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NEWS EXTRA
employed at the factory, having been laid off by Pirelli before the plant was sold to Marangoni. The products manufactured at Anagni were well received in the market, and the second line, Stunner, was hugely supported by retailers and wholesalers in the UK and the
Netherlands.
However, the economic crisis, which has hit Italy hard, ongoing competition from imported tyres and the need to continually invest, defeated the retreading giant’s hopes of becoming a new tyre competitor. The final actions at the Anagni plant
are under way as Marangoni has engaged Price Waterhouse Cooper to sell the tyre manufacturing plant. It is hoped that production will continue in the hands of a new owner.
Following suspension of the facility's production of passenger and light
truck tyres last September, the Marangoni Group reached an agreement with trade unions and institutions to ensure the continuation of the redundancy fund payments to the 400 employees of the Anagni plant until Dec. 31, 2014.
Vipal Sponsors Euro F-Truck Racing Again
Vipal is a company that knows who to bet on when the subject is racing events. This year, Vipal has renewed its sponsorship of the Czech Republic's Buggyra Team at European Truck Racing, organised by Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and considered the leading European competition in the sector. The Vipal brand will once again be displayed on the truck of driver and team leader, David Vršecký.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Vipal is taking part in the European F-Truck. In the first season
of its participation, in 2011, Vipal hosted European customers and partners at Buggyra's VIP area during five of the ten competition races. The following season, the company expanded actions in the special team area, and 2013 was no different. New customers and partners were able to circulate through the paddock, take a close- up look at the trucks and watch the action from a privileged viewpoint. “The experience has proven to be a catalyser in our relationship with customers. It has been so successful that we have signed an additional 2
year contract for the 2014 and 2015 seasons”, stated Vipal Europe manager, Alessandro Campos, regarding the
sponsorship of Buggyra at Truck Racing. Buggyra is a three-time champion in the individual and team categories for 2007, 2008 and 2009. The first and only private team in the category with an engine developed through its own technology,
Buggyra is optimistic about the 2014 season.
Unique Rubber Ends 2013 on a High
Unique Rubber, a Brazilian operation created from the industrial and commercial activities of Tipler, closed 2013 with a claimed 21 per cent market share in pre-cure treads and 20 per cent of the camelback market. The company has high hopes for 2014.
The company increased its production of precured treads by 20 per cent to achieve the 21 per cent market share in Brazil, and an even more significant increase in production brought the 20 per cent share of the camelback market. This amounts to some 4,500 tonnes of rubber compounds being processed every month for domestic and international production. Current capacity is a total of 6,600 tonnes consisting of 3,200 tones of precure, 2,000 tonnes of camelback and the balance in calandered materials. This additional capacity allows for future growth and peaks in the market without the need for any immediate long term investments.
Currently, Unique produces six brands of products for retreading, including Borex, which it claims is the second largest brand in the retread market; Tipler, a leader in the premium segment; Rede Roda, a brand with a strong presence in the South and Southeast regions; Baptiste – one of the largest retread marques in Brazil; RecMaxx, a brand created by DPaschoal, and Novateck branded camelback for Pirelli tyre retreading . Consolidated as the second largest manufacturer of retread compounds and rubber Latin America, Unique
Rubber Technologies projects 2014 as a year with strong growth from negotiations already underway, some of them coming into production in the first half of this year. The company recently completed investment in the expansion of the production capacity of its Southern manufacturing unit and has expansion projects in the national and international market from this
operation.
Unique Rubber Technologies adopts a system of mini-factories, in which, each stage of the production process acts as a supplier for the next. It also has two laboratories equipped for testing elastomers, which allows the research and development of new compounds and real-time control of the entire manufacturing process." This ensures that all products
manufactured meet the required quality standards for each of our customers, regardless of their peculiarities, allowing products to be customised at an extremely competitive cost and much faster “speed to market” availability than the competition," explains Sergio Bica Jr. , CEO of Unique.