Pirelli Tire North America has reached an agreement with the Sears Tire Group to discontinue the supply of certain lines of Pirelli tires to Sears Auto Centers and NTB outlets.
The Pirelli lines affected by this agreement are the P8000 and the Scorpion S/T. The P8000 was a product line offered exclusively to Sears, while the Scorpion S/T also was sold through the Pirelli dealer channel.
Under this agreement, Pirelli will continue to make available to all Sears and NTB retail outlets the complete range of Pirelli tires that can be ordered by these locations based on consumer demand.
This new agreement is based on a defined strategy for the Pirelli brand in North America. The recent closure of the company's Hanford, Calif., plant influenced the strategy, which is focused on growing market share in the original equipment and replacement high performance tire markets primarily through independent tire dealers.
"Pirelli's current replacement tire product portfolio, and future replacement tire developments coming from the MIRS factory in Georgia, will be focused on the independent dealer channel," says a company spokesman. "Pirelli believes that independent dealers remain the primary and growing channels of distribution for high performance and ultra high performance tires.
"Sears will continue to offer Pirelli more than 1,000 locations where our OE customers can go to replace Pirelli factory-fitted tires on their vehicles."
