Dedicated team focusing on expanding OE business at ATG

Activity in the original equipment segment currently accounts for no more than 20 per cent of Alliance Tire Group’s business in Europe, however the company intends to change this. In order to place a greater emphasis on supply to OEMs, ATG has set up a dedicated original equipment team. The new OEM team is headed by Andreas Sarfert, who in April was named ATG’s head of business development OE Europe. ATG introduced Sarfert and the team during the Agritechnica show this week.

Sarfert joined ATG from the GKN Group, where he spent a total of 27 years in various roles, most recently as director engineering and product management for GKN Land Systems. He views the experience gained at GKN as invaluable for his new remit at ATG. “It’s important to understand the original equipment segment. The needs of OEM customers are quite different to those in the aftermarket,” he comments. Sarfert studied engineering at Technical University Munich in Germany and received his Master’s degree at Cranfield University in the UK.

Sharing details of his team’s aims, Sarfert says the plan is to grow ATG’s original equipment business at double the speed of its aftermarket business over the coming five years. He won’t be working to this end alone – Sarfert is joined in the OEM team by four OE managers: Giorgio Gramegna, OE manager Italy; Romain Calvez, OE manager France; Ashish Tosar, OE manager Benelux & Nordics; and Gorjana Matic, OE manager DACH. Matic is also responsible for business with UK-based OEMS, such as JCB.

In addition to working with the more than ten major machinery brands in Europe that ATG is already associated with, the OEM team intends to expand the client portfolio. The tyre maker names Claas and AGCO as two manufacturers it is currently collaborating with in specific development cooperation.