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COMPANY NEWS
Malatesta: Continued Commitment to Passenger Retreading
“and we work closely with the laboratory to define our requirements. This has enabled us to produce a new compound for passenger tyres with an exceptional and much improved performance in the wet”.
A further significant investment has been in a TRM Black Dragon extruder/builder, which has helped improve both quality and productivity. Although TRM have since been ver y successful with this machine, Malatesta was the first company to actually order one.
Malatesta has a wide and varied product range and with this in mind the company has recently invested in a new range of moulds and patterns up to 19”. However, one key specialist area for the company is winter and all-season tyres with premium
commitment to passenger retreading can be found in the company’s opening of a new retail store selling only retreaded tyres. The store, which is located next to the factor y, has been selling tyres to take away for about a year. However, in July, the company started to offer a full fitting service, just in time for the onset of the winter tyre season. In addition to passenger retreads, Malatesta can produce 200 truck retreads per day, 70 per cent of which are hot cure. However, the company does have a 20-year relationship with Kraiburg in the pre-cure sector as well as holding pre-cure agencies for Pirelli for the centre and south of Italy.
A further area of expansion for Malatesta is in the area of solid
Enrico Malatesta on the left (Production Director), Matteo Malatesta in the middle and Massimiliano Malatesta (MD) on the right
We have written before in the pages of this magazine that certain markets have shown signs of a re-awakening of interest in passenger retreads and that those companies who have remained committed to this sector stand to benefit from any revival.
On e company who passionately assert their commitment to passenger retreading is the Italian retreader, Malatesta Pneumatici, who continue to make significant investments in production at their plant in Anagni, Italy.
The company, which was founded in 1946 by Alberto Malatesta and which has been located in Anagni since 1993, is now in its third generation of management and currently
produces around 250,000 car tyres a year.
According to Sales Manager Matteo Malatesta, the company continues to invest in technology. “We still believe in the future of passenger retreading but this is a challenging market and to survive it is essential to continue to invest in quality procedures”.
An important development, says Matteo, was the availability of the laboratory at sister company MIG next door. The investment made in equipment there now helps the company have greater control over the compounds they are using, resulting in higher quality and greater consistency. “We only buy rubber from leading players in the business”, says Matteo,
quality winter compounds. Winter tyres currently make up around half the company’s production with 40 per cent of total production being exported. “We have noticed an upsurge in winter tyre demand”, says Matteo. “We are seeing sales in this sector increasing more and more.”
In addition to winter tyres, Malatesta produces a range of rally tyres, available in three compounds (soft/medium/hard) and also makes five different private brands including one for a supermarket chain. Meanwhile 4x4 tyres are a further key area and here the company is also expanding its range of patterns.
Further evidence of Malatesta’s
tyres, where the company manufactures tyres using a pre- cure bead-to-bead process, by which a mould sits inside a pre- cure envelope.
“We aim to continue to invest in solid tyres”, says Matteo Malatesta, not least because customers are satisfied and because the capacity is not enough. However, the retreading of solid tyres is a good-news stor y. It is ver y environmentally friendly. Users don’t often know what to do with used fork lift tyres. Retreading gives the product and extended life”.
Malatesta's operation includes a tyre store where the company sells its products direct to the public
Malatesta use a TRM builder with computer controls
12 Retreading Business