their dealerships, including specific brand information, and what they want from their suppliers.

The results are in line with responses from our 1988 and 1986 dealer attitude surveys.

Shaping the average dealership

Truck tire dealers responding to MTD's 1989 survey averaged $4 million in total 1988 sales volume.

Of those, 89% said sales were up an average of 15.1%. The remaining 11% said sales were down an average of 6.4%. These numbers are similar to last year's survey results comparing 1987 to 1986.

Additional characteristics of the average truck tire dealer, as revealed in the survey, include the following: . 94.6% sell light truck tires (see light truck article, page 24). . 92.7% sell medium truck tires. . 86% sell heavy truck tires. . 75.7% said their truck tire sales, in terms of dollar volume, were up over 1987 sales by an average of 13.7%. In contrast, 12.5% claimed a drop in sales …