Starco congratulates Kenda on a successful 50 years

During its 50th anniversary year Starco is looking back over its half-century in the business and notes that one of the company’s oldest partners, Kenda, also celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The relationship between Starco and Kenda goes back 30 years to when the Danish company began selling Kenda tyres in its domestic market; Starco reflects that in those days before e-mail and regular air travel, this long-distance trading relationship was forged by telex and registered mail.

When Starco CEO Peer Ejlersgaard began with the company 25 years ago, Kenda was already becoming an important Starco supplier, particular in the rapidly growing wheelbarrow tyre market. The dramatic growth of the small wheels and tyres market in the late 80’s and early 90’s brought the two companies closer together – not only in business, but also at a personal level, as the trading relationship led to Kenda and Starco management paying regular visits to each other’s countries.

Starco says Kenda products gave it an important edge as a tyre distributor – together they conquered the Scandinavian market for turf tyres, and by the mid nineties the partnership was moving three million wheelbarrow tyres a year. Later, Starco and Kenda joined forces in the forklift truck tyre market and throughout the subsequent business relationship the two companies have shared intelligence and knowledge about the markets in which they operate.

During the late 90’s, when Starco began to expand into Europe and beyond, it was no coincidence that several of the first European companies to join the Starco Group were already well-established Kenda distributors; Starco says these companies’ track-record and their market share gave it a solid entry into the international market.

Kenda remains an important part of Starco’s product catalogue even though each of the two companies has chartered its own course in different markets. Kenda has expanded into the US and China and has become a world leader in bicycle tyres and an important player in the automotive market, whilst Starco has moved from simply being a distributor to owning and operating its own wheel and tyre manufacturing facilities in five countries, and is developing a global sales and distribution network.

Along with manufacturing its own products, Starco continues to source products from other manufacturers such as Kenda; the Danish company says it is focusing its manufacturing ambitions on new products, most of which complement rather than compete with the products made by its strategic partners.

And just as two generations of the Ejlersgaard family have overseen Starco for half a century, three generations of the Yang family have been involved with Kenda over the last fifty years. Peer Ejlersgaard is convinced that the close ties forged in the early years between these two family businesses will endure and continue to evolve; “Together we have given strength and opportunities to each other – through our business relationship. Together we have shared valuable experiences when visiting each other, travelling together, and spending time understanding each other’s culture and way of life. Though it was business and a shared passion for wheels and tyres that brought us together, it has been the human relationship that has kept our business activities together vibrant, successful and rewarding for 30 years. May it continue to be so! Therefore I am pleased to extend our heartfelt congratulations and sincere thanks to Kenda on the occasion of their fiftieth anniversary this year.”