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COMPANY NEWS
The entrance to Marangoni Retreading Systems Deutschland in Henstedt-Ulzburg
The entrance to Marangoni Retreading Systems Deutschland in Henstedt-Ulzburg
left to right: Paolo Fincato, Christoph Frost, Massimo de Alessandri, Matthias Leppert, Christian Asmuth, Giuseppe Ferrari
Marangoni Consolidates Activities in Northern Europe
The Marangoni Group has announced a number of consolidation activities at their Ellerbrock subsidiary in Henstedt-Ulzburg, Germany. As a result Ellerbrock Reifenrunderneuerungs- Technologie GmhH, which was acquired by the Marangoni Group in the early 1990s, will henceforward trade under the name of Marangoni Retreading Systems Deutschland GmbH. The reorganization was announced at a press event held in Germany at which the Group laid down its strategy for the retreading market for the coming years.
“This new business name is a crucial step in the integration process between the German company and our group”, commented Marangoni CEO Massimo de Alessandri. “By
doing this we aim to both consolidate our presence in German-speaking and Scandinavian countries and focus more decisively on important new eastern European markets”
“The new name given to the German company and the adoption of our brand confirms the increasingly important bond that our group has formed with Germany over time, above all in a period when this country clearly represents the main European market and the driving force of the continent’s economic recovery”, he added. “Putting our name on the products manufactured in Hamburg and sold in most of continental Europe will on one hand complete our brand’s globalisation process in the retreading sector and on the
other combine its traditional values of specialisation and innovation with the qualities of Made in Germany products that have sustained the development of German companies in the world markets.”
The new name of Marangoni Retreading Systems Deutschland GmbH also represents a further development in the company’s business expansion plans, exploiting its location - not far from Hamburg - to serve and penetrate markets in German- speaking countries, Scandinavia and eastern Europe.
The Marangoni Retreading Systems Deutschland facilities in Henstedt-Ulzburg cover an area of 26,500 sq.m, with an additional 13,500 sq.m occupied by the logistics centre, and currently employ 120 people. The plant manufactures Profil Liner precured tread strips and RINGTREAD precured rings for truck tyre retreading. The investments made by the Marangoni Group in 2009 have seen the site equipped with the latest technology currently available in the sector, as well as advanced machinery developed and built specifically by the Marangoni group, such as the Alpha Ring automated production line.
In talking about the Marangoni Group’s overall strategy, Massimo de Alessandri talked of the Group having endured two tough years . The crisis was behind the company, he said,
but it was unclear what the future held for the market as a whole, although in his opinion, the recovery would not be strong. Despite this, he said, Marangoni did well in 2010 and 2011 driven by overseas activities and tyre machinery sales. In 2011 he expected the improvement to continue, primarily as a result of improvements in volume and in price/mix.
Retreading Systems Division Managing Director Giuseppe Ferrari and Head of Group Strategy and Development, Paolo Fincato, explained the strategic plan that the Group would now be following within the retreading sector.
Fincato began by pointing out that the truck retreading market is continuing to grow globally but Europe is becoming a small market within the overall total, only accounting, according to Ferrari, for 11% of the global market. The brand landscape, said Fincato, is also changing with the major manufacturers all having their own retreading processes. Marangoni now claims the global number one position among independent suppliers. Marangoni was the only independent global player, he added, singling out Vipal and Kraiburg as key regional players. The company’s global position had now brought Marangoni to the position where it now needed to focus on one key brand – Marangoni, supported by two sub brands – Ringtread and Profil Liner.
Giuseppe Ferrari expanded on this by defining Marangoni’s target market – the so-called “Quality Market”, which is entirely different from the overall retreading market. The quality sector, said Ferrai, makes up 80 per cent of the market in Europe and North America and 60 per cent in South America but much less - perhaps 5 per cent - of the two other large markets of India and China. Marangoni’s market, therefore is not the 60 million retreads per annum manufactured globally, but less than half of that – around 25 million. Despite this Ferrari underlined the fact that the growth of radialisation in developing markets gives huge scope for the large scale growth
16 Retreading Business