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POLAND
The plant director at Kleszczele, Robert Kaniewski
strategy. People should wait and let the market see how these cheap tyres perform and then go to the market with quality retreads and show how competitive the retread product really is. We cannot compete on price, but this is going to be an ongoing issue for years to come.”
Opony Motor is producing a reasonable number of retreads. In year one the figure was 3,200, and in 2014 the average was around 470 units per month, almost double the first year’s production. Production at the plant, which is largely Bandag, but with a TRM 22 chamber autoclave, is carried out by a team of five, plus a production manager. The capacity of the plant, on a single shift is probably around 12,000 units per annum, so there is plenty of capacity to address the
developing market without making too much more of an investment. Though a shearography machine is probably something on the wish list to help improve quality and reputation.
Lenarciak concludes, “I am always looking for opportunities and options for developing quality and output. I am interested in more sophisticated technology that can help produce high quality retreads and the future will hold developments for Opony Motor,” Lenarciak concludes, “I am always looking for opportunities and options for developing quality and output. I am interested in more sophisticated technology that can help produce high quality retreads and the future will hold developments for Opony Motor,”
of the other Bandag franchisee, JMK.
Opony Przemysłowe operates a conventional Bandag system including all the current inspection protocols such as shearography, as well as manual inspection. The process is that familiar to any Bandag operator, and the workshop is spotlessly clean. The plant has been laid out to give the optimum retread production facility.
Tyres for processing are brought in and dried before being inspected, again, there is no large stock held and it is noted that all tread on the
larger fleet operations, it helps us to ensure that the quality of the casings that we collect from these customers is above average.
“We have 12 people in the sales department who go out and meet with the fleet operators and help them apply tyre management techniques. We are seeing fewer tyres that have been badly regrooved, or regrooved beyond the point of retreading. So, our efforts are resulting in a better quality casing, and that allows us to produce top quality retreads.”
So, who are the customers for
Opony Przemysłowe
Opony Przemysłowe is the second Bandag franchisee in Poland; located in Kleszczele in Podlasie region, just 20 kilometres from the Byelorussian border and 100km, as the crow flies, from the Ukraine. Opony Przemysłowe is in some ways rather remote from the markets that it serves. It is worthwhile asking why? The founder of the company, Dariusz Czyżewski came from
region.
Three years ago Opony Przemysłowe started operations in Kleszczele in a previously extant building. The building had been unused for some time and although it served for the initial operation, once the business was established as a concern the property required renovating. The site now includes an office building with a conference room, plus
warehouse shelving is either Bandag or Protread.
Kaniewski says, “We adhere very strictly to the Bandag criteria. It is important to us that we offer only the best quality retreads that match Bandag’s global reputation. We are in partnership with the largest tyre manufacturer in the world and we strive to maintain their standards for retreading. So, you will find no other company’s products on our shelves or in our production.” Given that the retread market in Poland is price driven for the large part, Retreading Business asked what percentage of the production was given over to Protread?
“Very little,” was the response, “In fact of the forty or so tyres that we have here awaiting dispatch, only two are Protread products, the rest are all Bandag. Nearly 95% of customers choose Bandag Premium line.
“We largely use CoC, and that tends to give us good quality casings. All of our casings come from the Polish market.” Retreading Business asked about the rejection rate, as others had quoted high rejection rates for Polish casings.
“We don’t have a particularly high rejection rate, largely because our fleet customers are part of the tyre management scheme operated by Bridgestone – Total Tyre Care. This is, for us, more than a marketing tool, as it not only helps us access
Bandag tyres that they are differentiated from the clients of other independent retreaders who may not apply tyre management techniques so readily?
“We have two sets of clientele. The bigger clients are more commercially aware and it is more profitable for them and us to work on the basis of whole life costs – i.e. the tyre cost, plus the cost of regroove and retreads as a cost per kilometre. These are the fleets that look at the overall costs, not just the cost to buy.
Then there is the second grouping of clientele, this is the group where the initial purchase price is the deciding factor. Our sales representatives need to persuade these clients of the longer term benefits. They visit these fleets and show them the options and the solutions. Essentially, they show the fleet managers that they can improve their profits through using tyre management and quality retreading. They convert them into our first group of customers.
The competition is huge, both from other retreaders and due to less and less difference in prices between new premium tyres and retreads. Some of our competitors in retreading have been present on the market longer than us and offer a less expensive product but our representatives have to promote Bandag first and foremost. It is difficult to promote Bandag as a
Podlasie region and went on to develop business in Warsaw, in particular a successful tyre operation. When the decision to invest in retreading came a number of aspects were considered, not the least of which was the cost of property for the retread plant. As in most countries, location in or near the capital is expensive, both in purchase cost and in business taxes and rates. So, the decision was made to take on the property in Kleszczele partly on a cost effective basis and partly on an emotional basis as this created work in the
warehouse space and the production building, and there is ample space to park up or develop as outside storage, or even build extensions to the plant. From Kleszczele the Bandag plant serves the whole of Poland with three sales agents strategically across Poland in Warsaw, Kielce and Wadowice. There are plans to extend the service into the North of Poland to the industrial areas around Gdansk.
The plant director at Kleszczele, Robert K aniewski explained that there were no intentions to go further west as this was the territory
34 Retreading Business