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MALAYSIA
Gulf Rubber’s production hall
Gulf Rubber Aims to Optimise Operations
Gulf Rubber (M) Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of ecoWise Holding Limited, was established in 2006 and is located near to the city in Kota Kinabalu, East Malaysia.
“The reason to operate from a rented factory five and a half miles off Tuaran Road is to more efficiently cater to our customers’ needs,” said General Manager Lie Kian Lee. “90 per cent of our customers are fleet companies who are located within this area. When we first started 10 years ago, we occupied half of our current premises and only had one production line. Today, we are situated on 2.01 acres of land with three production lines. However, in light of the current economic downturn and the sharp decrease in
market demand, we will be optimising our operations to continue providing value to our clients.”
Initially, Gulf Rubber focused on the retreading of light and heavy truck tyres using the precure process. Three years ago, the company expanded its services to provide hot cured retreading for truck and bus bias tyres (TBB) tyres. The company only uses high quality 100-per cent precured liners and rubber compounds imported from Sun Rubber and offers a variety of 6 to 8 different patterns for its customers’ selection.
Lie also revealed that Gulf Rubber was in the midst of restructuring its operation by optimising its
production facility through better workflow, productivity and adjustments to better meet demand supply patterns. At present, the company has 40 workers and is producing about 3,000 retreads per month. “During the good times, we had 120 workers, and the highest record that we had achieved was 5,800 units per month,” he added. “Seventy per cent of our customers are tyre dealers, and the remaining 30 per cent are end users. “Currently, the combined effect of having no large- scale development projects being carried out and our
end user clientele comprising largely planation workers has resulted in a significant decrease in the number of our end user clients. This is further exacerbated by the intense competition from cheaper (albeit with poorer quality and mileage) new China made tyres that are readily available to them. The price differential between such low cost but inferior quality new China made tyres and our retreaded tyres is small; therefore, these tyres have taken some of our market share.”
In response, and as part of its
business strategy development, Gulf Rubber has partnered with Giti to offer new tyres with better quality and competitive prices to cater to its customers’ needs.
“As a wholly owned subsidiary of ecoWise Holding Limited, we receive full support from our headquarters including management, inventory support and upgrading of equipment, with the most recent upgrade being the addition of a VMI extruder machine to enhance productivity and quality,” he added.
Big Wheel Green Tyres: Quality Retreads for the Sabah Market
Big Wheel Green Tyres Sdn Bhd, the wholly owned subsidiar y of Goodway Integrated Industries Bhd (GIIB), is the biggest retreader in Sabah, covering around 72 per cent of the local markets. Based in Kota Kinabalu where it operates from a five-acre factor y, the company operates 46 hot cured presses (including an off-the-road tyre press) and 5 chambers. Currently, Big Wheel has 78 production workers, who produce an average of 13,00 retreads per month using
both the hot cure and precured methodsDuring the best times, we have been able to run three shifts, and our record was 20,000 retreads per month. One of our strengths is that we can cater for the different needs of our customers as we cover a wide range of tyres with two different liners - Supercool, the premium pre-cured tread under the GIIB brand, and Quality CTA. We retread tyres for passenger cars, light trucks, 4X4s, commercial vehicles and OTR vehicles,” explained
Gulf Rubber (M) Sdn Bhd General Manager Lie Kian Lee (left) and Factory Manager Wong Soo Fah
Executive Director Ong Shaw Hua is one of the founders of Big Wheel Green Tyres
18 Retreading Business