Starco is supplying wheels designed to withstand high water tank loads and speeds of up to 140 km/h for the Panther range of airport fire trucks. The family-owned manufacturer, Rosenbauer has been a Starco customer since January 2015, and is represented through its high-end, speciality product in more than 100 countries.
STARCO says it will one of the 1,300 or so exhibitors present at the GaLaBau trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany next month. The company is bringing experienced experts to the show and plans to display key brands plus its portfolio of in-house developed and manufactured wheels and tyres for industrial, ground care and utility vehicles.
With a flip of the calendar page June became July, and STARCO and Bohnenkamp each began a new chapter in their histories. STARCO reports that the start of the new month found its offices “buzzing heavily with activity,” and the company shares that much progress has been made since the signing of a deal between the two companies in May.
Starco is releasing its new e-commerce platform for Polish aftermarket customers. Despite the initial aftermarket focus, the ambition is to develop functionalities which meet the needs of the original equipment manufacturers and improve the overall customer experience.
The first release will include all the shop functionalities with which customers have become acquainted from the current version, as well as a selection of new features as well. As a result of the project, Starco’s shop and website have been merged into one Polish language entity.
The recently-announced deal with agricultural tyre wholesaler Bohnenkamp will increase the amount of business STARCO conducts with trailer manufacturers in Europe, and to accommodate this additional activity the company is doubling capacity at its Trailer & Caravan Customer Care Centre in Arendonk, Belgium. The boost in capacity will enable the fitment of 1,000,000 wheels per year on new trailers and caravans.
Change of any sort within an organisation can be difficult, says Richard Todd, but sometimes change is necessary in order to find the right area of focus and to grow in this. Upon becoming chief executive officer of STARCO at the start of last year, Todd took over the day-to-day management of a half-century old company on the cusp of starting the sizable task of redefining its focus and long-term direction. He began working on this in close collaboration with company owner, Peer Ejlergaard. Now, some 18 months later, this direction is clearly visible. At Reifen 2016, Richard Todd spoke about the structural reorganisation taking place within STARCO and the steps taken to realise it.
In recent times, Starco has focused upon transforming its organisation from a national market set-up to a segment-based structure. Tyrepress.com talked to Starco CEO Richard Todd about this restructuring at Reifen 2016 and will cover it in detail at a later date (and in the July 2016 issue of Tyres & Accessories magazine), and also met Thomas Ballegaard, the man tasked with setting the structures of this new, segment-driven Starco.
Should the relevant authorities grant their blessing, at the start of July German agricultural tyre wholesaler Bohnenkamp AG will take over several business areas belonging to Starco, while the Danish company will assume responsibility for certain activities currently within the Bohnenkamp portfolio.
A new organisational structure is being rolled out for Starco’s original equipment business in Western and Northern Europe. The company’s national sales entities will adopt a cross-border, segment-driven approach that will focus more strongly upon current customers and new, larger customers. Starco explains that this new structure’s adoption is being driven by market demands for specialised knowledge, strong supplier partnerships and cross-border mobility.
Starco reports the signing of an exclusive agreement to provide complete wheel assemblies to Polish agricultural implement manufacturer, SaMASZ. This deal builds on Starco’s existing supply of rim and tyre assemblies for selected SaMASZ machines. The products supplied under the new agreement will be assembled by Starco at the company’s facility in Poland and delivered inflated and tested subject to the customer’s specifications for Just-in-Time delivery and integration on SaMASZ equipment.
Starco reports that company owner and chairman Peer Ejlersgaard (56) died of a heart attack at this home on Saturday 5 March. He is survived by wife Hanne Bruun Ejlersgaard and their two sons, Philip and Christian.
Some two years after Swiss firm Gebrüder Schaad was acquired in its entirety by Denmark’s Starco and relaunched as Starco GS, production of the former Schaad range has ended at the Sübingen site in Switzerland. Starco GS wheels are now produced at the Starco production facility in Beli Manastir, Croatia. Starco states that while this transfer of production “marks the end of a proud era of special wheel manufacturing in Switzerland,” it will also result in the Starco GS product range reaching an even wider market than before.
Belgian forklift tyre (FLT) and wheel distributor Varius NV has been appointed a Starco Selected Dealer for these products. The independent FLT segment specialist is a small but growing company and offers specialist sales and mounting support services to major FLT and port equipment operators in the Antwerp region.
Competitive, user-friendly and economical – these are the words Starco uses to describe its new range of tyres for high speed trailer and caravan applications, a market segment where the Danish company is gaining share. The new portfolio contains the Starco MasterTrail, KargoTrail and EcoTrail tyre lines, and Starco says each of these is available in a range of popular sizes to suit most applications.
After 25 years at the helm of Starco, CEO and majority shareholder Peer Ejlersgaard has handed over executive responsibility for the Starco Group to Richard Todd and Karsten Petersen, and has become chairman of the board. Ejlersgaard is being joined by a new board of directors in a move that aims to further strengthen both the daily management of the company and its strategic development for the future.
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