Bandvulc hosts key partner conference in Manchester
After a one-year gap Bandvulc recently held its Key Partner Conference for its dealer network at the prestigious Midland Hotel in Manchester. Famous for a particular historical partnership, the Midland was where Messrs. Rolls and Royce met and agreed to form their company. The conference theme was: Partnerships, loyalty and recognising customers. Company representatives explained that this year’s conference was designed to inform the network of Bandvulc’s performance amongst other things.
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Vipal trains customers in Nova Prata at “UniVipal”
Representatives from five companies attended the training program at Vipal’s head office in Rio Grande do Sul recently. According to the retreading materials supplier the goal was to share the knowledge the firm has acquired over more than 40 years of experience. Vipal, which is the Latin American leader, reports that it developing several such initiatives. These activities, like those fostered by the UniVipal corporate university, are intended to benefit customers around the world. In September, Vipal’s partners from Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia attended a four-day training session at the company’s head office in Nova Prata, Rio Grande do Sul.
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WG Tanker Group celebrates 18 months with Westlake tyres
WG Tanker Group, which describes itself as a “one-stop-shop for all powder tanker requirements”, is celebrating its relationship with Westlake tyres (distributed by Vacu-Lug Traction Tyres) 18 months in, saying it would not look elsewhere for a similar product.
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New Bandvulc Plus+ commercial director
Bandvulc Group has appointed Graham Mitchell as Bandvulc Plus+ commercial director. This means Mitchell will work on all aspects of BV Plus+ in order to review and enhance its activities. He joins Bandvulc from Cooper Tire, where he was responsible for European sales.
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Reifen Pinke: Retreading a means of customer retention
Small and medium-size truck tyre suppliers are well aware that a complete portfolio must also include corresponding retreading products. These days, for either economic or environmental reasons, a large percentage of customers within the transport sector expect further use from their tyre casings following the first tyre life. As shown during a visit to Reifen Pinke in Germany, tyre dealers with their own retreading production can particularly profit from this.
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Fewer exports: RuLa and BRW successfully alter course
After focusing heavily in recent years on expanding exports to Eastern Europe and Russia, RuLa and its subsidiary the Berliner Runderneuerungswerk (BRW, or Berlin Retreading Plant) is now concentrating primarily upon the German domestic market and specifically upon further developing its mould cure retreading and logistical capabilities. To achieve this, investments are being made in the company’s Königs Wusterhausen-Zernsdorf site south of Berlin. At the same time, company owner Detlev Biermann and his firm continue to develop their presence in Eastern Europe and very recently acquired a large, modern pre-cure retreading facility in Poland. As Tyres & Accessories learned when visiting the company, both of these investments should ‘weather proof’ RuLa, one of Germany’s largest retreaders, against further structural changes in the sector.
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Pirelli offers a “professional full solution tailored to individual requirements”
This year Pirelli initiated a mould cure retreading pilot project under the “Novatread” brand name. According to the Italian firm, in the long-term this product will be introduced throughout Europe and together with its new tyres will represent a full-portfolio, single-source solution. In an interview with Tyres & Accessories, Manfred Zoni, Central Europe sales and marketing director for Pirelli’s truck business, expounded on the strategic approach Pirelli is pursuing with its mould cure retreading and how this product offer fits together with its decentralised Novateck pre-cure retreading, which is carried out by certified partners.
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Fully automated Remix factory amongst the most modern in the Michelin group
With recent upgrades complete, Michelin gave Tyres & Accessories a tour of its fully-automated Remix retread remanufacturing plant in Stoke-on-Trent. Foot for foot, Michelin’s Campbell Road, Stoke-on-Trent Remix plant is one of the smallest in the Michelin group, but it is arguably also the amongst most modern and most flexible and most productive. Built at the height of Michelin’s industrial activities in Stoke, the Remix site was originally a manufacturing plant for new truck tyres. In 1968 Remix capabilities were developed and in 2000, the French tyre maker’s Encore process was added. Nowadays the Stoke location is Michelin’s UK headquarters and is therefore home to hundreds of executive, sales, marketing and administration-based employees. Across the road from the offices, over 350 are directly involved in the manufacturing process. New tyre production left decades ago, but Stoke is still a bustling centre of market leading retreading activity.
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Kabat Group plans further growth through retreading
It’s never easy for a market leader to generate additional growth, but entering into a related business area that draws on existing expertise offers potential. Brothers Andrzej und Tadeusz Kabat have been certain of this in recent times. After a quarter century in which their Kabat Group has become an established force in the European inner tube market and has developed a name for itself in the manufacture of rubber compounding and technical rubber products, last year the company took its first steps in a whole new area: It has started producing agricultural tyres and plans to introduce industrial tyres by next year at the latest. In addition, since acquiring the former Stomil production facility in 2012, the Kabat brothers have become one of Poland’s largest retreaders – and plan to grow this business further.
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Dunlop Aircraft Tyres to open US retread facility
Dunlop Aircraft Tyres is to establish its first retreading facility in the United States in early 2016. It is reportedly evaluating a number of potential sites in the South East of the USA. The Birmingham, UK-based company says it will use the base to boost its competitiveness across the Americas, particularly on popular narrow and wide-bodied jet airliners and military aircraft.
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