Radburg Center buys Kingpin tyre brand and retread production line

Kingpin Tyres, one of the last remaining passenger car tyre retreaders in the UK, has sold its Kingpin brand name and retread production line to Romanian retreader SC Radburg Center Srl. The transaction took place during the summer of 2020 following several months of negotiations, representatives of new owners Radburg told Tyres & Accessories during a recent interview.

T&A understands that the acquisition transaction is complete and that the former Kingpin tyre production equipment has already been transported from Wem, Shropshire and installed at Radburg’s factory in Slobozia Sucevei, which is near the Ukrainian and Moldovan borders in Northern Romania. No details of the deal’s value have been disclosed.

According to official filings at Companies House, Kingpin Tyres’ remains in business, but without its Kingpin retreaded tyre brand name and manufacturing equipment, its operations will be focusing on tyre collection and casing business.

While many firms had an understandably tough time last year, 2020 turned out to be a record year for Romanian retreading company Radburg. Not only did 2020 result in increased turnover from the casing trading and retreading sides of Radburg’s business, but the company also expanded both its product portfolio and its production capacity by virtue of the Kingpin acquisition. Moving forward, the plan is to add the Kingpin brand to the company’s passenger car retread portfolio alongside the firm’s eponymous Radburg brand.

Our complete interview with Radburg marketing manager Lucian Filip will be published in the forthcoming March edition of our bilingual Retreading Special supplement, which is distributed alongside Tyres & Accessories magazine. Not a subscriber? No problem, click here to become one.