Performance Tires For The Powersports Enthusiast

In the Seventies' (1970's) there were seven or eight tire manufacturers in the USA who produced various kinds of tires, including specialty tires. Labor cost in USA during that time, increased every year, which then boosted the cost of the products. At this key point in time, Asian countries began to develop their industries, and first started to get into low cost products such as bicycle tires, wheelbarrow tires, motorcycle/scooter tires and lawn & garden tires.

During these days, Greenball Corporation played a significant role as importer in bringing more and more of the above mentioned products from Asia into the US market. US manufacturers did not seem to be competitive; their prices were not at a stage to compete with the Asian manufacturers; as a result, the American producers began exiting this field of these specialty tires.

As the auto industry grew and advanced rapidly in the late 80's, market demand for auto tires surged. US manufacturers then switched their focus to auto tire production. Asian manufacturers found it feasible to get into these markets for conventional tires such as trailer tires, forklift tires and ATV tires at this time. Among several importers, Greenball again played an integral role in getting these tires developed in Asia and then introducing them to the US. This was a major source of Greenball’s growth for Greenball’s second decade of business.

Around the early 90's, the OE manufacturers in the US market began requiring that tire suppliers supply them tire and wheel assemblies. Greenball started to source wheels (as well as tires) from Asia. GBC also developed a domestic wheel source to accommodate the more time sensitive cases as well. The availability of wheels helped Greenball to expand our business into the "trailer manufacturing" field, such as cargo trailers, horse trailers, and utility trailers on a national level. This trailer market uses radial special trailer tires as well as conventional bias tires. It was necessary for Greenball to have this line of products in order to provide a full range of services to this industry. Consequently, the “trailer” line led Greenball to deal with large-sized tire manufacturers; this, in turn, allowed Greenball to further add larger size tires (such as farm equipment or OTR tires) into our product line.