Marangoni India has continued to expand its footprint in the Indian market with the opening of an industrial scale franchisee in Gandhidham regarded as the most populous city in the Gujarat state Kutch district. Gandhidham is considered to be among the biggest trucking hubs in the country with a market size of 30,000-32,000 truck tyres per month and is also home to major petroleum and edible oil refineries along with Kandla, the key sea port in Western India.
New Plant Opened in Gandhidham
Marangoni’s new partner in Gujarat is Bharat Tyres Gujarat Limited (BTGPL), who operate the CEAT Truck Service Hub at Gandhidham. The Marangoni site has been opened as an integrated unit at the service hub. On the occasion of the opening, Vittorio Marangoni, President Marangoni Group said, “BTGPL is Marangoni’s largest industrial scale high quality retreading facility in India for commercial, agriculture and small OTR segment tyres. We are proud to be associated with BTGPL and with it start discussions with CEAT on how we can jointly bring industry leading tyre solutions to Indian fleets.”
Meanwhile, Mahendra Verma, Chairman, BTGPL believes that the cutting-edge CEAT Truck Service Hub along with the Marangoni Retread Shop will further strengthen their commitment to providing superior tyre services to fleet operators and truck drivers.
BTGPL, appointed in April, is Marangoni’s 12th franchisee in India. “Another three franchisees are in the pipeline, and we are likely to have 15 operational franchisees in the next few months,” claimed Hemant Kaul, CEO, Marangoni South Asia. “Now all our existing franchisees retread 500+ tyres each month compared to the industry average of 200 tyres per month,”
First Marangoni site to offer hot and cold processes
Spread over 7,000 sq metres, the site is functional with two autoclaves of 7 tyres each and 2 hot presses. The site has many firsts to its credit as it is the first site in India to offer retreads with hot process and is also the only integrated plant that retreads LCV, truck, agricultural and small 25 inch OTR tyres. It is also the first site that offers retreads in precure for truck tyres and hot cure for small agricultural and OTRs.
Marangoni has developed its own range of hot rubber compounds for agricultural and small OTR tyres for the first time in India for the domestic market. “It has performance in line with Marangoni’s premium positioning,” said Kaul.
Moreover, as part of expanding its network to offer retreading by the hot process, Marangoni is now re-working its market strategy to set-up one out of every three franchisees to offer hot retreading.
“Both processes have their own market in the country. The move also provides flexibility to franchisees to operate in both the market segments,” said Kaul.
The plant is connected to and operates as a CEAT truck service hub equipped with six bases for truck servicing, besides offering services like balancing, alignment, tyre changing & rotation etc.
Gandhidham plant targets 2000 tyres
BTGPL is to become one of Marangoni’s biggest franchisees with the company planning to achieve peak production of 1,800-2,000 tyres per month within the next year. “With the opening of the retread site at BTGPL, Marangoni is heading for a paradigm shift in the India market with most of our franchisees operating at a level of 800-1,000 tyres per month,” explained Kaul. “BTGPL’s vision of becoming a One-Stop-Solution for CV Fleets – from new tyres to tyre service to retreads to ELT buy back – is revolutionary in the Indian context.”
BTGPL is the largest business partner for CEAT worldwide, selling between 5,000-6,000 truck tyres each month. The company has its tyre management service application ‘Fleet Kaptan’. The application, which launched last year in August, now handles the accounts of 12 fleets covering 1,500 trucks and 25,000 tyres in total.
Marangoni eyeing presence in major trucking hubs
Marangoni now aspires to be the market leader in the top 25-30 trucking hubs located within India. “We want to establish the Marangoni brand as undisputed market leader by offering tyre life extension via high quality retreads in all the trucking hubs of the country, said Kaul.”
Marangoni is now targeting to achieve double-digit market share within the next three years. The Indian venture’s transition from JV to 100% Marangoni subsidiary is making India part of the global Marangoni set-up.
Meanwhile, Marangoni is also expanding its storage capacity in India to avoid any supply disruption by setting-up three warehouses in South, West and Central India. As it penetrates in the Northern market, another one is likely to be set-up in the near future.
Commenting on the Indian retread market, Kaul emphasised, “Retreading penetration is still low in India as only 30% or 1/3rd of the tyres retreaded compared to the developed markets where ratio is high 1:1. Therefore, India market offers huge growth potential.”
Author: Satnam Singh
