Snowfall triggers tire sales

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Heavy snowfall and rough weather conditions have spurred sales of 525,000 winter tires over the past 10 days in the Turkish market, amounting to 92 million Turkish Liras in sales.

In a winter tire market of 1.5 million units, this accounted for 35 percent of sales in just 10 days. Stocks are down in most tire retailers and there are long lines of desperate customers at all the tire outlets, according to Michelin’s Turkey Marketing Director Sertan Akçagöz.

“The tire sector started off this year without much hope, but there has been an incredible pick-up in the winter tire sales,” said Turkey’s Pirelli Chair Mete Ekin. “No one expected this much snow throughout Turkey and Michelin’s daily retail store sales went up by as much as 40 percent in four days. The stocks are depleted.”

Winter tires, which were viewed by consumers as a an extra purchase, have now become essential given the recent snow and consumers are now realizing that winter tires are a must-have, said Ekin.

Ten million tires are sold in the Turkish market every year and 1.5 million are winter tires. The cost of winter tires ranges anywhere from 150 to 200 liras, according to daily Hürriyet