Recently, Tire Review sat down with Komai-san to get his initial views of the brand and its growth potential.
Masatoshi Komai was recently installed as the head of Nitto brand sales worldwide. A long-time Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. employee, Komai is now the general manager of sales department No. 5, a group totally dedicated to the Nitto brand – handling everything from market exploration to product development to production planning to marketing. Tomo Mizutani, president of Nitto Tire USA Inc., reports directly to Komai.
Q: Right now, Nitto brand tires are sold in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Japan…
A: There are some of our agents who sell them elsewhere, as well.
Q: Are you looking to expand Nitto into other markets? Is there a timetable for moving Nitto into these markets?
A: Right now, as you know, 80% of our business comes from North America and only 10% from Asia and 10% from Middle East. That’s it. So that means we have enough space where we can sell. I believe that for the American market, unfortunately, we don’t have winter tires. That’s why it is hard to sell into European countries. European customers want winter tires. The most important market for us to develop right now is the Chinese market. We are also looking at Brazil, Southeast Asia, plus Thailand is a good market right now. We are looking for markets that make sense, like the Philippines or Indonesia, maybe Iran or Chile. We are going to develop new dealers in the future and existing dealers or subsidiary companies where we can increase business in those markets. We are charging forward. (Kenji) Nakakura-san (Toyo’s president and CEO), day and night, is on us to move forward.
Q: The Nitto brand has always been about image, but it seems to be focusing more on technology now…
A: The brand image is very important in the passenger tire market. I think we fell behind in trying to build our brand image so that is why Yokohama and Dunlop have the advantage over us here in Japan. Tomo is the one who changed that in the U.S. market. And until he came along Nitto had no brand image in the U.S. and he was the one who changed that. I don’t think it took that long, 10 years maybe? He managed to get it done in 10 years. As long as we make the efforts to change and we have the proper scenario for change, if we have 10 years then it is doable.
Q: Is Nitto looking to broaden that into other tire segments like smaller wheel diameters?
A: To be kind, that is sort of a headache because if we develop a broadline for Nitto, what’s different between the Toyo and Nitto brands? At some time we will need a broader offering, but we have to be careful that we don’t confuse customers about the brands and what makes them different. Our area is only concerned with sales and marketing of the Nitto brand. We have to clearly distinguish between Nitto and Toyo. This is very important for our customers and consumers and for our employees.
Q: Other than sales, how does the Nitto brand help Toyo?
A: Other companies have a top brand and a second brand and a third brand, like a pyramid. We have two top brands. They are both important. Toyo and Nitto have to work together like soccer players who have to move around and create space and take advantage of openings. We have to be agile, mobile. So we need to have an image that others cannot think of. Imagination and creativity are important. We want to offer products that others do not have. That’s why Nitto is important for us. I think for Nitto we should have a larger product line. But we need to make sure we keep our two brands distinguished and separate. With the Nitto brand, high performance is going to be the main thing. But with customers, high performance is not the only thing. Toyo’s global share is something like 2%. So there are lots of areas where the Nitto group can be active. We’re not aiming for ruling the world like the Big 3. We want to be a profitable company and make our customers happy.
