Hankook H437 V2 Concept Tyre
Yesterday we received an email from a prospective customer asking how long the the tyre pattern they were interested in would be available.
“195/50-15 tyres, I see you have a Hankook Ventus tyre – are these a new release? That is if I order 2 now, will I be able to get another 2 in say 12 months time – when the current tyres have worn out – thanks.”
I replied to the effect that “the Hankook Ventus H437 has been on the market for about 13 months and can reasonably be expected to be on the market for another 3 of 4 years; so an ongoing supply of tyres in this size should not be a problem. But anything can happen, and there is no guarantee the exact pattern/size you require will be in stock next time you need to buy them. All of this is equally true for any tyre company.
The only way of guaranteeing you can get 4 tyres exactly the same is to buy 4 tyres at the same time. this applies to any tyre company’s products. Every company’s tyre range is subject to regular change, just like cars themselves.
But the situation in the market place is a lot more volatile than this. Lead times for tyre orders from overseas are very long ranging from 4 to 12 months, so a lot of long range planning is required. And all the clever planning in the world can not take account of aberrations like a sudden huge increase in sales due to other tyre companies having no stock of any given size for many months.
Basically the most effective means of ensuring continuity of supply is to carry huge quantities of stock, which is exactly what our supplier, who has huge quantities of stock located in warehouses through out New Zealand, does. It is a very large privately company which operates under a totally different philosophy to its corporate competitors who are totally in thrall to their accountants and financial people and always under pressure to reduce stocks. So our supplier tends to have more than enough stock to ensure continuity of supply but that can quickly change when there product shortages in the market place.”
And in conclusion, fitting 4 new good tyres to any vehicle is always the best way to go in terms of safety, comfort and ensuring 4 matching tyres are available.
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