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Pep Boys Chooses Continental Tire for Name-Brand Push America's Premium Tire Brand Partners with Top Parts and Service Chain CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Continental Tire has been selected by Pep Boys , America's leading automotive parts and service chain, as the tire of choice for their introduction of name-brand tires. Pep Boys is announcing that their national network of nearly 600 stores will begin selling Continental and General tires on Sunday, May 16. General is a separate line of high-value tires designed and manufactured by Continental Tire North America (CTNA). "Continental tires performed extraordinarily well in our pilot testing," said Hal Smith, executive vice president of merchandising and marketing for Pep Boys. "The world's leading car makers provide them as original equipment on their cars, and we wanted to partner with a major national-brand player. As a result, we'll be running chain-wide promotions to highlight Continental and General products." "We are adding branded tires to our own top-quality private-label brand because it is consistent with Pep Boys' strategy of offering top brands at a great value across all of our major categories," said Smith. Pep Boys successfully introduced branded tires in several markets -- Denver, Houston, Jacksonville, Tucson, New Orleans and Fresno -- prior to the national launch. Ed Marohn, director of mass retail sales for CTNA said, "We're excited about our new partnership with Pep Boys and pleased to be one of their top suppliers of name-brand tires. All major car companies use original-equipment tires made by Continental, and this partnership provides an unprecedented opportunity to expand our replacement tire business." Offering name-brand tires such as Continental and General will make Pep Boys more competitive in the $24 billion replacement tire business in the U.S. Its private-brand tire already accounts for 18 percent of Pep Boys total revenue and nearly a quarter of its profits. According to Smith, "Branded tires represent over one half of the industry's sales, and this is a natural extension of our tire and service offering. With Pep Boys' national presence, we are uniquely positioned to offer motorists across the country name brand tires at very competitive prices." Pep Boys has 595 stores and over 6,000 service bays in 36 states and Puerto Rico. Along with its vehicle repair and maintenance capabilities, the company also serves the commercial auto parts delivery market and is one of the leading sellers of replacement tires in the United States. Customers can find the nearest location by calling 1-800-PEP-BOYS or by visiting pepboys.com. Continental Tire North America, Inc. (http://www.continentaltire.com/), based in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a group company of Germany-based Continental AG, a leading systems supplier to the automotive industry. With annual sales of more than a billion dollars, Continental Tire North America, Inc. has nearly 7,000 employees and operates plants in Bryan, OH; Charlotte, NC; Mayfield, KY.; Mt. Vernon, IL; Barnesville, GA and San Luis Potosi, Mexico. It is a major supplier to the original equipment and replacement tire markets, selling Continental, General, Euzkadi and private brands in North America. DATASOURCE: Continental Tire North America, Inc. CONTACT: Katharina Konowalski, CTNA, +1-704-583-8924, ; or Bill Furtkevic, Pep Boys, +1-215-430-9676, Web site: http://www.continentaltire.com/ http://www.pepboys.com/

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