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MALAYSIA
Nor Tyre Retreading Sdn Bhd Managing Director Hoo Kia Wang, and his management team
Precure tread ready for application in the retread plant
Nor Tyre Reveals Expansion Plans
Having experienced success and growth in the local market through their sales agents over the years, Seremban based retreader Nor Tyre is now concentrating on its expansion plans.
The expansion, according to Nor Tyre Retreading Sdn Bhd Managing Director Hoo Kia Wang,
the equipment. ”
Hoo also revealed that they have purchased a new VMI-AZ Cushion gum extruder machine from Newera. This machine, according to him, is very cost effective in
the long run. With a building machine for precured treads, he uses an extruder to directly
some point. However, he knew nothing about tyre retreading at that time. Luckily, someone introduced Hoo to a talented person who had great expertise in tyres and tyre retreading. This person has been Hoo’s great helper and has been with Hoo ever since. Today he has become the company’s second man.
customers and provide us with quick entr y into the sales
territor y. For them, we retread their customer’s tyre at an agreed price, and they have total freedom on deciding how much they want to make from each retreaded tyre,” stressed Hoo.
According to Hoo, they have about 50 active agents in Malaysia, covering Klang Valley, Kota Bahru and Terengganu. Apart from that, the company also has 7 trucks to service its own major customers. “We also export a small number of retreads to Indonesia, Myanmar and Philippines,”added Hoo.
To better control their product’s quality and cost, Nor Tyre have started to produce its own precured liner for their own usage since 2009.
The foresight of Hoo and his openness of accepting suggestions are the two main factors that have contributed to his success. “The idea of producing our own precure liner,” Hoo said, “was from Hock Lee. The same goes to the factory’s design. It was Lee Heng Heng of Newera that gave us the suggestion of building a double- storey factor y. This design allows the absolute optimum use of the land space, which delivers significant cost and sustainability efficiencies. We placed our tyre building station at the first floor and our curing station at the top floor. Tyres are transported from one floor to the other using conveyor, it is ver y convenient and reduces the risk of tyres being contaminated.”
Nor Tyre is the only tyre retreader that has a double-storey designed factor y in Malaysia at the moment.
will enable them to increase their current production capacity, which includes truck and OTR tyre retreading.
Nor Tyre has three factories, two of which are next to each other, whilst the third factory is located opposite. Hoo says, after the expansion, they are planning to reorganise all of their production lines.
“We will be focusing more on OTR tyre retreading. At the moment, we retread only certain sizes of OTR tyre, and the volume is very small. Once we get approval from the Malaysia Environment Department, we will switch our OTR tyre retreading production line to the factory opposite and move the precure truck retreading facility from there to where the OTR tyre retreading facility had been. We are expecting this to be in place by the end of this year and we will be able to produce more OTR retreads next year. Later, we will renovate our first plant. ”
The profit for OTR retreads is higher compared to truck retreads. However, the investment in OTR retreads is also very high. “When Terco OTR manufacturing facility in Alor Gajah closed down in 2008, I purchased some second hand OTR retreading equipment from them. However, due to the space constraint in the factory, I cannot make full use of
16 Retreading Business
extrude hot cushion gum onto the buffed casing surface, thus directly replacing the process of wrapping calendered sheet cushion gum around the buffed casing. It helps to save on
labour costs by automatic skive filling, saves cushion gum costs by using just one size of feed strip, saves cement spraying costs with correctly formulated cushion gum and also helps to increase product quality.
At present, Nor Tyre produces 6,000 retreads per month using the precured process and 3,000 retreads per month using the hot cure process.
Nor Tyre has a humble beginning. Hoo was working in his brother’s tyre shop before he started his own business. Then the opportunity came by when he needed it most, namely when his brother’s shop did not do well and had to close down. He then became a used casing trader and worked closely with a Bumiputera company . This Bumiputera company succeeded in a tender bid for a government project, which allowed them to collect tyres from government departments such as army camps, Kementerian Kerja Raya Malaysia, Polis Diraja Malaysia, etc, and sell all the used tyres to him.
In order to secure and grow his business, Hoo knew that he had to set up a retreading plant at
In 1995, Hoo bought his first retreading plant, which is where their current management office is located.
“It was tough when we first started. I accepted an offer from Hock Lee, in which Hock Lee provided us with a full set of second hand retreading equipment for free and we had to purchase retreading material from them for five years. I knew I could not depend solely on the existing contract in the long run, and began to look for my own customers. ”
Nor Tyre’s marketing strategy is different from the other retreaders. Instead of selling through dealers, they are selling through agents. The advantages of selling through agents are they are self-employed, work independently and have their own trucks.
“I think this is a win-win cooperation. For us, we do not have to recruit and train our in- house sales force, and this helps us to save time and money. In addition, an agent with experience in selling retreaded tyres may provide ready-made
With his help, Hoo set up his retreading facility at a small rented factor y. This helped him be able to continue to work closely with the Bumiputera company, providing retreading services to the above mentioned government departments.
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