Vipal Rubber sponsored the 70th anniversary celebrations of UK retreader Vaculug. Vipal also honoured Vaculug employees Liam Atkinson, Jason Hughes and Paul Farrington in recognition of their collaboration. Founded in 1950, Vaculug employs more than 140, making it one of the largest retreaders in Europe. The company manufactures hot and cold cure retreaded tyres for trucks and OTR.
When Zenises Group chairman Harjeev Kandhari bought Lincolnshire-based retreader Vaculug in July 2018, some questioned the logic of buying a British manufacturing business while the country was on the brink of Brexit. However, shortly afterwards he told Tyres & Accessories that the circumstances only added to the opportunity and that he had plans to invest in the business via its staff, products and production lines. 18 months on, before the Coronavirus outbreak, T&A asked Kandhari how the transition has progressed and what the company is doing to celebrate its 10th anniversary. In short, the Vaculug transition is said to be going “absolutely wonderfully”, with a new MD appointed from within the ranks of Zenises, a number of other new personnel as well as new products and a developing van tyre business.
In July 2018 Zenises bought Grantham-based Vacu-Lug – the last significantly sized independent retreader in the UK. Seven months later Tyres & Accessories visited Grantham and met with Zenises chief executive officer (CEO) Harjeev Kandhari in order to find out more.
Introduced at Tire Technology Expo in February, the Zenises Group’s Cartyzen tyre subscription service will gain further exposure at The Tire Cologne next month through its presentation by Harjeev Kandhari, chief executive officer of Zenises.
Harjeev Kandhari, CEO of the Zenises Group, has been named this year’s winner of the INSEAD Alumni Emerging Entrepreneur Award. Harjeev was selected by an independent panel of judges out of an Alumni body of over 50,000 people.
Zenises’s new tyre subscription business, Cartyzen, has been introduced by the company’s CEO, Harjeev Kandhari, at Tire Technology Expo in Hannover, Germany. The company plans to launch a full service business in Spain, making it the first country in the world to have a full-scale tyre subscription service, following a trial of the model in Germany.
Zenises has appointed Jag Ram, the former acting pillar CTO of Ping An Bank, to its Technology Advisory Board. He will support the development of the new Technology Centre developed by Zenises in Madrid.
A new, four-storey technology centre has been set up to aid Zenises keep apace of online, social media and communication trends and to help it adjust business to new opportunities. The company has already appointed a division general manager and vice-president of technology, and is now in the process of expanding the workforce at the Technology Centre. Zenises aims for a total headcount of up to 40 in the Madrid facility.
Zenises has launched a new advertising campaign designed to “provoke the reader into reacting and thinking deeper about business,” according to CEO Harjeev Kandhari. Based on the in vogue concept of “disruptive thinking,” the campaign will feature a variety of abstract creative artworks rolled out over the coming months.
Zenises Group CEO, Harjeev Kandhari has denied rumours emanating from the Spanish market that Chinese tyremaker Doublestar has bid as much as 250 million euros for the company. Doublestar and Zenises entered into a European joint venture in October 2016.
“I just don’t get China!”, “As a foreigner, how do you get anything done in that country?”, “How can you trust the Chinese?” Having worked with China for nearly two decades now, I get many of these questions from friends and colleagues. They realise the need to do business with China and are having some trouble navigating the choppy waters. So here are some of my thoughts – in the hope I don’t offend any of my Chinese friends!
Harjeev Kandhari has joined the board of directors of Doublestar Europe as vice chairman. The joint venture between Qingdao Doublestar and the Zenises Group, of which Kandhari is CEO, is responsible for the sale, marketing and distribution of all Doublestar products in the continent, including the UK and other major markets.
On 22 September 2016 Doublestar Europe Ltd was registered as a UK company based in London. Tyres & Accessories understands that the company is a joint venture between Zenises and growing Chinese tyremaker Qingdao Doublestar designed to bring Chinese products into European markets.
In a recent op-ed Harjeev Kandhari, CEO of tyre company Zenises, reflected on possible changes in the way tyres are sold in the future. Kandhari’s first point is that the quality gap between brands that are long-established in the market (the so-called ‘legacy’ brands) and more recent introductions, such as Zenises’ own Z-Tyre, is shrinking fast. There has traditionally been a large difference in price between legacy and the newer tyres, but Kandhari believes that the small differences in performance and technology mean that this gap is no longer appropriate.
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