While 2021 has been a challenging year across the commercial tyre market, Bridgestone’s performance in the agricultural sector has been one of the company’s biggest positives, with sales hitting a record high.

AG Product Manager Keld Andersen said that while the year had been really tough in terms of availability, transportation and Covid-19, he has been delighted with the company’s continued ability to support its dealer partners.

“Over the past 12 months, we’ve been able to record stronger-than-ever sales into the farming community,” he said.

“As a relatively new brand to the AG marketplace, we’ve seen great uptake from our farmers, increasing year-on-year. As the portfolio expands, this will only continue and we predict that more-and-more farmers will gain a positive hands-on experience of our tyres.”

As can clearly be seen with the VX-TRACTOR tyre (while only been on the market for three years), sales and market-share gained by this range has been ‘phenomenal’ according to Keld.

“The VX-TRACTOR is remarkably reliable too, and in the severe environment of agriculture, it is becoming a classic of its era,” he added.

Bridgestone has also seen a strong up-take by the OEM’s – where a road and field application tyre is required by its customers. Two global tractor OEM’s will offer the VX-TRACTOR in 2022.

The VT-TRACTOR (VF) tyre range is also seeing a continuing strong growth in 2021, especially with the uptake by many Scottish farmers, via the Sustainable Agriculture Capital Grant Scheme (SACGS). And again, its expansion is seen with yet more outlets into the OEM’s.

Keld added: “All in all, it has been a pretty remarkable year with more to come in 2022 as we look to increase our number of Bridgestone Partners outlets and our product continues to penetrate the marketplace even further.

“We have only been able to enjoy this ongoing success through the support shown to us by our loyal band of Bridgestone Partners. Their commitment to us and that of the product, has been truly remarkable – allowing both business’s to enjoy strong grow, within this sector.”