Retreading
Bandvulc has added Marc Kinnear to its sales & key account management team. He joins Bandvulc having been in the tyre industry for over 14 years in varying roles, most recently in an operational and administrative position which enabled him to gain valuable account management experience.
Imports of truck tyres into Europe have significantly increased over the past five years and have devoured market share formerly held by local players, particularly European retreaders. Detailed analyses on this phenomenon can be found here and here.
Europe’s retreading industry is in poor shape. Sales volumes have – with the exception of a peak in 2010 and 2011 – decreased by a quarter since 2007. What’s more, the million or more retreads that weren’t (or couldn’t be) sold during this time were offset by an almost one million unit rise in new truck tyre imports. It is no great secret that up to 90 per cent of these imports originate in China and are offered in Europe at prices that make those typically charged by retreaders seem exorbitant, and it can even be posited that these products call an entire industry’s competitiveness into question. Pre-cure retreading, a process more often than not performed by small and medium-sized operations, has come under particular pressure of late. Looking at this phenomenon, it is easy to wonder if we are witnessing the start of a long-term structural change within the industry.
Technical Rubber Company, Inc. (the Johnson, Ohio-based firm also known as Tech or TRC) has bought of Rovereto, Italy-based Salvadori S.r.l in a transaction that completed last week.
Several new products have joined the Marangoni winter portfolio. The Italian retreading supplier states that these treads “offer similar performance” to high quality brand new tyres, and thus represent “the best alternative by far” for those seeking a combination of reliability, high mileage and lower cost.
Galgo has opened new European headquarters (including warehousing and offices) in order to expand the company’s retreading coverage and sales presence. This expansion takes the company from Tongeren to the Ghent-Antwerp-Brussels triangle in Belgium, close to inland Beverdonk and the Meerhout container terminal.
Point S has launched in Asia, specifically Malaysia. Malaysia becomes the first country on the continent Asia to join the international network of independent tyre dealers after the group began in Europe and has since expanded into America and Africa.
The implementation of the brand will be operated through a master franchise agreement with GIIB Group (Goodway Integrated Industries Berhad) and partners, which will create a dedicated company to manage and develop the Point S network.
Next January, The Tyre Equipment Company is returning to the LAMMA farm machinery and equipment show in Peterborough to showcase its range of workshop tools and equipment.
As a long-established online supplier of workshop tools to a cross section of transport sectors, the company offers a ‘no minimum order’, free packaging and delivery service throughout the UK for all of its products.
Between 9 and 15 October, four Vipal retreading partners from Australia and New Zealand visiting the firm’s facilities in Brazil.
There were four retreaders in total, three from Australia (Arctic Cool, Tyre Lug and Eco Green) and one from New Zealand, (Power Retread). They toured the three plants of the leading tyre retreader, two in Nova Prata, Rio Grande do Sul (RS), and one in Feira de Santana, Bahia (BA). Vipal’s Head of International Business, Leandro Rigon, welcomed the group, accompanied by Adalberto Fernandez, Vipal’s Manager for MEROC (comprising Mercosul and Oceania), Tiago Campanharo, Commercial Director in Australia, and Rodrigo Refatti, Marketing Specialist.
Retreading solutions provider Eversafe Rubber has outlined plans for expansion beyond the Asean region once it has completed its current initial public offering (IPO), with South America identified as a target.
The company has released a draft prospectus describing potential investment in South America, following its first moves into Brazil this year. Plans include trademarking its brand in several regions, including South America.
When retreaders around the world hear the name Cima Impianti, they think presses. After more than six decades in the business the company continues to drive innovation, and regularly unveils new products and services. As the Pistoia, Italy-based firm shares, it recently introduced presses which utilise self-lubricating materials that eliminate the need for centralised lubrication – a
system that itself was considered a major technical achievement when the company first implemented it some 25 years ago.
Birmingham-based Dunlop Aircraft Tyres Ltd (DATL) has confirmed that the company is looking for new investors. And this means that “initial discussions” with “a number of interested parties” are already underway.
According to the company’s executive chairman Ian Edmondson, the goal is to find a suitable partner to help the company continue to move forward at its current rate of positive growth: “Our shareholders are now seeking to find a new investor who is in a position to help the business maintain the outstanding growth record that it has delivered in recent years.”
While the vast majority of the UK’s tyre production and retreading capacity refers to trucks and a relatively small amount of car tyre retreading still takes place as well as some specialist earthmover retreading, one of the nation’s largest retreaders makes aircraft tyres. Dunlop Aircraft Tyre Ltd or DATL as it is known has demonstrated strong growth in recent years and is majority-owned by private equity. Put the two together and it begs the question – is Dunlop Aircraft Tyre Ltd (DATL) up for sale?
A number of changes and new developments have taken place since Reifen Ihle’s retreading operation began afresh as Rigdon GmbH at the end of 2014. The company, which is based in Günzburg, near the River Danube, remains the largest independent manufacturer of retreaded tyres in Germany, however Rigdon’s restructuring is by no means complete. While the new owner has made good progress implementing its “Rigdon 2020” growth strategy and corporate transformation programme so far, Rigdon GmbH managing director Ralf Schnelle shares with Tyres & Accessories that further significant changes are coming within the framework of the five-year programme, changes that – in spite of the many problems within the market – will help the company and its employees look forward to the future with confidence.
Oliver Rubber Company, LLC has launched the ORCO HS Trailer, a trailer-position retread for regional and long-haul applications.
“The ORCO HS Trailer delivers a cost-efficient solution for single- and tandem-axle trailers in this new, modern Oliver product,” said Adam Murphy, vice president of marketing for
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