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TURKEY
other markets of Middle East and Africa. In Western Europe, Scandinavia and Baltic States the company sells Avon branded precured tread manufactured in its Turkish plant under its long-standing agreement with Cooper Tire.
Within Turkey, Cooper operates a
network of 24 Avon dealers, whilst Rekor operates with four distributors supplying tread rubber to 250 retreaders spread over the Turkey market through two house PCT brands - the high performance Herkül brand and the economy Vega brand as well as the dedicated OTR brand, Target.
Ankap Makes Plans for Future Expansion
Özman Otomotiv to Open Fourth Retread Plant in Izmir
Ankara based Ankap Lastik Kaplama is planning to shift to a bigger and larger location during the course of the next few years. Currently, the company operates its retread plant from a 1,000 sq m area in the middle of country’s capital. However, plans are now afoot to build a new facility on a site three times the size of the current one. “We have bought a new plot of about 3,000 sq m and we plan shift to the new location in the 2-3 years,” said Hasan Aydemir of Ankap Lastik Kaplama.
The current plant has no room for further expansion as space is a major constraint. Neither is there any adjoining plot vacant to
precure process.
“Our plant consumes about 160 tonnes of tread rubber annually and we mainly use tread from Avon, Recamic and also a few local brands according to the paying capacity of the customer,” said Emrullah Özdogan.
Ankap has plans to start OTR retreading by the Orbitread process at the new location. Currently, the company receives around 130 OTR tyres annually but is getting them retreaded by other retreaders. As such, building up OTR capabilities is a key part of the company’s plan for future expansion.
Ankap has also recently entered into the new tyre business by
Turkish retreading companies are expanding their capacities and opening plants in multiple locations to tap the domestic market. Istanbul based Özman Otomotiv Tic. Ltd. Şti is planning to set up its fourth retreading facility. “We will build our fourth retreading plant in Izmir, and the plant will be functional by the end of 2017,” confirmed Etem Baş, CEO and VP of the management board. Currently, Özman Group has three functional facilities in Samsun, Istanbul and Bursa, all of which operate under the Recamic brand. Istanbul is the biggest in terms of volume, retreading around 14,000 tyres annually, while Samsun is the oldest, retreading 4,500 tyres. The Bursa plant is slightly larger at 5,500 units per annum.”
According to Baş, the upcoming Izmir plant will initially operate at a level of 5,000 to 6,000 tyres per annum, although the target is to achieve 10,000 units annually in
Sea coast) and Bursa. The Ordu new tyre sales point is closer to Samsun where it can access that plant’s retreading services.
“We are also opening a new tyre sales outlet in Izmir to support our upcoming fourth retreading plant in Izmir,” he said. The company is targeting new TBR sales of 35,000 units and 300,000 PCR in 2017. Özman Otomotiv has invested heavily in the latest equipment and upgrading plant machinery is a continuous process. “Our plants have the latest machinery, and this has allowed our Bursa plant to achieve the exceptionally low claim average of 0.04 per cent or 4 claims in 1,000 tyres retreaded. Our achievement is certified by Michelin as the first Recamic plant in Europe to achieve claim levels as low as this. The claim average in Turkish Recamic plants was 1.20 per cent in 2016,” claimed Baş.
On the equipment side, the Istanbul plant is equipped with two
Hasan Aydemir and Emrullah Özdogan of Ankap Lastik Kaplama
Etem Baş, CEO and VP of the management board, Özman Otomotiv Tic. Ltd
due course.
In addition to its retreading activities, the Istanbul headquartered company also owns new tyre sales outlets with two each in Istanbul and Samsun, one each at Ordu (a port city on the Black
28 tyre autoclaves, while the Samsun and Bursa factories have one 24 tyre autoclave each. The Izmir plant will be installed with two smaller 12 tyre autoclaves.
Billas to Focus on Expanding in Export Market
further expand at the current location. Ankap has no plans to buy any equipment for the new plant as the existing equipment is quite new as this plant opened in June 2008.
“We could introduce a double shift at any time to hike production but space is major issue as there is no space left for storing the casings,” he said. The existing facility started in June 2008 retreading around 8,000 tyres annually by the
becoming a Goodyear truck tyre dealer and has set a sales target of 6,000 tyres in 2018. The majority of the customer base (about 70 per cent) belongs to off-road fleets in the construction business.
Commenting on the market, Hasan stated, “Business was down in the first five months but now it has started picking-up, we hope to maintain the production figures of last year.”
34 Retreading Business
Bilecik based Billas is planning to focus on the export market and expand its overseas footprint in the next three years. Currently, the company exports around 10 per
cent of its production, but is now aiming to double exports in 2017 to 20 per cent. “We are planning to grow exports to 60 per cent of total sales within the next three years,”