This was at least partly due to the company’s excellent position in hall one but also because the 2006 exhibition was the first Reifen Show since the lead weight ban came into place last July. Since 2004, the company has ramped up production by some 15%, to 100 million units a year and anticipates signing an OE deal with at a large French car manufacturer soon.
According to managing director John Halle, another direct result of producing quality non-lead weights is that the clip design has become more critical than ever before. Halle is confident that the hard work his company has put into developing its new lead-free products solves this problem. And, Trax must have got something right. For the first time in 26 years, Trax now has three distributors in Italy, for example, which were won purely on product performance rather than price, says Halle.
In addition, during the course of the show, a number of German outlets switched Trax weights apparently on the basis of quality. For Halle, these developments solidify Trax’ position as the number-two weight manufacturer in Europe. The company is number one in the U.K.
The only difficulty the company is facing at the moment (and it is challenging one) is the increased raw material prices that have been forced on it by speculative commodity purchasing by Chinese manufacturers. “It’s turbulent times for commodity buyers,” observes Halle, explaining that, in one week in May, the price of zinc rocketed 20%. As a result, Trax’ prices have inevitably had to increase, too.
