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    RUSSIA
         Not all is bleak at GTP, as business takes advantage of the crisis
 Chief production manager at GTP, Yuri Kondratenko
  GTP Managing Director Konstantin Pavlov
         Good Tyre St Petersburg Takes Advantage of the Crisis
    For many years Russian manufacturers of retreaded tyres have had to work in a market with little promise. They have been facing multiple problems including a shortage of suitable carcasses, a lack of culture or legal imperatives for end of life tyre utilisation as well heavy competition from cheaper Chinese products.
The current crisis can become a turning point for the industry, since the devaluation of the ruble has leveled many of the challenges and
the possible start of exports of retreaded tyres to Europe. Achieving the last goal would take the company's business to a new level.
Early Start
GTP is a veteran of the Russian retreading sector. The company was founded shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1994 and was initially engaged in the trading of passenger retreaded tyres produced and purchased in Europe. Given the
According to GTP’s manufacturing director, the main drop in demand for retreads has been connected primarily to the continuous improvement of the quality of Chinese tyres and a rise in their import flow to the Russian market. In the period of 2012-2014 the difference between Chinese and retreaded tyres in the Russian market fell from 20 per cent to 5-7 per cent, showing that most of consumers opt for buying new products.
"The second reason is associated with the strong emergence of new players in retreading industry. Most
the volume of sales of retreaded truck tyres reached 1,000 units per month, the decision was taken to build a retread plant,” he added.
The plant was launched in 2004, but already by 2007 it had been transferred from St. Petersburg to the new production site in Leningrad Oblast 25 km away from the city, as the enterprise needed to have enough space to grow.
Overall investment in
the plant is estimated at
0.5 million Euro. Today,
the production area and
warehouses occupy
3,000 m2.
In recent years, Good
Tyre has used several
different tyre retreading
technologies. “At the
beginning of its history
the plant worked with
Bandag, purchasing its
main equipment from
this company,”
commented the chief
production manager of
GTP’s plant Yuri
Kondratenko. “At a later
stage, after the
expansion [in 2007], we
launched a co-operation with the German division of Marangoni, so the company started purchasing equipment for the use of Ringtread technology.”
According to Kondratenko, at the initial stage of development, the company faced the problem of the lack of qualified staff, as in Russia at that time it was very hard to find people familiar with the technology of cold retreading. However, this problem has now been solved with the use of training programmes from Bandag and, more lately, Marangoni. These training programmes have created a backbone of
qualified employees
who continue to work
at the plant today.
“Today the production
capacity of the plant
allows us to retread
25,000 tyres per year.
Now we retread the
whole range of truck
tyres from R17.5 to
R22.5. We could
retread R24.5 as well,
but there is lack of
demand for this size.
All casings for our plant
are purchased
exclusively in the
domestic market.
Because of this, there is
a shortage in some
sizes, but thanks to the
extensive network of
suppliers that we have
established over recent
years, we have been
able in most cases to meet the needs of our customers,” said Kondratenko.
The effect of the crisis
According to representatives of the company, over the last three years the retreading industry in Russia has been going through hard times.
     promises to change the psychology of the consumers. Representatives of the St. Petersburg-based Good Tyre Production (GTP) believe that the economic crisis in Russia should be considered by domestic players as an opportunity to strengthen their market position.
In 2015, the company invested in the development of its retreading plant in Leningrad Oblast, bringing its maximum production capacity to 25,000 units per year. The expansion last year cost GTP 110,000 Euro. Plans for 2016 include an IPO, and
fact that at that time there were no modern winter tyres in the market, the product enjoyed great demand and the company earned money, which was re-invested in business development.
"Gradually, the company started developing, and expanded the product range with new types of passenger and truck tyres, retreading truck tyres from Europe," explained GTP’s co-owner Anatoly Agashin.” The company has had its own network of stores for passenger cars and truck tyre fitting centres. “When
  18 Retreading Business





























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