Marangoni bucking market trends: 18% growth achieved in the UK in 2023

Towards the end of 2023, Phil Robinson, Marangoni senior country manager for the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and United Arab Emirates, explained the importance of the UK tyre retreading sector to sustainability as part of the annual NTDA Tyre Industry Conference. A few months later the specific impact of Marangoni’s success on the wider retreading business in the region is now becoming apparent.

In short, Robinson explained that, within the tyre sector, retreading has the potential to offer unique recycling and therefore sustainability opportunities. Specifically, while a new truck tyre requires 83 litres of oil to be made, a retread offering much the same performance requires just 26 litres of oil. Similarly, manufacturing a retread uses 65 per cent less energy and retreading saves up to 95 percent of CO2. Continuing the theme, a quality tyre regrooved and then retreaded twice effectively triples the mileage achieved by the original casing.

For its part, Marangoni reports that it is the largest pre-cure retreading materials and equipment supplier in the European Union. Marangoni sells compounds and equipment for both hot and cold retreads, but has to acknowledge the resilience of pre-cure retreads as both tyre solutions and in terms of sustainability. Indeed, premium retreads can be three-to-four times as long-lasting (based on a premium casing) as new budget tyres, according to Marangoni executives. Education is key to helping fleets (and in some cases the wider tyre business) understand that kind of evidence-based reality.

Something else that is underreported is the positive business impact of offering such solutions. Not only does such success demonstrate the ongoing value of retreading as a business in isolation, but it also highlights the economic sustainability of premium retreading.

Across Europe, the retreading business is fairing better than it has done in the last few years when retreading – like the entire tyre business – has been impacted by war, pandemic and inflationary pressures. Nevertheless, Tyres & Accessories understand that the current UK retreading business is something like 12 per cent down on pre-pandemic levels, while the wider European retreading sector remains something like 13 per cent down (according to Marangoni estimates). However, in the UK, Marangoni has achieved impressive growth of just over 18 percent. And what’s more, this growth comes from the addition of new partners such as G&S Tyres, the introduction of several new to range articles for the UK market, as well as non-growth-related increases, which can be termed like-for-like growth.

One consequence of such good support from new and pre-existing Marangoni partners is that the company continues to support partner investment based on growth in order to help customers to continue to grow. And, of course, as the partners have grown, so has Marangoni.

As Phil Robinson told Tyres & Accessories, “It is not about just delivering more material to customers. Rather, it is about helping customers to sell tyres. That might mean supporting them with machinery and that might mean providing added value concepts to support the positive promotion of our customers businesses and retreading as a sustainable solution.”

So where does Marangoni go from here, especially in the UK where the company can already point to strong growth figures? “We’re going to achieve growth by winning business and increasing our market share.” Since the UK retreading business has experienced an extended consolidation phase exacerbated but the external market pressures we have all heard enough about, the question is from where?

The answer is that there will be some organic growth and there will be some growth from the reinvention of previously successful businesses that have reconfigured following the perfect storm of Covid, war and economic pressures. In each case, the strategy remains the same – make the best tyres, not just sell more tyres at any cost. The expected result is that both ends will be achieved and Marangoni’s partners will both make the best retreaded tyres and sell more of them.

“It is about putting time and effort into quality over quantity”, Robinson explained, adding: “A local-for-local business therefore results in the smallest of carbon footprints.”

Large numbers of independent fleets are said to be Marangoni-based retread’s best customers. These businesses aren’t sold solely on price, but rather based on a more enduring commercial solution. At the same time, independent retreaders supporting independent fleets is mutually beneficial situation.

“Retreads made professionally are the safest and highest quality retreads that have ever been produced.” – Phil Robinson, Marangoni senior country manager for the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and United Arab Emirates

But there’s no denying that budget truck tyres have made something of a comeback in the UK and European replacement markets at the centre of the retreading business model. And those same budget tyres have become increasingly keenly priced. However, rather than pitting budget tyres and retread against one another as direct competitors – an approach that brings with it the danger of implicitly selling both on the basis of price – the answer is to promote arguments that demonstrate how retreads are more than simply alternatives to budget tyres, but rather are a high-performing and highly sustainable product in-and-of themselves. And therefore, it is all about working with those that are going to produce the highest possible performing retreads and sell them to fleets that understand appreciate their benefits.

The latter point is something that Phil Robinson is obviously passionate about:

“The technology has really changed over the years. The application of intelligent tyre management, tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) etc mean the risk of damage has been significantly reduced and therefore more casings are retreadable than ever. At the same time, quality control technology and specifically shearography is also better than ever, which maximises the quality and enduring integrity of the casing. As a result, modern retreads made professionally are the safest and highest quality retreads that have ever been produced.”

And to have the third-party testing really validate the level Marangoni retreads are already working at, demonstrates that point. Furthermore, having retread labelling further emphasises the point. ECE-109 is, of course, one standard, but some described it as “a bit loose”. For example, ECE-109 requires inflation testing, but to what pressure? Those producing the highest quality retreads are happy to over-engineer product quality and to have their products rigorously tested. And at the same time such labelling is also a positive move towards promoting retread quality in a customer-facing way.

All of this – emissions savings, carbon footprint optimisation, and product quality as well as robust economic practice – factors together to embody an overall sustainable business model, a model that is particularly suited to the retreading dimension of the wider tyre business, and one that Marangoni is clearly comfortable pushing to the forefront.