Hankook Tire

History

Hankook Tire was established by Jae Hun Chung's grandfather in 1941 as the Chosun Tire Company and was renamed to Hankook Tire Manufacturing in 1968. The word "Hankook" itself resembles Korea in Korean (literally meaning Korean tires).

Hankook Tire's worldwide reputation has largely grown due to its radial tire and bias-ply tire production. The company now supplies tires as original equipment to various automakers. In addition to producing about 92 million tires annually, the company also sells batteries, alloy wheels, and brake pads.

Hankook Tire Co. has announced that the company will invest $1.1 billion to build a factory in West Java, Indonesia as part of a plan to become the 5th largest tire manufacturer in the world. On June 9, 2011 a ground breaking ceremony was held at a 60-hectare area as a regional hub production for export to Asian, North America and Middle East countries.

In October 2013, the company announced plans to open a new factory in Tennessee.

Facts and figures

According to Modern Tire Dealer, Hankook's new tire sales for 2007 were $3.5 billion, a 20.7% year-over-year increase from 2006 ($2.9 billion)

These are quoted from Hankook Tire's global website.

Through sales in more than 180 countries around the world, Hankook Tire is ranked seventh in global sales revenue.

The company has more than 21,000 employees in four regional headquarters, more than 28 overseas subsidiaries and five research and development centers around the world, and makes 70 percent of its revenue through overseas markets.

Global offices

The company has its headquarters in South Korea, and has manufacturing facilities in South Korea, the People's Republic of China, and Hungary. Manufacturing facilities in Indonesia and the United States are under construction. It has technical centers in Daejon, Korea; Akron, Ohio, USA; Langenhagen, Germany; Osaka, Japan; and China.

In April 2016, the company announced they would be moving the North American headquarters from Wayne, New Jersey to Nashville, Tennessee. This move is reported to create up to 200 jobs in Davidson County and the company would be investing $5 million in the process.

Motorsports involvement

Hankook entered motorsports in Europe, North America, and in Asia. They signed with FBR (Farnbarcher Racing) to race a Ferrari F430 GT with Hankook Tires in the 2009 Le Mans Series season. They supplied tires for the Primetime Race Group that raced in the GT2 class of the American Le Mans Series in 2008. They supplied tires from 2007–2009 for IMSA Prototype Lites, a support series for the American Le Mans Series. Since 2009, the Hankook Team Farnbacher has competed in the GT class of the Le Mans Series. They also supply tires for the Hankook KTR team that races in the Super GT and the Asian Le Mans Series. They supplied tires for the Formula 3 Euroseries.

In rallying, Hankook are the series sponsors of the Scottish Rally Championship. Their tires have been used at the European-based Intercontinental Rally Challenge as well.

Since 2011, Hankook is the official tire supplier for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, one of the world’s most popular touring car series.

In addition, Hankook also sponsors Formula Drift driver Chris Forsberg, a three time champion (with his most recent championship coming as recent as the 2016 season).

Sponsorships

Hankook sponsors Real Madrid Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund.

Hankook was once the major sponsor of the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League.

Hankook sponsors the English rugby union team Northampton Saints.

Hankook sponsors the New Zealand Super Rugby team the Crusaders

Hankook is one of the sponsors of the UEFA Europa League.

Hankook is also involved in drifting sponsorship in a number of countries, most notably in North America in the Formula D championship and in Ireland in the Prodrift championship.

Hankook is the official tire supplier of the reality TV series Car Warriors.