Page 41 - RB-76-16-1

QATAR & BAHRAIN
Suthkar Thevathas, Area Sales Manager, Dr Tyre
possibly in the Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu, where the Group has land, but is also looking at other options such as selling its equipment to a retread company in Qatar or the Middle East. “We expect to make a decision on this in the next month or so,” he said.
Retreading is merely a small part of the diversified multi-billion dollar group, which employs more than 8,000 people. The Group has enterprises in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Qatar.
Dr Tyre Repairs Tyres from all over Qatar
Infrastructure is being built all over Qatar in preparation for the FIFA World Cup in 2022, and construction companies are moving their vehicles onto sites. As a result, expensive OTR tyres are getting damaged. Although the market is down for retreading, the tyre repair business, thanks to a lack of competition in the sector, remains buoyant with Dr Tyre repairing in between 100-300 OTR and TBR tyres each month depending on demand.
Dr Tyre started operation in 2009 and repairs OTR and TBR tyres in all sizes available on the market, sustaining a business for all these years on repairing tyres alone. “We do not repair SUV tyres as people use low priced imported tyres and our repairing prices are higher. It makes good business sense to repair larger tyres, particularly OTR tyres as they are high priced,” explained Suthkar Thevathas, Area Sales Manager, Dr Tyre.
The repair plant in the Industrial area of Doha is installed with Rema Tip Top material and equipment. The firm has made a mark in the Qatar market as tyres for repair come from all parts of Qatar. “We maintain strict quality standards as a single hot patch costs around Qatar Riyal 150 and three patches would be equal to a whole new Chinese TBR tyre. Along with that labour is also involved. Therefore, we are mostly receiving branded tyres,” he claimed.
Although the company also repairs TBR tyres, the majority are OTR tyres used at construction sites. “We are mostly repairing earthmover and agriculture tyres and hot summers are the peak season,” Suthkar stated. OTR tyres are expensive, and most of the construction vehicles in Qatar are moving on branded OTR tyres - for example the popular size 26/25 is priced at Riyal 8,000. “The repairing cost comes to Riyal 2,000 on average and it fares as well as a new tyre,” he claimed.
The firm offers a 24 month guarantee on the area it repairs. ‘We keep a record of each patch by giving it a number, and we insert data like its size, depth, date etc in our system,’ he said.
A team from Rema Tip Top visits the plant in the middle of every year and oversees the whole repair process. The team also updates staff with
new trends, tooling and the new repair methods to adopt in the market.
Dr Tyre also retails brand new OTR and TBR tyres from China, including brands like Triangle and Duratough.