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SLOVENIA
money, but it is on new trucks and trailers, and these all come with new tyres. So, even though the market is looking brighter, it is taking a little longer to reach the
mileage than the Chinese tyres,” said Gabersek.
Much of Protect Trade’s custom for its retreads is CoC, more than 50 per cent, so in most sizes
Slovenia – The Country
Slovenia is a small country, surrounded by Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Croatia. It has a small Adriatic coastline and sits on the crossroads of highways running North-South and East- West. One of the northernmost of
tech instrumentation.
The capital Ljubljana has a population of just 250,000, which, without diminishing its importance to Slovenia, puts the size of the country in perspective.
Slovenia’s truck fleets operate
The production hall is as one would expect from a Recamic plant, with one or two locally developed improvements to suit Protect Trade’s own innovations
Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia
retreaders, and at the same time the Chinese tyres are starting to make an impact.
Something that would be repeated on visits to retreaders in Croatia was the anticipation of more Chinese tyres coming Europe’s way due to the increase in anti- dumping duty in the USA. It was said that Europe was
casings are not an issue. Though, as Chinese super singles start to appear, that may create a challenge in that sector as most of those tyres cannot be retreaded yet.
Protect Trade follows a philosophy of combining quality new tyres with quality retreads and top service to achieve the most
the states of the former Yugoslavia, it is one of the first to make its break from the Yugoslavian state. It is not a nation that jumps to the front of one’s mind when one thinks about European countries.
internationally, particularly in Eastern Europe. The country has a highly developed public transport fleet, created post 1945. However, as the population increases in wealth, public
It can be seen from this schematic that Slovenia lies at the centre of a highway network linking the ports of the Netherlands with the gateway from the East in Turkey. The Mediterranean Corridor further links Slovenia with the huge and developing markets in Russia (though this trade route is somewhat diminished due to sanctions at the moment).
Milan Gabersek, the man who started the business and still keeps his hand on the tiller, with Dan Brichta
the only developed market that had no defence against the Chinese dumping cheap materials, including tyres, in Europe. No-one held out much hope for any protection any time soon.
“The advantage that we have is that the market in Slovenia is quality orientated and whilst that remains the case we have the market advantage. We can show that what we produce as a retread offers better quality and greater
reliable and lowest price per kilometre following what is best for the customer.
Protect Trade remains a family business and has, currently, two tyre shops where it sells new truck and car tyres alongside its own retreads. Meanwhile, a third outlet is on the cards. Plus, there are four service vehicles out on the road dealing with fleet management operations.
It would be fair to say that most western Europeans know little about Slovenia.
It’s declaration of independence was followed by border skirmishes with the Bosnian Serbs that brought about the deaths of around 63 Slovenian Police and Militia. Within 10 days the brief conflict was over and modern Slovenia was born.
With a population of around 2.06 million, Slovenia is one of Europe’s smaller countries, but despite this it has developed some thriving industries and is an important player in the automotive supply market and in the aeronautical sector where its domestic companies lead the field in high
transport in Slovenia has decreased in popularity and is now considered by most to be a secondary method of transport. However, the bus fleets remain an important provider of volume sales for the retread sector in the country.
All the major tyre manufacturers operate in Slovenia, and the market remains focused on quality. It is only recently that Chinese tyres have started to make any impression on the Slovenian market. However, premium brands of new and retread tyres remain to the fore in this choosy market where the consumers look for quality first.
24 Retreading Business