CEO's Admission: Argentina's Tire Market Was Robbing Consumers

When prices become “impossible,” the market stalls. The result is an awkward situation for everyone. In the government's view, this case serves as a perfect example to defend free trade: if competition enters, prices fall; if the market closes, margins rise, and the common citizen pays the price. The debate, however, is more heated and has an inevitable divide: lower prices may bring relief to consumers, but they can also dismantle the industrial fabric if they occur abruptly and without rules to prevent unfair competition. This episode became a symbol: while consumers seek lower prices, the local industry claims it cannot compete on equal terms with markets that have very different labor costs and production models. Méndez, from his position, walked this fine line: he said that if people ask for cheaper tires, he will sell them because his priority is the business's survival, but he warned that a family cannot risk its safety with low-quality tires just to save a few pesos. That safety aspect is key to understanding why this topic hits so hard. “We were robbing people with the price of tires,” he said in an interview that went viral and eventually escalated to the political arena with a direct response from President Javier Milei, who used the episode to attack what he defines as “cheap nationalism” used as a cover for price abuses. Méndez's statement gave words to a complaint that thousands of consumers had been repeating in whispers—and sometimes shouts—in every tire shop: that tires in Argentina had become an almost luxury item, far above regional and international values. Through his X account, Milei replied to the video with a phrase full of political intent: “DEDICATED TO THE CRIMINALS WHO USE CHEAP NATIONALISM AS A BANNER TO ROB GOOD ARGENTINIANS.” “The multinationals were robbing, and we, the entrepreneurs, because we had an unreal market,” said the executive, with 42 years in the industry, describing a scheme that, in his view, was fueled by scarcity and a closed import system that left captive demand. In that same narrative, the businessman put numbers on the table: he stated that there were periods in which markups of 60% to 70% were applied, levels far above what he himself considers a “normal profitability.” And there appears another sensitive discussion: how to control the quality of imported products, how to avoid dumping, and how to regulate a market so that competing is not synonymous with destroying. Méndez even recounted an anecdote that illustrates his concern: he said that some manufacturers asked him directly at what price he wanted them to manufacture a tire, something he had never seen in top-tier suppliers in his decades of experience. In parallel, the businessman described how consumption adjusted itself: with depressed sales, a greater need for installments, and a customer who compares prices as if in a supermarket. The head of Neumen, however, noted that in the local context, gross profitability should be closer to 22% due to the tax burden and costs associated with operating in the country. The admission did not stay in the technical realm. The consumer wants to pay less, but also wants trust. In this discussion—raw and real—part of the economic climate for 2026 is at stake. Now the challenge is different, bigger, and more serious: to achieve reasonable prices without turning competition into a bulldozer that sweeps away jobs and production, and to establish clear rules so that “cheaper” does not mean “less safe.” The math is simple and very Argentine: when income is tight, the installment plan rules. In the middle are the people, who just want something basic: to be able to change two tires without feeling like they are buying gold. Méndez's phrase opened a rare window: for the first time, an actor from the sector itself described from within what consumers had suspected from the outside. On one hand, a brutal admission of margins that cannot withstand public scrutiny. On the other, the fear that an opening without a safety net will end in closures, layoffs, and more social tension. In that context, the tire market has been at the center of this tension in recent months. He noted that Neumen currently has 520 employees and 40 sales points across the country, and that it opted to offer financing to maintain sales volume. A tire is not an “extra”: it is the car's contact with the asphalt. “They were very expensive, you have to recognize that.”