TKI offering Hallmark brand; Continental's move to scale back private labels creates ripples.(News)(Tire Kingdom International)(Brief Article)

Tire Business, May, 2005

Byline: Bruce Davis

Tire Kingdom International Inc. (TKI), left without a private brand late last year when Continental Tire North America (CTNA) Inc. phased out production of the Sonic brand, has taken on the Hallmark brand owned by Goodyear.

TKI had marketed Sonic only about a year, taking it over Jan. 1, 2004, from Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Parrish Tire Co., which had marketed it for six years prior to that. CTNA owns the brand name but has not commented on its reasons for phasing it out.

TKI began advertising itself early this year as the "exclusive U.S. and international'' distributor of the Hallmark brand, but neither TKI nor parent TBC Corp. has commented publicly on the change or the details of the arrangement with Goodyear, which has...

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