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distribution of Ascenso Tyres in 10 coun- tries throughout Central Europe (CE) by the subsidiary.
In 2021, MTPL also acquired a majority stake in US-based company Tyres Inter- - wards building a distribution network in North America. Now renamed Ascenso Tires North America, the company dis- tributes MTPL’s Ascenso brand of ag- ricultural and construction tyres in the United States, Canada and Mexico whilst continuing to act as a distributor for West- lake commercial truck tyres and Sunrise commercial truck wheels in the US.
“We currently export our products to 85 countries,” explains Nanavati. “They are accepted globally, and our claim rates are better than industry standard.”
For Nanavati, one of Ascenso’s key strengths is the company’s ability to re- act quickly to market demands. “We are - deed, we plan to release 300 new prod- ucts per year and over the last 2 1⁄2 years our product portfolio has grown by 500+ SKU’s. We are currently releasing an av- erage of one SKU nearly every day. It is by design like this and is at least in part to the fact that we have capability to de- velop our own moulds. This is the area where there is the highest lead time, so that fact that we can design and supply our own moulds, means that we can be extremely quick to react.”
Ascenso’s distribution strategy in other regions is essentially to rely 100% on
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channel partners. “We work closely with committed partners in each country,” says Nanavati. The most important thing is peo- ple, and we are actively strengthening our sales and marketing team to support our regional distributors. For example, in Ma- laysia, where we work with Sunlun Corpo- expert Low Sze Han to help develop the local market. This is an important develop- ment for us, as it will help us sell out into
