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NEWS
Fourth Generation Goes into Reiff Management
Alec Reiff (35), the great-grandson of company founder Albert Reiff has been appointed to the Board of Reiff Reifen und Autotechnik GmbH. Thus, the family is continuing its successful tradition in corporate governance.
In the new role, Alec Reiff is responsible for the trade covering all product lines, discount business, including B to C e-commerce and the Bandag truck retreading operation. This is aimed to result in the development of a future proof management for the family run business. The appointment of Alec Reiff ensures that the traditions of the company will be upheld and that there will be continuity in the company that is now over 100 years old.
Reiff has studied business administration at the Universities of Mannheim and Munich and has many years of industry and management experience at the world's leading cosmetics
manufacturer, L 'Oreal. Since 2010 he has been responsible for sales at Reiff.
During the past year, Reiff Group employed 1660 employees at over 80 locations in Europe.
the fall in consumption on the European and domestic markets, such as the car tyres and wholesale- retail distribution units. Commenting on plans for the current year, Massimo De Alessandri stressed how “2013 will once again be a year of uncertainties and potential crises, as despite an expected gradual improvement in the global economy, developments in Europe and especially in Italy are quite unclear”. As a result, the Rovereto based company will need to differentiate its efforts in the different areas.
On the American markets, where Marangoni’s sales total over 100 million euros, the aim will in fact be to grow sales further, “taking
advantage of the technological capabilities of our local production plants and further improving profitability by fully exploiting the manufacturing capacity achieved in recent years”.
As regards European business, and with the exception of tyre machiner y production, which is buoyed by demand in emerging markets, continuing weak domestic demand “will force our companies to maintain profitability by implementing strict and specific policies to defend sales quality in the various different customer segments, making all company processes more efficient and adapting operational structures to the expected continuing recession and stagnation scenario”.
Marangoni’s Machinery and Tyre Retreading Businesses Underpin Profitability Upturn
to Tyre Sector
The Managing Director of Nigerian retreader, Infinity Tyres Limited, Mr. A.S Chadha, has pledged his company’s readiness to set up a tyre manufacturing factory in Nigeria, if the Federal Government was committed to end the unstable power supply situation in the countr y.
He also said the Federal Government should be ready to give import waivers to genuine manufacturers that are willing to import raw materials for local tyre production into the country. Chadha, who made this disclosure during a media briefing on his company’s end of the year promo in Lagos, said there was need for the country’s tyre production factories to comeback to stream because of the importance of the tyre business in Nigeria.
He said the Federal Government has a lot of role to play towards the revitalisation of the country’s tyre sector, pointing out that those tyre manufacturing companies that moved out of the country because of the power supply issue could be persuaded to return but the government must assure them that the challenges facing the sector are resolved in earnest.
The managing director said the Nigerian tyre market has been rewarding for importers of tyres into the country, but the country would earn more foreign exchange if genuine manufacturers are allowed to float local tyre factories, so that people within and outside the country could benefit.
“If today, I have all my approvals from the Federal Government with firm assurance that power supply will be stable, it will take me between 18 to 24 months to bring tyre production to full stream. Part
of my approvals from the government is to give me an import waiver to bring in all the raw materials I will need for the tyre production. Again, I still need to secure land for the building of the factory,” he said.
On the company’s promotion, the Infinity boss said the management decided to reward its loyal customers, who have stayed and patronised the company’s products from the beginning of this year. According to him, this was a time that the company always looked forward to, because it was an opportunity for the management to give back to their customers.
“This is the latest edition of the value drive promo. The previous editions have made our customers happy, hence we decided to make it a tradition. We used this medium to reward their loyalty to our brands. They are the reason why we are here and we truly appreciate them,” Chadha said.
He, however, stressed that the company was concerned about the safety of motorists and would therefore, not rescind on its promise to deliver the best automobile solutions in the country.
Infinity tyres is the sole agent and franchise owner for premium tyre brands such as Goodyear, Pirelli, Ceat, as well as, Infinity batteries in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Infinity Commits
“Economically, 2012 was a very tough year in Europe and above all in Italy. However, our Group continued to see a rise in profitability thanks to the good performance of its core businesses, tyre retreading and the construction of advanced machinery and systems for the tyre industry”.
This is how CEO Massimo De Alessandri opened the meeting with the Marangoni Group’s international management in Rovereto.
Massimo De Alessandri
Although more precise data will be published in the official financial statements, Marangoni Spa, the Group’s parent company, announced that despite a drop in turnover due to a reduction in sales volumes, 2012 was a year in which the Group, through decisive action taken regarding product mix and related revenues as well as operating costs, achieved a substantial increase in operating profits, thus improving its net financial position.
In a general economic context characterised by extreme uncertainty and strong recession on the domestic market and in Europe generally, the Group recorded a positive trend both in the machinery sector, with important orders from foreign markets, and in retreading where, in addition to recovering profitability in Europe, the Group saw its subsidiaries in North America (Nashville - Tennessee) and in Latin America (Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Rosario, Argentina) exploit the growth opportunities offered by their respective markets.
Good performance in the Group’s core businesses and on foreign markets more than made up for a drop in profits in the business units most exposed to the recession and
8 Retreading Business