Hangzhou Zhongce flagship brand Westlake Tyres has held its first UK Partners Day with authorised UK distributor for TBR tyres, Vacu-Lug. The event was held at the Land Rover Experience Centre at Rockingham Castle, Leicestershire where the brand and its distributor combined the presentation of Westlake’s TBR tyre line-up with some “serious off-roading.”
Viking Wholesale Tyres and Equipment, part of the Axle Group and the UK distributor for Westlake Tyres, recently hosted an annual Viking Dealer Division Trip to Dubai.
Vacu-Lug has been appointed as the sole UK distributor for all West Lake truck and bus radial tyres. The move means nine product lines spanning a wide variety of operation types and with a choice of 17.5", 19.5" and 22.5" rim diameters have been added to the Vacu-Lug line up.
1,200 items of Manchester-based contract hire and leasing specialist, BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions are now covered by a contract with Vacu-Lug Tyres. The leasing firm has signed a managed Pay-As-You-Go which includes both light and heavy trucks and specifies the fitment of Pirelli steering axle tyres and Vacu-Lug Duramold tyres on drive and trailer axles. ATS Euromaster will operate as Vacu-Lug's service partner on this nationwide contract.
Ibstock, Leicestershire-based Go Plant Limited has signed a two-year fixed price contract for the supply and management of tyres for its nationwide fleet of refuse collectors, sweepers and other specialist vehicles with Vacu-Lug.
Vacu-Lug Traction Tyres Limited is one of the latest group of successful companies to join a leading edge scheme, designed to help industry improve its safety record. The Grantham, Lincolnshire-based firm recently received accreditation from SAFEcontractor, a programme which recognises high standards of health and safety practice amongst UK contractors.
South West division of builders' merchant Travis Perkins and ATS Euromaster were joint winners of a nationwide treasure hunt organised by retread tyre manufacturer, Vacu-Lug Tyres. The two companies secured their win by discovering the 'treasure' – the serial number tag from Vacu-Lug's 100,000th Duramold WZY2 premium retread. As winners, Travis Perkins and ATS Euromaster share a treasure trove of £500-worth of tyres. Simultaneously, the find has triggered a £500 donation from Vacu-Lug to the Help for Heroes campaign.
Vacu-Lug Tyres has been awarded ISO14001:2004 status for its Environmental Management System, underlining the green benefits of dealing with the retread tyre manufacturer.
The award follows a rigorous external audit, during which the inspectors were said to have been especially impressed with the actions the company has taken to reduce energy its use by 20 per cent and recycle 100 per cent of its non-tyre-related waste.
Just four years since its launch, Vacu-Lug Tyres has produced its 100,000th Duramold WZY2 tyre, a product the firm describes as a premium quality remould for the municipal and waste management industry. To commemorate the achievement, Vacu-Lug organised a special 'treasure hunt' competition for its tyre distributors and their customers.
The tyre has now entered Vacu-Lug's stock and will be despatched at random to one of its nationwide network of distributors in the near future. Upon discovering the tyre bearing serial number 100,000, the distributor and the customer for whom it is destined will share a treasure trove of £500-worth of tyres. Simultaneously, the find will trigger a £500 donation to the Help for Heroes campaign.
A Bandvulc employee has gained the highest “City & Guilds Part 1 Retread Process Workshop Practice” mark in UK, the second year in a row that a Bandvulc entrant has laid claim to this award. Every year a number of the company’s employees embark on the City & Guilds course where they have a 12 section syllabus to complete via in-house tuition and no small measure of homework. The course runs from September to April each year and covers all aspects of tyre retreading.
The Malcolm Group has switched to a Pirelli and Vaculug tyre policy effective from 1 May 2010. According to the company, the decision was made after an intense product test and tender process which saw the leading truck tyre manufacturers’ pitching their best products for performance comparison. Pirelli fitment for new tyres and Vaculug for retreads were chosen, working with ATS Euromaster as service provider.
Graham Hutchison, Pirelli director of truck UK was obviously pleased with the result: “Tenders can be difficult situations and The Malcolm Group management team and engineers provided a tough and demanding audience, but Pirelli’s range of new ‘01’ products and Vaculug’s retreads proved to be the best.”
In keeping with our apolitical but pro-tyre, wheel and association industries position, Tyres & Accessories will not be publishing anything that could influence you vote in today’s general election. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t mention anything to do with what’s going on in Westminster…Whilst the rest of the country goes to the polls, Westminster Council has reportedly “elected” to use Vacu-Lug Tyres to provide its tyre and fleet management needs.
While the majority of tyre manufacturers are increasing prices, Vacu-Lug Tyres Ltd has announced that it is actually reducing the cost of the Yokohama truck tyres it exclusively distributes in Great Britain. Vacu-Lug managing director Tim Hercock commented: “We have been doing a lot of work recently to improve efficiencies in our sales and logistics channels and as a result have been able to reduce our distribution costs which we have decided to pass on to our customers,” in a statement explaining that the price decrease covers the majority of the Yokohama truck tyre range, he added: “we are constantly being notified by our other tyre suppliers that their prices are going up and we thought that we would try and buck the trend by making the product range more competitive”.
Vacu-Lug Traction Tyres Limited has been awarded a contract to supply all the retreads for Royal Mail Group Ltd’s trailer fleet. The agreement, which runs for two years with an option to extend for a further two years, will see Vacu-Lug Duramold retreads fitted on a rolling basis as replacements for all worn or damaged 385/65 R22.5 tyres on the Royal Mail Group's 22.5 inch trailer fleet.
According to a statement detailing the news, environmental concerns were an important factor behind Royal Mail Group's decision to opt for Vacu-Lug Duramold Tyres. As an organisation committed to reducing its environmental impact, Royal Mail Group said it recognises the need to work with suppliers which also regard the environment as a key consideration through out the lifecycle of its product.
Vacu-Lug Traction Tyres has invested £150,000 in a latest-generation, twin-headed fully-automated buffing machine to ensure the greatest possible accuracy in the preparation of its retread tyre casings. Capable of working to a tolerance of one millimetre, the new Danish-built SI0 buffing machine is reportedly being used in the production of Vacu-Lug's Duramold range of premium quality retread tyres.
"Our new machine is fully computer-controlled and has been pre-programmed with data for every tyre in the Duramold range," said Vacu-Lug Plant Manager, Brian Barron. "Our casings typically require between two and three millimetres of rubber above the steel belt and this machine can achieve that with pinpoint accuracy. In practice, this enables us to work to the most exacting quality standards, with a perfect result every time for any retread tyre from 17.5-inch through to the largest super-single."
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