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INTERVIEW/COMPANY NEWS
necessarily seeking new franchisees, it is not our intent to develop competition for existing partners, but to give them greater opportunities. Where we are currently expanding is in Eastern Europe. We are seeing some growth in the market there, particularly as the centre of fleet operations has shifted to the lower
strategy that we are bringing the Bridgestone and the Bandag dealers closer together so that they can cooperate with a unified approach on both regional and national level. The Total Tyre Care package includes the Bridgestone new and Bandag retread tyres, but also the professional service and monitoring
LBB – Limburgs Bandag Bedrijf
Hasselt, Belgium based Limburgs Bandag Bedrijf (LBB) is the retreading operation of Banden de Conde, the Hasselt- based tyre distributor. The factory occupies a unit adjacent to Banden de Conde’s headquarters and warehouse: A relatively recent warehouse complex with external hard standing, and also adjacent to the Flanders regional bus company Lijn’s depot. Retreading Business met with LBB’s Reginald Delmarche. “LBB is a subsidiary of Banden de Conde, a company that has been in the tyre business for some 80 years. It is now in its third generation,” says Reginald Delmarche. “LBB has been a
language, there are 20 languages additionally spoken , in fact there is no geographical limitation for this organisation. The target group is the transport and logistics industry.
Access to this service is only granted throughout the tyre industry, retail organisations, truck- and trailer manufacturers, component manufacturers, and rental companies .
A visit to the LBB and Banden de Conde headquarters in Hasselt shows that there is some diversity to the operation. “When there was a shortage of earthmover tyres we thought that there might be an opportunity for us to move into retreading OTR tyres. We
Joroen Lust, Bandag’s Senior Manager Retread Business Development
Part of a dockside fender from Antwerp docks after refurbishment at LBB
cost nations.”
Jeroen adds, “The Western European retread rate is around 40 per cent. In eastern Europe it is only half of that, so there is obvious room for market
and reporting systems. “We want to focus on the added value and cost saving that the combination of Bridgestone and Bandag can give its customers, says Janssens.
“We have developed new powerful tools to help prove the competitiveness of our total package. In order to make our strategy work we need to motivate our dealers to collaborate as Alliance Partners and fully adopt
the Total Tyre Care programme. Also in this context we hold our annual European Dealer Round Table meetings where we brainstorm on strategy and implementation. It is all about how we, as strategic partners, can be more successful together.
“This concept is very productive. We need to have this open relationship with the dealers. We need to share major strategies and give the dealers a chance to input their ideas before we reach the implementation stages. They have an
important input on how this all happens. If we simply dictate, it doesn’t work.”
So Bridgestone Bandag has evolved into a cohesive and structured operation in Europe and is prepared to change to meet market demands. It is working towards the position where its Bandag dealers are working closely with its Bridgestone dealers and it is supplying the strategies and the knowhow to bring the two together to create greater sales efficiencies for both sides of the equation.
development there.”
“We have to do this together with our Bandag franchise partners and Bridgestone dealers. We depend upon them to do the work on the ground, to go out and sell. We give them the products, the technology, the knowhow and the systems and they can leverage this to generate solutions. Even though we do bring fleet business to our network, they are not supposed to rely on this as their sole source of income. They should go out and build their own business as Total Tyre Care provider to their local fleets. It is part of this
Bandag franchise for over 35 years and the company has only ever been a Bandag retreader.” Banden de Conde is a wholesaler and also has some 15 retail outlets throughout Belgium serving the passenger, truck and industrial sectors. EBTS Pro Assist has her HQ in the same premises and the same holding company as LBB (Group de Condé ) . With its 5 branches EBTS Pro Assist has a leading position in the European incident management for tyres (initial business model) and has been inspired throughout the years to organise technical assistance for trailers and all components fitted on it. On a 24 hour basis, 98 high skilled people are coping with 90.000 incidents a year to help out when there is an unplanned standstill.
Besides the tyre and technical
already do a considerable amount of repair work on earthmover and agricultural tyres. However, in the end we decided not to enter that market. However, we have recently begun offering a tyre fill operation for OTR and industrial use tyres.
“We have the facility to repair rubber, and we use that facility to maximise the opportunities. We refurbish dockside fenders and lock gate fenders from Antwerp and Zeebrugge docks. When visitors see the size of the job that we can undertake on these fenders it always impresses them and boosts confidence in our ability.” Against this highly professional background it is easy to see where Bandag retreading fits into the de Conde picture. However, this is not simply another Bandag operation, this
16 Retreading Business