History of the brand: Hankook
Hankook today is a brand of the so-called "second line", but it has long had claims to be on a par with flagship brands. There are all the grounds for this, because from a small Korean company, Hankook has progressed to a major global player, which is already announcing its innovations in the form of tires for sports competitions and the technology of the future - airless tires. What was this path and how the largest manufacturers actually contributed to the development of the company, we will discuss in today's article.
Its beginning, the company started in 1941. The world is at war. Against the backdrop of this turmoil, the leading Japanese tire manufacturer Bridgestone founded Chosun Tire Co. in Korea. The company opens the first tire plant on the Korean Peninsula.
On June 25, 1950, another war broke out. By the time it ended, 70 percent of Chosun Tire's production facilities lay in ruins. In 1955, a businessman named Kang Kyung-ok rented premises and changed the company's name to Hankook Tire Manufacturing Ltd. This corresponded to the new name - South Koreans called their country "Hankuk". North Koreans retained the old name "Choson".
Kang Kyung-ok lacked the funds to restore the facilities destroyed during the war, and in 1958 he was forced to sell the company to another manufacturer - Samsung Trading Co. and the owners of two sugar producers. In 1962, Cho Hong-jae, the founder of Hyosung Group, acquired 49.1% of Hankook's shares in the process of breaking his business partnership with Samsung. After this turning point, Hankook will grow in sync with manufacturers in Korea/
In 1962, the company began exporting abroad with a shipment to Pakistan. Six years later, the company was listed on the Korean stock exchange, and growth began to accelerate, also along with industrial development in the late 1960s. At that time, Korea was a major supplier of sports shoes. Korean-made shoes were actually half the price of Western analogs. Hyundai Motor, in turn, was the only Korean manufacturer in the UK, and when it was discovered that Hyundai cars sold in the UK were equipped with Michelin tires, the question arose: why doesn't Hyundai use Hankook tires? The answer was quite obvious: British buyers were not familiar with the brand. After lengthy negotiations, the manufacturers managed to agree, since if the company loses 2-3% of sales in the UK in the unlikely event that customers refuse to buy foreign cars with foreign tires, Hyundai will be more than break-even on the difference in the selling price of Michelin and Hankook tires.
The logic was irrefutable, and Hyundai changed its policy and put Korean Hankook tires on the primary equipment. As consumers became more sophisticated in choosing automotive products, and the recognition of Korean brands in general grew, around 2000, a retail market for spare tires emerged, which gave a powerful impetus to the development of the company. Having lost a significant share of the market in Europe, the tire giant Michelin decided to enter into a partnership in 2003, and then the French company acquired 6.24% of Hankook's shares in 2006. Later, it increased its stake to 9.98%. It was at the stage of cooperation that a partial leak of experience and technologies from Michelin occurred, which affected the technological development of the Hankkok company. Later, the partnership was recognized as ineffective by both companies, and Michelin sold its shares.
In 2008, Hankook Tire introduced the "Kontrol Technology" concept. The concept underlying this technology is a combination of "kinetics" and "control" for the ideal interaction of the vehicle, driver, and road. The innovations discovered through the multidimensional approach of "Kontrol Technology" have taken Hankook Tire to a qualitatively new level of world tire manufacturers.
Today, Hankook "Hankook Tire" is the sole supplier of tires for the DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters), the German touring car championship. In addition, the company has introduced its own tires with airless and intelligent technologies. This is an excellent result for a company that has been rebuilt from the ruins several times. That's why Hankook brand tires are an excellent choice today.