Page 63 - RB-75-15-4

DENMARK
Henrik Nielsen in his new storage facility
waiting for repairs. They can’t afford to have delays in their delivery schedules and of course performance and efficiency are critical factors in fleet costs. So, as a retreader, we have to move to meet those needs or else we lose our market. That is why we have been investing over the past three years to increase our volume and productivity whilst retaining our quality or even improving our quality. We have almost finished this stage of development and the results can be seen in our end product.”
“It is critical,” continued Nielsen, “that we offer a consistent and high quality end product that can compete with the alternatives on the market. When we manage the input to the plant by rigorous quality control of the casing, and we use quality manufacturing processes and products, we can produce a retread that can and does compete with any new tyre offer on quality and mileage. “The customers in Denmark are
“To my mind it would be a mistake to focus on, or even offer, a budget tread line to the Nordic market. It is important for Vulkan Daek that we lift the product and set it alongside premium alternatives. That is where we differ from our competitors.
We only really offer top end products, even our Profileliner is a step above the budget offers that we see in the market. The company has been using Marangoni products for 40 years and today 99 percent of our tread is sourced from Marangoni, and just a small amount for special contracts from Nokian.”
When Vulkan was last visited the bulk of the clients for Vulkan Daek retread were the Danish tyre retailers, Vulkan Daek would manufacture tyres and sell to the retailers who would then sell to the end users. Had this changed in recent years?
“The bulk of our sales is still to retailers and we rely on them to sell our retread on their quality as we
and they manage the tyres so we don’t have to worry about tyre management contracts.
“This is why we are keen to make the most of the SDS shearography and why we are looking at the PTS system, which we have on trial. It is a surety that helps us pick out perhaps just one per cent, or less, of tyres that pass shearography but fail on the pressure test. Some people might ask if it is worth the investment to pick out maybe one casing in every two hundred, or even a thousand, but I believe that it is very important that we have satisfied customers and they have peace of mind. One failed tyre can cost a lot more than that single tyre. So, it is better, I believe, to invest in the quality and do our best to ensure that that tyre does not fail due to anything that we can have prevented. The loss of one contract could have justified the investment in PTS.
“There is another element to this. We now have a plant where we can invite anyone along to see what we do and how we do it. We can show all the steps to quality, we can show a clean and organised plant and a quality end
product. We even employ a full time member of staff who does nothing but clean the plant, make good small repairs and keep the operation as clean as possible. People come and see what we are doing and they think, ‘If this is how efficient and organised they can be, their products must be as good as they say they are.’ It is a tool to help us gain new contracts from clients who consider these things in their own operations. We have to persuade the end user to ask for our products when they go to the retailers.
“What we have to understand is that no retailer is obliged to sell our tyres, there has to be a reason to sell Vulkan Daek. That reason is normally just the profit margin from the single sale. The retailer looks at the sale at the time of the sale. We have to offer a reasonable margin, but we have to have the additional leverage of clients asking for Vulkan Daek retreads, and coming back for Vulkan Daek retreads. We can only ever do that by offering a quality product.”
Quality is the key to Vulcan Daek success
increasingly focused on quality, and although there is pressure to compete with cheap Chinese tyres and other imported brands, including retreads, by making sure that we have the best quality possible, we have been able to not only retain our market but grow our market. We are now exporting to Norway, Sweden and the Baltic states because we offer a truly good quality retread.”
Asked if there was not a temptation to go for the budget lines to compete with the low cost competition, Nielsen responded, “We do offer a Marangoni Profileliner but we are focusing on the Ringtread. We currently have our Ringtread production standing at 75 per cent and we have plans to drive that up towards 90 per cent. We believe that this is possible because we have to focus on quality and performance. We do everything that we can to back that offer of quality and performance up and Ringtread is simply the best possible option available. We are convincing people that this is a good route to follow and they are buying and coming back for more.
don’t compete on price; that would defeat the purpose. We also now go out to deal with larger fleets direct. Most of the fleets we deal with now have their own in-house service teams
For the latest advancements in tire retread products
and equipment
Bulldog rubber products, Akarmak retreading machinery, the DVS 1220 casing inspection system, a full line of consumables, plus much more!
New product catalog now available! Contact us today to receive your copy!
info@shamrockmarketinginc.com
11206 Bluegrass Pkwy, Louisville, KY 40299 USA Tel. +1 502.266.7403