BLUEFIELD, WV - Trucking fleets in West Virginia and southwestern Virginia searching for a premium retread with the same technologies as a new truck tire now have a servicing dealer. At a gala event attended by regional fleet customers, King's Tire in Bluefield, West Virginia reopened the doors of its 25,000 sq. foot retread tire facility today as the first U.S. licensee in the ContiLifeCycle dealer network.

King's Tire Service, a 40-year-old tire dealership servicing the I-77 and I-81 corridor in southern West Virginia and southwest Virginia, will be supplied with flat, precure ContiTread products from Continental's tread production facility in Morelia, Mexico. The retreaded ContiLifeCycle tires sold at King's Tire will be the first produced in the U.S. from flat precure treads featuring the same pattern designs, rubber compounding and tread technology that are included in new Continental brand truck tires.

Owned by Sam King, the King's Tire chain employs 150 experienced tire personnel at eight locations and sells both commercial and passenger/light truck tires including the Continental and General brands. Its retread facility in Bluefield employs 16 personnel and is capable of producing up to 60,000 ContiTread truck tires annually.

Continental's executive vice president for truck tires in the Americas, Paul Williams, said today that the King's Tire decision to become a licensee represents an important milestone in Continental's effort to sell premium retreaded truck tires that match its portfolio of new products across the U.S.

"King's Tire is recognized by its customers as a premier provider of commercial truck tires, both new and retreads, along this important highway corridor. Over 40 years they have built a fantastic reputation for both consumer and fleet tire sales and service. Today we are happy to welcome them as the first U.S. licensee in our ContiLifeCycle network," Williams said.

"We chose to become a ContiLifeCycle licensee so that we could offer something very important to our customers - performance. Continental is the first to offer a product that we feel performs the same from the new tire manufacturing all the way through the useful lifetime of the casing. This high level of technology, along with Continental's great customer service and support, is exactly what we've been looking for, and we think our fleet customers will feel the same way," said King.

ContiLifeCycle, Continental's umbrella for retreading operations, already has a strong foothold in the Americas. The company produces flat precure tread products at its facility in Morelia, Mexico and supplies them to eight ContiLifeCycle dealers throughout Mexico. Two additional plants are also operating in the Andean region. Now, with this official kickoff of the ContiLifeCycle network of servicing dealers in the U.S., Continental's commercial vehicle tire division has marked the official start of its premium solution for trucking fleets looking for a lifetime tire product - and dealers looking for an attractive method to provide it, Williams explained.

"Continental is actively recruiting dealers in North America as licensees in the ContiLifeCycle network to service these national and regional fleet customers who want to extend the performance of their Continental truck tires into the second, third or even fourth lifetime. With our turnkey solution including these premium products, marketing support and competitive pricing, we are also confident that we have an attractive package for dealers looking for a manufacturer to be their business partner in retreading - not their competitor," Williams said.

Williams added that Continental is currently in talks with selected additional truck tire dealers across the U.S. and eastern Canada to expand the ContiLifeCycle network, and expects to complete several additional licensing agreements before the end of 2011.

For more information about the evolution of the ContiLifeCycle retreading solution in the Americas, visit www.contimedia-cvt.com and click on ContiLifeCycle. The Continental family of premium commercial vehicle tires is online at www.continental-truck.com.