With China poised to become the world’s largest tire market by 2017, the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company family of companies continues to expand its presence in the region by teaming with tire dealers on a new retail concept for Cooper-branded tire sales and service superstores. Over the past eight months, the company and local dealer partners have opened four Cooper Superfeel Centers in Shanghai, Beijing, Shandong and Chengdu, and Cooper plans to team with additional dealers to open two more Superfeel Centers in China before the end of this year.

Cooper Superfeel Centers, which range from 3,000 to 5,000 square feet, offer an expansive array of tires for passenger cars, SUVs and other vehicle types in an enhanced shopping environment that features the use of dimensional and interactive displays as well as large format video screens. In addition to the unique shopping environment, Cooper Superfeel Centers also offer a host of tire related services including alignment, balancing, and tire repair, as well as other value-added auto services provided by automotive professionals for the ultimate in consumer convenience and quality.

“The Cooper brand has been in China for more than nine years and the tire business there is quite unlike the United States. It’s a highly fragmented business with no major distribution channels or household retail names,” said Cooper Chief Operating Officer Brad Hughes. “The nature of the market and the explosive growth in vehicle ownership in China provide an opportunity for Cooper to team with dealers to build upon our already respected brand in the region with a new retail tire sales and service experience that is an enhancement over what exists today. We’ve invested in the Cooper Superfeel Center concept to stand out in the marketplace and gain acceptance for our brand among consumers, many of whom are buying their first cars. The Cooper Superfeel Center gives us a way to further embed our brand in China, and it is among a set of initiatives in our overall Asia growth strategy, which calls for significantly expanding our presence in China through widening distribution, and continued penetration of the original equipment (OE) market. The quality of our products, many developed at Cooper's Asia Technical Center in Kunshan and produced in China, have earned Cooper entry into several OE accounts in Asia. Now, with the Cooper Superfeel Centers, we are also earning our way into the consumer market by partnering with dealers to present a distinctive shopping experience coupled with outstanding service,” Hughes added. The Cooper Superfeel Center in Shanghai was the first to open in November 2014 and was followed by the Shandong location in January of this year, the Beijing site in March, and the Chengdu site this month. Future sites in 2015 include Inner Mongolia and Baoding.

Source: rubberworld.com