Chinese tire maker Doublestar inks Memphis deal
Nearly half a century ago, Wang Hai was a Chinese soldier posted to Vietnam. Today, he’s one of China’s storied business leaders — and his business is branching into Memphis.
Qingdao Doublestar Industrial Co. will ship about 10,000 heavy-duty truck tires per year to a warehouse in Memphis.
The import deal was announced Saturday by Del-Nat Tire Corp., a long-established Memphis wholesaler headed by Jim Mayfield.
The Chinese tire maker is part of state-owned Doublestar Group, a 40,000-employee conglomerate in shoes and rubber.
It’s not clear if Doublestar ever will open a tire plant in Memphis.
But at a time when American mayors and governors court China for a wave of job-creating investments, its arrival offers a peek into one of China’s giant state-owned enterprises.
Investment banker Robert L. Kuhn singled out CEO Wang Hai for a fiery entrepreneurial spirit in his 2009 book, “How China’s Leaders Think: The Inside Story of Reform and What This Means For the Future.”
That spirit has helped build Doublestar into a company with 140 businesses, including a tire operation that just expanded into Europe.
Last summer, Mayfield met in China with tire executives. Del-Nat has wholesaled Chinese tires for years to U.S. dealers. The execs introduced him to officials from Doublestar’s tire business.
“They had it in their mind that they needed a presence in North America,” said Randy Gaetz, Del-Nat vice president.
Because the Doublestar tires are made for big freight trucks, they are not subject to the tariffs on Chinese car tires that U.S. officials imposed in 2009.
Del-Nat officials figure shoes and other products might follow tires into the distribution channel leading to Memphis.
Doublestar under Wang grew into China’s largest shoemaker, with 3,000 chain stores.
According to Kuhn’s book, Wang draws on experiences when his Chinese army unit was deployed in Vietnamese clothing in 1965 to help fight the United States, which had entered the war to brace South Vietnam.
“On the surface of the earth, only the Chinese have defeated the Americans,” Kuhn quotes him saying. “The first time was in Korea and the second was in Vietnam. I missed Korea but I didn’t miss Vietnam. … So I have experience in both the battlefield of the market and the battlefield heavy with the smoke of gunpowder. … To be successful on either of these battlefields, you first have to have the will to defeat your enemies.”
It’s not uncommon for veterans to go into business. For example, Fred Smith founded Memphis-based FedEx after he served in the U.S. Marines in Vietnam in the late 1960s. FedEx is now an established carrier in China.
Wang Hai, however, stands out for what Kuhn calls “combative talents” and a harsh candor. Although the government ultimately controls Doublestar, the CEO snubbed Chinese officials who balked when he boasted of Doublestar’s popularity.
“The funny thing is the government is giving me trouble,” Kuhn’s book reported Wang Hai saying. “They asked, ‘Who approved your claim that Doublestar’s the world’s most famous brand?’ I told them, ‘Do the world’s most famous brands need approval?’ ”
– Ted Evanoff: (901) 529-2292
