The reason Akron became the Rubber Capital of the World was not its unique ability or those of its inhabitants or even the earnestness and inventiveness of the locals.
It was, in fact, all about location, location, location. Akron sat along a major east-west shipping corridor with railroads and the Erie Canal servicing the area, and it offered an abundant water supply in the Cuyahoga River.
Half a world away, in the frozen reaches of Finland, a tire company (not an entire industry) grew up by taking full advantage of that country’s one abundant resource – cold. Taking a “lemons-lemonade” approach, Nokian Tyre developed what its Finnish homeland – and residents of other equally frozen Nordic countries – demanded: Tires that would allow safe, reliable transport in even the harshest winter conditions.
Among the country’s most cherished pastimes is the sauna. In fact, there are said to be a million saunas in Finland – in private homes, businesses and even bars – or at least one for every five Finns. Everyone in Finland saunas, at least once a week, according to stats, and some hearty souls combine the steamy warmth with a naked run at what they call “ice swimming” – cutting a hole in the thick ice covering a lake, jumping into the frigid water, crawling out and then racing back to the sauna.
In Helsinki, the country’s capital and largest city, with around one million people, as well as its southernmost port, winter temperatures can reach 15F or colder. Summers – effectively June through August – can easily get into the 70F range; the rest of the year is various stages of cold, particularly the November-March period, which also is the darkest.
Nokian Tyre hosted a hearty group of about 70 dealers and media from the U.S. and Canada for a three-day tour of its plant, primary warehouse, some fun winter activities and, of course, its fabled test facility in Ivalo. Located 200 extra cold miles north of the Arctic Circle, Ivalo is said to have 300 year-round residents and 20,000 hotel beds, catering as it does to Russian and Japanese tourists looking for skiing, snowmobiling or snowshoeing adventures.
Ivalo also is home to the northernmost working commercial airport, which can handle a full 737-size jet at its single gate.
The Saariselka region, which includes Ivalo, also is home to a Porsche Driving Experience facility and another test track, this one used by other tiremakers and some automakers for winter testing. Nokian’s “Winter Hell” at Ivalo is proprietary save for one or two automaker tests per year.
The dealer body included representatives from Kal Tire, PRB, Touchette, Flynn’s Tire, Free Tire Service, Northwest Tire Factory, Grismer Tire, Direct Tire, Plaza Tire and Schneider Tire, among others.
The Tiremaker’s Evolution
Nokian Tyre is headquartered in Nokia, Finland, about two and a half hours north of Helsinki. Nokian, once part of the same group with cell phone maker Nokia, was founded in 1898 as Suomen Gummitehdas (the Finnish Rubber Works), and its current hometown factory was built in 1904. It wasn’t until 1932, though, that the company undertook production of car tires.
In 1934, everything literally changed when the world’s first winter specific tire was produced, followed two years later by the debut of the Hakkapeliitta winter line, still the cornerstone of virtually everything Nokian Tyre does.
The Nokia plant has been expanded a few times over the years, but remains extremely “tight,” with narrow walkways and production equipment squeezed into place. Still, for the most part the plant has modern equipment, and can turn out some five million consumer tires per year. It also produces medium truck (including Hakka winter lines) and forestry tires.
In 2005, Nokian Tyre went west, to Vsevolozhsk, Russia, near St. Petersburg, to construct its second plant. Expanded in 2011, the Russia facility has the capacity to crank out some 12 million consumer tires per year for domestic and export customers. Hannu Teininen, vice president of global sales and logistics, shared during a briefing on the company that Nokian Tyre is looking to add yet another plant, likely in western Europe.
Nokian Tyre also turned to retailing, launching its Vianor store brand in Finland and later in Norway, Sweden and Latvia, expanding further across western Europe into Russia, and back across the Atlantic in the upper northeast of the U.S. Today, there are more than 1,000 Vianor stores (35 in the U.S.) selling tires and vehicle services.
Nokian in North America
A new face to North American media was Tommi Heinonen, installed last August as president and general manager of Nokian Tyres North America, the parent of Nokian Tyres Inc., the U.S. and Canada sales arm.
The 12-year Nokian veteran is looking to maintain double-digit growth in North America, and key to that continued march will be the firm’s successful Entyre all-season passenger tire and the Rotiiva AT all-season light truck/SUV line, as well as the three upcoming winter tires unveiled at this dealer/media event.
North America represents just 7% of Nokian’s global sales, at around $142 million total for 2012. While it won’t become a billion-dollar sales company on these shores anytime soon, Heinonen fully expects the new winter rubber filling its North American pipeline over the coming 18 months – the studless Hakkapeliitta R2 and Hakka R2 SUV, and the Nokian WR G3 – will be major contributors to the firm’s strong incremental growth.
Dealers and journalists had a full day at Winter Hell to try out the three new tires at Nokian’s 1,540-acre, 20-track facility, with three large frozen lakes serving as ice tracks. A series of Audi and VW cars, small SUVs and sports models served as test vehicles for the event, a short series of runs around a full lake track, an ice/snow slalom track, and on nearby public roads.
According to Matti Mori, technical customer service manager, Ivalo is no winter convenience; it is a full-time, permanent facility. 
Most serious testing is done at night when temperatures, unaffected by changing sunlight and clouds, remain consistent. There are no cement or asphalt roads at Ivalo, only gravel routes that snow and ice over in the colder months (which is most of the year).
“If there is no snow, there is no testing,” Mori stated. Apparently that isn’t a problem, as over a 12-month period, test drivers at Ivalo will run through 20,000 tires – Nokian and competitive units – a remarkable 55 for each day of the year.
While not entirely identical, the Hakkapeliitta R2 and R2 SUV lines do employ similar technology, including “cryo crystals” in the silica-based tread compound for added traction on ice, heavy tractive siping, pump sipes to move water, added snow grip edges in the tread grooves that also fight slush-planing, and “extremely low rolling resistance,” according to Mori.
The Hakka R2 replaces the Hakka R, and will be available next winter season in a range of 13- through 20-inch sizes, all XL or run-flat (for BMW fitments).
The equally fuel-efficient Hakka R2 SUV has a different looking tread pattern compared to its sister, and a slightly different tread compound. The casing is enhanced with a nylon cap belt over two steel belts, Mori noted. The tire also will be available for next winter in an initial range of 15- to 19-inch sizes, mostly XL, with two run-flat versions.
The asymmetric WR G3, replacing the WR G2, has four circumferential grooves, 3D lock sipes, heat-reducing indentation on the shoulder blocks, and a “nano base” tread compound that features three different compounds laid one over the other.
The H-, T- and V-rated tire will come in a range of 16- to 18-inch sizes, with six directional sizes in 14- and 15-inch dimensions. The WR G3, said Heinonen, is making its way to North America now.
That Nokian Tyre makes exceptional winter tires there is little doubt. And in its Nordic home and western Russia, the brand is well known and understood by retailer and driver alike.
But in North America, Nokian remains a niche tire with a fervent but small following. The tiremaker has relied almost exclusively on its small cadre of dealers to handle advertising and promotion, which limits its ability to entice new buyers and new dealers.
Still, Heinonen has his eyes firmly on continued growth, and the new lines should help facilitate that.
