Nokian Tyres produces tyres for passenger cars, SUVs, and vans. Nokian branded tyres are sold in over 60 countries. Nokian Tyres designed the first winter tyres in 1934 and has more winter tyre patents than any other manufacturer. Nokian Tyres is known for its winter tyres, not to be confused with all-season tyres. Nokian winter tyres have been described as a favourite of critics and have been well received in winter test results by several publications. Nokian also has designed some winter tyre models with low rolling resistance, offering lower fuel consumption. Nokian was the first company to produce a tyre that allowed for year-round use by having different tread patterns on the lateral and medial aspect of the tread. One pattern is optimised for winter and another pattern is designed as an all-season pattern.
Nokian Tyres was the first tyre manufacturer in the world to eliminate high-aromatic oils from its production process. Used as plasticising agents in tread production and to facilitate the compounding of rubber, they contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a carcinogen, and have been replaced by low-aromatic oils. In 2006, Nokian Tyres received a commendation in the Finnish round of the European Business Awards for the Environment.
The demand for Nokian tyres is seasonal, as a high percentage of the company's sales are of winter tyres, but it has reduced seasonal fluctuations by its development of summer and all weather tyres. According to the company, more than 80% of its passenger car and van tyre sales are winter tyres. Winter tyre sales have a strong seasonal characteristic with 30% of retail sales occurring in the ten days after the first snowfall, thus presenting challenges in production and delivery.
Nokian Tyres does not sell to automobile manufacturers, but instead concentrates on the more profitable consumer tyre replacement and premium snow tyre markets. Nokian Tyres has the highest market share of the Finnish passenger car tyre market. The Finnish, Swedish, and Norwegian markets contributed over 40% of Nokian Tyres' corporate net sales in 2008.
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The Russian market, Nokian Tyres' largest, contributed 34% of the net sales and captured 26% of the Russian winter tyre market. CEO Kim Gran describes the Russian consumer as having a "love affair" with the Nokian brand citing that it stems from tyres which suit the local weather conditions and a genuine need in the market. The use of winter tyres, which have softer rubber compounds than all-season tyres, results in improved starting, stopping, and steering performance. The Hakkapeliitta brand was, at one time, the only Western tyre brand in Russia having entered the market during the Soviet era in 1964. In contrast to having a Russian tyre factory to benefit from lower tariffs, another tyre company, Continental AG, abandoned Russian tyre production and hopes for Russian membership in the World Trade Organisation will result in lower import tariffs.
In 2009, the North American market accounted for over 10% of the company's net sales. Nokian Tyres has a tyre subsidiary based in LaVergne, Tennessee (USA). In that market, Nokian Tyres sell only to independent dealers, some of whom use the tyre products to fill in gaps in their product lines instead of an exclusive or majority share. This results in some dealers being knowledgeable about specific tyres but not Nokian Tyre's full tyre product range.
Commercial vehicle tyres
Nokian Tyres manufactures truck and bus tyres sold under the Nokian Hakkapeliitta brand. Steer, traction, and trailer tyres are marketed. Nokian Heavy Tyres Ltd is a manufacturer of special tyres for forestry, industrial machinery, and agriculture. Its products are sold as original equipment as well on the replacement tyre market. Nokian Tyres produces a number of product lines, including the Tractor Industrial 2 and Country King. Nokian Tyres is a world market leader in forestry tyres, which are a key product of the Nokian Heavy Tyres subsidiary. Nokian forestry tyres include the Skidder and Cut-To-Length model lines. The Skidder tyres have a 25 degree bar angle and the Cut-To-Length tyres have a 35 degree bar angle. Bar angle is a tyre tread measurement. Smaller bar angles are associated with higher traction at the expense of increased mud accumulation.
Tyre-related products
Nokian Tyres also produces materials for retreading and refurbishing used tyres. Nokian Noktop and Kraiburg, an industry competitor, produce most of the retreading materials for the European market. The RoadSnoop Pressure Watch, a tyre pressure monitor for race cars, is also produced by Nokian Tyres.
Bicycle
The history of finnish made bicycle tires started when Suomen Gummitehdas Osakeyhtiö (Finnish Rubber Factory Limited) started manufacturing bicycle tires and inner tubes in late year of 1924 in the town of Nokia. To the markets the tires arrived in year of 1925. The first trademark of bicycle tires was Suomen Kumi (Finnish Rubber in english).
In the early 1930's was developed Suomalainen Laaturengas (Finnish Quality tire in english), later known as SL-35 which became a success story of the decades, selling in big numbers almost 50 years to early 1980's. The features of the tire was kept superior in terms of rolling and durability.
In 1958 was presented the world's first winter tire for bicycles the Lumirengas, (Snow tire in english) which was very soon renamed as Speed-Hakkapeliitta. From the beginning Speed-Hakkapeliitta's were manufactured in moped's tire sizes as well. In sales brochure of the era, the new tire was described with the words: "Invincible winter tire. Holds well both at the start and when braking, prevents side slipping. It's tread clears well from snow. Available as black and grey. Change to Speed-Hakkapeliitta's for a winter. Also for moped's! "
In 1964 was started manufacturing of studded Speed-Hakkapeliitta for moped's. After a naming contest for moped tires in 1965, Speed-Hakkapeliitta remained a trademark for bicycle winter tires.
In 1974 Oy Nokia Ab Kumiteollisuus (Nokia's Rubber industry) centered the production of bicycle tyres and all inner tubes to a new purpose built factory in the town of Lieksa. The factory was inaugurated by president Urho Kekkonen in late 1974 and actual production was started in 2nd of April in 1975. At its first full production year Lieksa factory produced 760 000 bicycle outer tires.
In late 1970's popularity of touring cycling grew and bicycle became a year-round means of transport. Studded Speed-Hakkapeliitta was launched for winter cycling with a new name of Nasta-Hakkapeliitta (later known as Hakkapeliitta Stud and Stud 62A). Speed-Hakkapeliitta with same tread pattern but without studs was still manufactured in early 1980's.
In the turn of millenium Nokian Tyres was one of the five bicycle tire manufacturers in Europe and the only one in Nordic countries. The product catalogue included 250 products at in standard-, touring-, mountain- and racing tire categories. Nokian Tyres was the world largest manufacturer of studded bicycle tires. All products were manufactured at the Lieksa factory, which mainly operated in three shifts 340 days in a year. About third of the products went to the European bicycle manufacturers. Main market areas was Northern Europe, Central Europe and North America.
In a year of 2000 Nokian Tyres manufactured 1.2 million bicycle tyres and 1.1 million inner tubes. At the end of the year Nokian Unitube line was sold to Rubena Tyres in Czech Republic.
In 2004 Nokian Tyres sold bicycle tyre business including Lieksa factory to Suomen Rengastehdas Oy (Finnish Tyre Factory Ltd) which continued manufacturing with Nokian brand until all the products was changed to under Suomi Tyres brand beginning in 2010.
Beginning from 18. september 2019 Lieksa Tyres Oy continued the bicycle tire development and operations of Lieksa factory until rising energy and material costs forced it to filed bankruptcy in 17. april 2023.
In november 2023 rally car tire manufacturer DMACK announced the acquisition of the bankruptcy estates of Lieksa Tyres Ltd and Suomi Tyres brand name. In march 2024 DMACK Nordic Oy announced that it was started production in Lieksa again and was specialized in bicycle winter tires. In february 2025 Dmack Nordic announced an investment program of 2 million euros to machines, toolings and programs of Lieksa factory. In may 2025 Dmack purchased the whole real estate of the factory including 30 000 m2 of manufacturing space from Lieksa industrial village. In 2025 Dmack Nordic manufactured 150 000 bicycle tires in a year and in january 2026 it announced it is going to fivefold tire production by the year 2030, continue investments in Lieksa and enlarge marketing to Central Europe and North America. In january 2026 Dmack Nordic started production of special quality bicycle summer tires and launched it’s first bicycle summer tire catalogue (including popular Finnish classics from decades gone by). In October 2026 Dmack Nordic told that it will become the first bicycle tyre manufacturer using RFID tags in its tyres.
Tyre facilities
Nokia, Finland production and testing facilities
Nokian Tyres produces 23,000 tyres per day at a factory in Nokia, Finland, and 200,000 tyres a year under the Bridgestone brand name. The original factory was built in 1904, the current one in 1945; it has expanded several times since then. Nokian Tyres has 27 assembly lines at its Finnish plant. The plant uses radio frequency devices to monitor the inventory of materials used to manufacture tyres, such as the 100-metre long strips of rubber tread. Shortages of rubber tread can halt production and so keeping an adequate supply of materials increases efficiency. Despite trade journals discussing this technique, Nokian declines to confirm its production methods.
The company has a 30-hectare (74-acre) testing facility in Nokia, where it road tests tyres between April and November. From November to May, tests are carried out at its Ivalo Proving Grounds in Arctic Lapland. The Ivalo Proving Ground is the only permanent winter tyre testing facility in the world. Because of the short summer in Finland, Nokian tests summer tyres at other locations. During the winter, the testing of summer tyres takes place in South Africa. Nokian also tests tyres at the Applus+ IDIADA facilities in El Vendrell, Spain, and the ATP facilities in Papenburg, Germany.
Vsevolozhsk, Russia factory
The Vsevolozhsk factory in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, was established by Nokian Tyres in 2005. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Nokian Tyres condemned the war and announced a controlled withdrawal from Russia, stating that the war and tightening sanctions made continued operations there infeasible. In March 2023, Nokian Tyres completed the sale of its Russian operations to the Russian company Tatneft for €285 million. The company stated that the sale ended all Nokian Tyres operations in Russia.
The former Nokian factory continues to operate under the name Ikon Tyres as part of the Tatneft group. It is no longer owned or operated by Nokian Tyres. Ikon Tyres states that the plant has an annual production capacity of 17 million passenger-car and SUV tyres and employs more than 1,400 people.
Dayton Tennessee, United States factory
In May 2017, Nokian announced the construction of a new factory in Dayton, Tennessee, with an annual production capacity of 4 million tyres. The facility would employ about 400 people, cost €330 million to build, and expected to start production by 2020. In addition to producing tires, the facility would house an on-site distribution facility with a storage capacity of 600,000 units. The company expects to double its North American sales by 2023. Nokian began hiring workers for the plant in February 2019, and sent its first group of employees for training to its Finnish and Russian factories in May 2019. The Dayton plant officially opened on 2 October 2019. The company plans to have up to 150 employees by the end of the year.
Contract production of tyres
Nokian Tyres licenses production of its tyres to companies in the United States (Bridgestone's LaVergne, Tennessee, plant), Slovakia (Matador, Puchov, plant), Indonesia (PT Gajah Tunggal/Giti), and the People's Republic of China (Giti Tire), as well as contract manufacture of agriculture and industrial tyres in Spain and India. In the past, some United States contract manufacturing was done by Cooper Tire's Findlay, Ohio, plant. Contract manufacture by Giti Tire includes production of up to 500,000 Nokian summer tyres with expansion up to 1.5 million tyres per year. Some Nokian agricultural and industrial tyres were made under contract by the Tofan Grup in Romania for two years until December 1999, when Nokian Tyres withdrew, citing quality standards. Contract manufacture of these types of heavy tyres was then undertaken by Michelin at its Polish plant, Stomil-Olsztyn, from 2000 until 2005, when Nokian began to shift contract manufacture of industrial tyres to Bridgestone's factory in Bilbao, Spain and agricultural tyres to Balkrishna Tyres in Bhiwadi, India.
