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CZECHIA
7,000 retreads per year. It operates with Marangoni – including Pirelli’s Novateck, which gives credibility with some fleets, although Pirelli is not the biggest player in truck tyres at the moment. At the moment Tasy is using a lot of tread from Galgo. Binko adds, “We have the sole license for Novateck, and there are seven or eight Pirelli dealers in the country, so that gives us a stable market with their fleet management operations. Pirelli now wants to develop its truck and retread offer, but not all outlets have the experience, so we work with Pirelli and their clients to offer the retread know-how. With Novateck, we can supply original equipment standards in a retread. So, Novateck adds value
and that was worrying.
“The future,” says Binko, “is in the fleet market and the offer of a complete tyre service. There is a need to be more focused on current and new customers and to concentrate the relationship on the cpkm. The difficulty in the marketing of this strategy is in the accountancy rules. In the UK fleets are invoiced on a fixed fee for the expected life of the tyre, and then a balancing invoice is made at the end of the period. This is not possible in Czech accounting law. We have the same tools but how to use them is not as clear as it is in the UK. We have to try to apply the costs for a whole year plus some balance fee as a single invoice.”
Other opportunities are at the
Pro North Czech - Bandag Extra
to our operation.
“Retreading is currently not our core business. We have our retail outlets, our recycling and our online sales operation. What we offer in retreading is now in support of our tyre clients.”
On tyre labelling Binko says, “The impact of tyre labelling was negligible. No-one asked about tyre labelling on new tyres. For the dealer it can be useful if he wants to push a certain tyre, perhaps, but in general the client pays no attention, in our experience. I think that the manufacturers will be able to deliver the treads with the labelling data.
Binko revealed some trends in sales that were slightly surprising. Despite the challenge from Chinese tyres, the overall trend in sales remained on an upwards trend, once the seasonal adjustments were averaged out. However, over the same period, margins had decreased and there was no end in sight. Without changes to the order of the market, there would come a time when there was no viable margin,
mercy of the market. “We used to supply the local bus company. However, they have switched to 30 per cent new from Michelin. It may be that they will not, in future buy on tender but just buy as they need and that might create an opportunity again.”
In the production hall, the buffing is done by a Marangoni Leonardo 2500, which the team from Marangoni set up and had operational in just three days, the old Bandag buffer is still used for odd sizes. The tyre building is done on a Matteuzzi BS400 automated tyre builder.
The production hall has a heating and cooling system that maintains a constant temperature throughout the year, ensuring stable conditions for retreading. In the near 30 degree outdoor temperature, the production hall was still comfortable to work in. some 40 per cent of the power to the plant comes from solar panels on the roof.
Retread stock stands around 1000 pieces with 500 of those as customers’ own casings.
Bandag has three retread franchisees in Czechia and two in Slovakia. The three in Czechia are PRO NORTH CZECH, a.s. in Třinec, a mining and steel town to the east of Ostrava, so close to the border with Slovakia, Jopeco, a retreaders and wholesaler based in Náchod near the Polish border, to the North of the country and Probag, based in Beroun, South west of Prague.
The core business of PRO NORTH CZECH, a.s. is retreading and it has been since 1993 when the owner, Engineer Czeslaw Kura opened his business after seeing an opportunity in the newly developing free market economy of the then Czechoslovakia.
opportunity. Retreaded tyres in particular offered a chance to build something for the future. Interested in systems management, Kura looked at the various retread operations available and realised that the Bandag production process was well tried and tested, and from day-one Kura bought into the Bandag Franchise concept. One of the tenets of a franchise operation is that it is tried and tested and is proven to work. If the franchisee sticks to the model, then the business will grow – if they put the time and effort into the operation.
Now, Retreading Business has seen a lot of Bandag franchisees and not all of them wholly buy into the
Czeslaw Kura (right) with Martin Carver in 2004
22 Retreading Business
Kura was a young engineering manager in one of the steel plants of Třinec and had seen how production could be managed and improved by proper systems management. Kura looked at alternative industries and took to the idea that he would like to build a business that would work with rubber. He also saw the increasing level of transport and trade and that tyres created an
Bandag model, some cut corners, some let things slip – even allowing for the regular mandatory training. However, the franchisees who follow the Bandag ethos to the letter are usually pretty obvious by the trappings of success, the level of Bandag branding, the layout of their plant and their general demeanour.
PRO NORTH CZECH, a.s. is one of the latter, and that is thanks to