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Category: Kumho

Kumho (Korean for “bright lake”) Tires is a multi-national corporation based in South Korea, and is a branch of the Kumho Asiana Group, along with the second leading airline in South Korea, Asiana Airlines. Factories for Kumho Tires are located in South Korea, Vietnam, and China, and they export their product globally, with their newest factory opening on the eastern seaboard of the US, in Georgia. This plant is supposed to produce over two million tires annually, and generate jobs in that area.

Kumho was originally called Samyang Tire and was created in 1960. In 1960, technology in South Korea was minimal, and the company eked by with producing up to 20 tires daily, and even producing that tiny amount required a backbreaking amount of work from employees – though this didn’t stop the thinkers at Samyang, even though they weren’t the first tire company in South Korea, they were still the first to produce the first compact passenger car-tire, and close to 1970, they had developed an excellent snow tire as well. But the company found itself extremely lucky in the late-1960’s, Samyang had come into possession of machinery and export means that allowed them to branch out and ship outside of South Korea, as well as amp up it’s dismally low production rates. Many credit this with being the rebirth of the company as an Asian industrial juggernaut.

In the 1970’s, with the backing of the South Korean government, and aided by its national reforms, Kumho found itself rapidly expanding to meet the growing demand for their tires. This provided much-needed jobs to the poverty stricken country, and brought millions of dollars into the country itself, stimulating the economy. Despite the fact that there was a lot of difficulty in producing raw materials and oil, Kumho still found itself growing and was finally listed on the Korean Stock Exchange.

In the 1990’s Kumho continued to grow as a company, a big part of the Korean job sector and owner of multiple successful subsidiaries, investing itself back into the unstable Korean government. It was in this time that Kumho decided to change their named from Samyang and branch out to the US, as well.

Making tires for Marshal as well, Kumho has found itself the stock tire for a myriad number of vehicles such as Hyundai, Kia, Ford, Mitsubishi, Chrysler, Chevrolet, Volkswagen, and Mercedes. Kumho also has three research and development facilites; one in Birmingham, England, and the other two in Akron, Ohio. There are multiple research offices around the world, in such places as Germany, China, and South Korea, with the Kumho Tyre branch created in the mid-1970’s to serve European needs…and surprisingly, the company is even a soccer sponsor! Official sponsor of Manchester United, and even invests money in youth driving awareness in the UK. Though, of course, the company also sponsors racing endeavors as well.

If a driver is looking for excellence, and also one of the cheapest tires around, the best place to turn is Kumho Tire.