Matador-Omskshina JV Marks 15th Anniversary

This year Continental Matador Rubber celebrates the 15th anniversary of the ZAO Matador-Omskshina joint venture project, which is based in Omsk in the Russian Federation. The founders, Slovakia’s Matador and Russia’s Omskshina, each contributed a 50 per cent capital share in order to establish a passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyre production facility. The joint-venture was officially registered in the Russian Federation on 17 May 1995.

Russian shareholder Omskshina’s contribution to the project included providing the required buildings and machinery, while Matador also supplied machinery along with tyre production and management system know-how, plus funding. After the groundwork had been prepared, the installation of technological facilities, gradually supplied from Matador in Púchov, commenced in October 1995. The first tyres, a size165R13 product, were produced on 23 April 1996. Subsequently, the plant started mass production. 

Despite what Matador refers to as “the difficult and complicated conditions of the Russian business environment”, the joint-venture gradually managed to increase its production capacity and extend the range of products manufactured there. Matador sees 2005 as a “significant milestone” in the joint-venture’s history – this was the year that the production of passenger and light truck tyres from the joint-venture was combined with that of Omskshina and through this the plant’s production capacity reached three million pieces per annum. Since starting operations, the joint-venture has produced more than 22 million car tyres, most of which were sold in the Russian Federation and CIS countries; the Slovakian tyre maker notes that these sales “greatly contributed to the development of the Matador brand image in those markets.” The Matador-Omskshina joint venture currently employs 1,095 workers and produces of 2.9 million tyres in 157 designs.

Reflecting on the project’s beginnings, Karol Motúz, project manager of the Matador-Omskshina joint-venture, states that “at the beginning, it was only a vision of an open-minded man. A vision of how to change a local Slovak company into a multinational company and how to use the enormous potential of the Russian market. At that time, it was a pioneering idea.” Matador also comments that for a long time the joint-venture was the only tyre manufacturer with foreign participation operating in the Russian Federation, and it was largest investment of a Slovak business entity in the Russian Federation.

“On the occasion of this anniversary, we wish the employees of the joint-venture many work and personal achievements and many satisfied customers in the future,” Motúz adds.