MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Hercules Tire Canada announced the introduction of 20 new tire sizes and a total of 49 SKUs to further enhance popularity of its brand, the Ultra Touring consumer tire.

New sizes are expected to roll into Hercules Tire dealers across Canada during January, 2005.

“We’re adding tire sizes to include all applicable speed ratings and additional sizes within each speed-rated category,” said Rob Keller, vice-president of Hercules Tire Canada. “If an Original Equipment (OE) tire is introduced by a new vehicle manufacturer from North America, Japan, or Europe, we want to be ready to offer consumers an alternative to a national brand. Our plan is to remain current with fitments offered by vehicle manufacturers.”

According to Keller, Hercules Tire Canada experienced strong growth in 2004, which ended its fiscal year, Oct. 31.

“We are very pleased with our overall 15 per cent growth rate compared to 2003. Our driving force is product development in the consumer market category. We also witnessed steady gains in commercial markets,” Keller said.
“Several new products are already in development and we expect to launch these new tires in the first-half of 2005.”

Approximately 4 million tires are sold annually in Canada’s winter tire market compared with 3.2 million tires in the U.S. market.

"We have experienced consistent growth in this market for the past 5 years,” Keller said.

For more information, visit www.herculestireca.com