Otani tires in Montclair

Otani Tire Co., Ltd. was founded in 1986 by Kiatichai Limpichotipong in Sam Phran, Nakhon Pathom, west of Bangkok, and the group's own timeline runs back to 1964. The original bias-ply plant still runs. A second company, Otani Radial Co., Ltd., opened a radial plant nearby in 2017. Zafco International, the Middle East marketer behind the Armstrong brand, owns 40 percent of it, and the plant also builds Armstrong tires.

The passenger catalog uses model codes rather than names: EK1000, EK2000 and EK3000 passenger tires, KC1000 and KC2000 high-performance tires, MK1000 to MK3000 light truck and van tires, SA1000 and BM1000 SUV tires, the SA2000 to SA5000 all-terrain and mud-terrain family, and a KN1000 EV tire. In the US the brand was soft-launched through importer Foreign Tire Sales of Union, New Jersey, according to 2018 trade coverage.

Otani's own warranty page is written for Thailand, a 100-day damage program and a five-year document, and states no treadwear mileage. Any mileage figure you see at a retailer is the importer's term, not the maker's. On price and reputation Otani sits with Achilles and Arroyo, not with Bridgestone or Yokohama.