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POLAND
part of the mature modern European culture that has created wealth and demand for the passenger car services offered by Opony Motor.
As well as the car tyre and wheel services Opony Motor also serves the truck market and as part of this service Lenarciak had offered retreads bought in from various suppliers. He was one of the tyre dealers so important to independent retreaders, and at the same time he could see that if he could profit
business. The equipment was available at a good price and it created an opportunity for us to get started.”
We have to say that sitting in Marcin Lenarciak’s office was a little different. One might normally expect to see a computer sitting on the desk, and there was, and whilst many involved in the tyre trade will have their shelves decorated with images of trucks or race cars, Lenarciak’s interest lies in somewhat heavier subject matter.
how did Lenarciak plan to develop Opony Motor’s retread operation? “In the short term,” says Lenarciak, “the aim is to establish the company as a retreader in the area. We will look at exporting but at the moment our neighbour’s currencies are dropping compared to the Dollar and we cannot reduce our prices to meet their needs. However, in future there should be space for retreading and we are looking at a positive 2015.
“Ultimately, we plan on developing our own brand of quality retreads and we need to build the image of the company and the product, and build our own strengths so that we can build the company brand in this field.”
Is there a future for Opony Motor in the fleet market?
“Of course there must be and doubtless we will move towards serving the fleet market. However, at the moment no-one can truly predict where the market will be in 12 months’ time.
“Currently much of our work is with on/off road fleets. We are experimenting with the public bus companies but that is not currently a strong market – first we need to persuade them to use retreads on the basis of quality and performance, then we need to deal with their key buying point; price. Test results should show good cpk for public transport use, but until we can show that we will have to wait and see.
“For my longer term business plan for retreading, quality is far more important than volume, so we are trying to avoid the price conscious market and target the professional operator who knows that quality retreads can save him money.” Lenarciak continues, “Those who
cut their prices to win business will kill the business. This scenario exists in Poland and retreaders will compete on price, cutting margins to the bone and then no-one makes any money. We need to understand the value of our products and hold our prices in order to retain a sustainable marketplace.”
Is there hope for exports in the long term? Exports had been a key crutch to many retreaders across Europe, most having their own preferred markets, but in the East the demand from Russia kept more than one retreader afloat.
“The export market is not easy due to currency issues, the embargo on trade with Russia and of course payment concerns. We do try to sell to Belarus through our E-shop but that is a slow market today.” Casings are an issue for Opony Motor and Lenarciak says that most casings come from Germany. “The local supply is of poor quality and it is better that we import quality casings from Germany. For ever y 100 casings collected from the Polish market we can reject as many as 80 per cent. If we collect from Germany we can accept around 90 per cent. So, importing better quality casings saves time on inspecting and rejecting and disposing of failed casings.”
The reasons for the failure rate of Polish sourced casings is given as a combination of road conditions, low tyre pressures, overloading and general poor maintenance.
On the subject of Chinese tyres, which impact on ever y retreader in the world, Lenarciak believes that quality will win the day. “Last year Chinese tyres came into the market at ver y low prices and many retreaders dropped their prices to compete. As I said, this is not our
from selling retreaded tyres, he could profit more from making those tyres himself.
So, in 2013 Opony Motor bought an ex-Bandag plant from a Swedish firm that was moving out of retreading, relocated it to its workshop outside Biaɫystok and with the help of a few experts started manufacturing retreaded tyres. Lenarciak says, “We were seeing a lull in the market and we were looking for a way to supplement our revenue in a way that would enhance the whole
An interest in militar y hardware manifests itself in assorted items of small arms and equipment, whilst outside the office window in his yard lie a range of ZIL trucks, a couple of armoured personnel carriers and assorted other vehicles and components. His tank, which he uses in displays and to promote his haulage company, was out of sight at the time of our visit. Lenarciak is a man with an expensive hobby.
However, back to retreading. As a newcomer to the retreading sector
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