Stamford Tyres opens Singapore's largest tyre and wheel warehouse centre

SINGAPORE - Singapore's largest tyre and wheel warehouse centre opened in Jurong on Friday.

Stamford Tyres Corporation's $25 million commercial centre has 2.3 ha of floor space, and will include a warehouse and retreading facilities for tyre recycling.

About 600,000 tyres of different sizes can be stored at the new centre, more than doubling Stamford's existing capacity of 400,000 tyres to 1 million tyres in total.

In a statement, the Singapore-listed company said that the new centre would provide support for its "expanding total tyre management businesses in the South East Asia region".

Stamford president Wee Kok Wah said at the centre's opening that the previous warehouse offered "limited storage capabilities".

"The redeveloped warehouse optimises land use...to support the international proprieary brand tyre and and wheel distribution operations of the Group," he said.

The centre features an 18 m ceiling to maximise storage capacity, with Singapore's tallest racking for tyres. A barcode system for tyres cuts by half the time needed to process inventories.

A truck centre with six service bays will also be located at the facility, offering "full life-cycle" services in one place, including retreading to extend the lifespan of tyres, and wheel balancing services.

Large firms such as public transport operators SMRT and SBS Transit are already among the centre's customers.

Founded by Mr Wee's father, the late Wee Boon Kwee in the 1930s, Stamford Tyres today has a distribution presence in 13 countries across the Asia-Pacific and Africa.

In addition to distributing major international tyre brands including Falken and Dunlop, Stamford also sells its own brands such as Sumo Firenza and Sumo Tire globally.

The firm reported a net profit of $838,000 for the quarter ended January 31 this year, down 63 per cent from $2.2 million for the same period a year ago.

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