The retail agreement was signed by Octavian Velcan, general manager of Goodyear Middle East and Africa; Essam Odaymat, CEO of Rana Motors and Metal Works Engineering; and Vinay Kapoor, managing director of West Africa Tire Services (WATS) Ltd., an affiliated company of Rana Motors – Goodyear’s distributors in Ghana.

“Our long business partnership with Rana Motors will be strengthened by the introduction of the Vulco retail stores in West Africa.

The Vulco tire retail concept serves individual customers and automobile fleet professionals.

The concept was originally developed by Goodyear in 1996 and is already successfully operating in France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Morocco.

“WATS will operate under the capacity of a Vulco Master Franchisee to launch the Vulco tyre service outlet network in West Africa,” Velcan added.

According to Kapoor, increasing competition, continued higher end-user demands and the growing complexity of the retail business have led tyre retailers to search for a strong, reliable and secured franchise business partner.  

“WATS plans to open a minimum of three Vulco retail outlets in Ghana by the end of 2009. To further boost the strong business partnership with Goodyear, the Vulco retail concept will be introduced in 13 countries across West Africa by 2013,” he added.

In addition, Mohamed Al-Tamimi, Goodyear Middle East and Africa Retail Manager indicated that since the early 70s, the company has been investing in state-of-the-art retail concepts all over Europe and in North and South Africa.

“The support and services provided by Goodyear retail organisation to our global retail network have enabled us to build a very solid foundation for cooperation.

We are very proud to have earned the trust of our partners and the confidence of our end-users.”

“The success of the Goodyear retail business is a reflection of the successes of our franchise partners,” Al-Tamimi concluded. (Tire Review/Akron)