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CROATIA
Croatia – In Brief
recycling facility.
Retreading at Gumiimpex started in 1999 and was originally a Goodyear Accredited Retreader. The company operated a Unicircle line, which gave a direct supply line from Marangoni. In 2002 Gumiimpex also began operating a Qualitread line with Bridgestone, another benefit to Marangoni. Then, in 2005, the
customers back is with the premium product. That is just my opinion,” said Telebuh.
“The company management and the sales team may arrive at a different viewpoint, we shall have to wait and see.
“The company management and the sales team may arrive at a different viewpoint, we shall have to wait and
Croatia is another ex-Yugoslavian state that took the opportunity to choose independence on the break- up of the former communist federation. Sadly, Croatia’s passage to freedom and peace was not as quick, nor as relatively peaceful as its northern neighbour of Slovenia.
A series of conflicts with its Bosnian Serb neighbours over the border territories and the sovereignty of Serbian and Bosnian people living in the newly formed Croatia were highlights seen around the world with, in particular, the coastal cities of Dubrovnik and Split suffering badly.
To some extent there may have been the settling of old scores involved, whilst tensions suppressed through the communist era possibly surfaced and boiled over.
However, today Croatia is once again a popular tourist destination, perhaps a cheaper and less busy alternative to Italy, whilst retaining a similar architecture, as well as having good food and wine.
Croatia is home to several transport companies. As in Slovenia, public
transport boomed post -World War 2 and is now in decline. However, once again, bus fleets remain important markets for the volume market for retreaders.
The country is well served by its modern motorway system and has an extensive rail network serving both passenger and freight traffic. The sea ports on the Adriatic make Croatia an important transport hub for goods being shipped out of Eastern Europe by sea. Goods that have to be transported to the ports are done so by road or rail, primarily by road. The Capital, Zagreb, has a population of 790,000, about three times that of the country’s second city, Split. The population of Croatia is around 4.2 million, so twice the size of Slovenia and spread across a far larger area. The main language spoken is Croatian, but, the country has several official languages, including Czech, Hungarian, Italian, Ruthenian, Serbian and Slovakian, though recently 95 per cent of Croatians declared Croatian as their first language.
cooperation with Michelin began as a Recamic retreader. So, for a short while, this one Croatian company was the authorised retreader for the top three tyre manufacturers in the world, plus it was supplied by the top retread supplier, Marangoni. However, when Bridgestone bought Bandag, the Qualitread operation came to an end. Today, Gumiimpex operates mostly with Recamic, Goodyear Unicircle, Vipal and Marangoni.
Head of the retreading department Damir Telebuh, having explained the history, was open about market conditions, and they were not as good as they had been. “Chinese tyres,” he said without any compulsion, “are creating a real
issue in Croatia now. What was a quality led market is increasingly becoming price orientated. In 2013 we produced 15,000 tyres, in 2014 – 14,000, in 2015 13,000, and last year we produced 11,500, a figure likely to be repeated this year.” Asked how Gumiimpex should deal with this challenge Telebuh responded, “It depends upon your point of view. Some people need to go with the cheap retreads. Other customers who have tried Chinese tyres and cheap retreads have come back looking for premium retreads because the quality is better and the mileage is better. It is my personal belief that we can only defend the market position with a premium product.
“There will always be a price dominated sector and we can cater for that sector with appropriate brands and products, but the reality is that the only way to win
see.
“Currently our production is 80 per cent premium and 20 per cent value lines. We have resisted the temptation to start a budget line at this stage. Most of our production is derived from the end user, so much of the business is CoC. We do have a tyre shop at our HQ here in Varaždin and a large tyre shop in Zagreb.”
To put a company such as Gumiimpex into context, it is a large operation in a country with a population of just 4.29 million people. The capital, Zagreb, has a population of 790,000. There are also considerable distances between Zagreb in the North and Dubrovnik in the South. Over a quarter of the population live in just five cities. The second city of Croatia is Split, with 174,000 people. One of the most famous cities is Dubrovnik, and it has a meagre 28,000 residents. In this context, Gumiimpex is, for sure, a large player in the Croatian tyre sector.
Gumiimpex’s customers are dominated by the larger fleets. “We serve the largest fleets in Croatia. There are a small number of fleets with 2-300 vehicles, but only two or three really large fleets. The rest are below 100 vehicles, and many of them operate perhaps up to a dozen trucks,” said Telebuh. “The public bus companies are, of course, important, but there they compete on price. We do supply the largest bus fleets in Zagreb, and also in Split and Dubrovnik. They are good customers to give us volume, but they do tender on price before quality rather than mileage.” Currently Gumiimpex does not
Gumiimpex GRP– Dominating the Croatian Rubber Sector
Gumiimpex is a Croatian rubber group located in Varaždin, about 90km North of Zagreb. The company is claimed to be the Croatian independent market leader in tyres and all things rubber. Okay, perhaps a little overstatement, but it would be reasonable to say that Gumiimpex is a “go to” rubber specialist across a wide spectrum of markets from rubber mallet heads to the seals for the lock gates to the Venice Lido. (At the time of Retreading Business’s visit the manufacture of those very components was being undertaken
in the technical rubbers department – apparently, the cheaper Chinese option initially favoured by Venice’s local municipality had failed and they needed replacing – Gumiimpex won the contract).
So, alongside, rubber hammers, seals, gaskets, mouldings, tank linings, sheeting and an ambient recycling plant, Gumiimpex also sells new tyres throughout Croatia and has its own retread operation at its headquarters in Varaždin. This is a company that knows rubber and knows it well. In fact, it has its own rubber compounding plant at its
26 Retreading Business