Retreading
In North America, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company recently launched its RT-3B bead-to-bead retread. According to the company, the new retread provides “all-around performance on an array of underfoot conditions for loaders and graders and complements its existing line-up of premium off-the-road (OTR) retread tyres.
Kal Tire and Bridgestone Canada have reached an agreement for Kal Tire to purchase 15 full-service GCR Tires & Service (GCR) outlets, two retreading plants and one off-the-road tyre repair shop from Bridgestone. The purchase of these locations will enable Kal Tire to serve more consumer, commercial and mining customers in the Canadian markets where it currently operates, as well as expand its footprint to include locations in eastern Canada.
Roy Littlefield, who is soon to retire as chief executive officer and executive vice-president of the Tire Industry Association (TIA) after 18 years in the job and 42 years with the association and its predecessors, is one of two fresh inductees into the Tire Industry Hall of Fame. The Tire Industry Hall of Fame Committee has selected Littlefield together with the late Martin J. Barry, a former president of the National Tire Dealers Association. Barry will enter the Hall in the historic category.
Vaculug is introducing a new dealer network strategy from 1 August 2021 onwards. According to the company, the new strategy focuses on “developing new and innovative products and dealer initiatives that provide an advantage to the network in the sales process of Vaculug range of products.”
Hexpol completed the 48 million euro acquisition of 100 per cent of Unión de Industrias C.A., S.A. (Unica) from Espiga Capital, a Spanish based Private Equity firm on 7 July 2021. Unica’s turnover in 2020 amounted to 40 million euros, with a profitability “below Hexpol Group”, according to the business’s new owner. Unica will be consolidated into Hexpol from 1 July.
In its latest Annual Report, India’s GRP Ltd. shared that the 2020-21 financial year “proved to be a watershed year in more ways than one” for the Marangoni GRP retreading joint venture. While the world and India were under the grip of COVID-19 for the best part of the 12-month period to 31 March 2021, the company says Marangoni GRP “made rapid strides in several directions” that “set it on a path of high growth and expansion in the next year.”
Established in 2020, AZuR is a German-based innovation network for end-of-life tyre recycling with a membership list that includes retreading and recycling firms, academia and state agencies. After receiving financial support from Germany’s government for the first ten months of its existence, AZuR has been self-funded under the patronage of the German Rubber Manufacturers Association (wdk) since June 2021. The network recently began a major study into the ecological and economic aspects of retreading, and reported yesterday that the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) has committed to support this work.
As mentioned on Tyrepress.com yesterday, the future of tyre making at the site of Bridgestone’s recently-closed Béthune in France has been secured by a deal signed this month between major European vehicle maintenance and mobility firm Mobivia and French retreading specialist Black Star. With support from Bridgestone, the partners are gearing up to retread car, SUV and light commercial vehicle tyres in Béthune – products that Bridgestone intends to sell through selected retail outlets.
Major European vehicle maintenance and mobility firm Mobivia and French retreading specialist Black Star have signed an agreement covering the collection, sorting and retreading of passenger car tyres at the site of Bridgestone’s former Béthune plant in France. Bridgestone is lending its support to the project, which will commence in January and is expected to create nearly 200 jobs by 2025, thus providing employment for many former Bridgestone workers.
Vaculug has signed an exclusive five-year agreement with CAM International, which will allow its service partners subscribed to the e-jobsheet tablet app for truck, bus, van, industrial and car fleet work to be integrated with its systems via the TiDaeX platform.
Bridgestone Corporation is working to incorporate additional sustainability into its business model. Alongside plans to establish and build up a recycling business, retreading remains a key part of these efforts and features in the company’s plans to invest 700 billion yen (£4.6 billion) in strategic resources by 2023. To expand retreading activities, Bridgestone is looking at other segments besides commercial truck and OTR tyre retreading.
At the end of March, UK trade association, the National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) announced that it is launching a new Responsible Repairer Group (RRG) for companies providing major repairs for commercial vehicle, OTR, agricultural as well as plant and equipment tyres. The establishment of the new RRG picks up on the precedent of a similar committee that ran for 20 years until a decade ago and sought to represent the views of those offering major repairs and the companies supplying them – two areas of the tyre business that overlap with the wider retreading segment.
The importance of retreading as part of the circular economy is well-known in 2021. But when Devon-based Bandvulc started reusing rubber to make retread tyres back in 1971, sustainability was neither part of our everyday vocabulary, nor a standard manufacturing practice. 50 years on from its humble beginnings retreading just 30 tyres a week purely for local use, Bandvulc has grown to become the UK’s foremost tyre retreader, producing one premium quality retread tyre every three minutes to serve commercial vehicle customers across the country. To mark its half-century in operation, and five years on from Bandvulc’s acquisition by Continental Tyres in 2016, Tyres & Accessories looks back on the company’s history of pioneering retread technology, prolonging the lifespan of tyres, reducing waste ending up in landfill, and contributing to lower carbon emissions in tyre production, driving sustainability as it moves into its 51st year.
Continental has reopened its Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico retreading factory in alliance with Vitallantas Servicio. The tyre manufacturing partners report that the implementation of a more functional and sustainable system helped make the reopening possible.
Goodyear
Ellie Burgin
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