Indian tread rubber manufacturer Midas has a wide presence in its local market in Kerala, supplying a number of smaller retreaders. An example is Life Tyres, based in Ranni in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala, which is located around 50 km from Midas’s headquarter in Kottayam.
Midas Retreader Strengthens Business with Local Trading
The plant is owned by Gigi Mathew, who moved back to Ranni about a decade ago.“We retread about 2,500 tyres annually, consuming about 40 tons of Midas tread,” he explained.
Most of the company’s customers operate fleets of dumpers and tippers engaged in transporting granite from nearby quarries. The district is considered home to more than 500 quarries and about 40 stone crushing sites. “The vehicles engaged with quarries are our major clients, besides, our small plant is on the busy highway. The road also leads to the famous temple of Sabrimala, which is about 60 km from Ranni and is busy with devotees from all over the country. There is lot of vehicle movement on this road.”
Mathew says he has further expanded his business by selling Midas tread rubber to other retreaders within a 10 km radius. “We started selling tread rubber about 4 years ago to small retreaders and now supply around 40 tons of tread rubber annually,” he said. The plant’s retreading business functions as Life Tyres but tread rubber is sold under the name of G R Tyres.
Mathew says he has no plans for further expansion and is content with running a small operation where profit margins are maximised while overheads are reduced. “We are also not expanding due to the fact that it is not easy to find trained labour here. Our focus is on quality, and our clients knows they will get the required quality here despite our small factory.”
