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BULGARIA
Bulgarian Retreaders Hope to Weather the Storm
quality, everyone knew about that. That also worked in the opposite direction, because as soon as we entered the market, with really good production, made with the best European experience, everyone knew about that too”.
Common challenges
Vanina Export operates one of the largest retreading plants in Bulgaria with a designed
wheel rims ranging between 24 inches and 51 inches.
Medina Med reportedly has a production capacity of around 25,000 tyres and it was producing that amount in the good old days, but now that is not the case. It is believed that due to the same problem with Chinese tyres, it had to cut the production performance down to around 6,000 – 8,000 tyres in 2017.
On the other hand, market participants believe that Medina
The saying “if you cannot change the situation, change the attitude” is rather popular amongst Bulgarians, and there is a certain logic behind that. The country had quite an uneasy past, including during the communist times, when ordinary people were able to change nothing at all.
And even now, when the country has taken up the EU Presidency, there are still quite a few problems unresolved, as, in particular, it is still described as the poorest and “most corrupted” member of EU-28. These are things the local citizens
services, and earning money in some other niches of the tyre industry.
Struggling against stereotypes
After the Sofia-based Omnifak, Vanina Export and Medina Med were the first companies in Bulgaria offering good tyre retreading services, Violet Bagerov, the production manager at Vanina Export recalled. The word “good” is very important in that case, because in early 1990s, tyre retreading was also performed at the capacities of a local transport
company.
According to Bagerov, at that time this company had rather weak management, and probably because of that, the quality of retreaded tyres released by that company left a lot to be desired. They were operating for not so long, but that time was just enough to completely spoil the market, leaving it with the strong stereotypes that a retreading tyre is some kind of a fake. “We opened a retreading line in 1999 and I even remember the exact date – 27 February. I also remember that at that
time nobody in Bulgaria desired to even talk about the retreading of tyres. The transport company in question sold its retreading plant shortly afterwards, but the bad reputation of retreading services has remained in the Bulgarian society for a long time, and has brought a lot of challenges to the other plants,” he said.
The transport company is a respectable transport company, with a lot of customers in the logistics industry both in Bulgaria and some other countries of the EU. However, they have never returned to retreading business, Bagerov added.
“The tyre market in Bulgaria is small, as we are a small country. So, in this industry everyone knows each other, and when the first retreader had problems with
Buffing at Vanina Export
Violet Bagerov, the production manager at Vanina Export
apparently do not want to be tolerant of, but it turns out that they simply have no choice, as such kinds of problems apparently do not just vanish. This saying has also a special meaning in the retreading industry now, where the environment is really bad, and will probably remain so for some time. So, retreaders in Bulgaria do the only thing they can – change their attitude and hope that someday the bad times will come to an end.
For the major retreaders, like Vanina Export and Medina Med, the crisis in the retreading industry does not mean that life is about to end. These companies have rather diversified business structures, so alongside with retreading, they are also importing new tyres, providing tyre fitting
production capacity close to 35,000 tyres per year, according to the company’s official information. However, the plant has not been operating even close to its full capacity for years, so the production performance from 2011 to 2015 was barely reaching 11,000 tyres, and the company expected to release just 4,000 to 5,000 retreaded units in 2017, Bagerov disclosed.
“I believe everyone knows that cheap Chinese tyres are gradually killing the retreading industry. We believe that the attitude of the government to these products is wrong. Bulgaria imports the cheapest possible tyres, with the quality so poor that in many cases they go directly into the trash. The Bulgarian tyre market is very price-sensitive, so retreading tyres could not stand the competition with the Chinese tyres even under such circumstances,” Bagerov explained.
Medina Med opened its retreading factory in 1996, where originally it was working with tyres for buses and trucks. Since 2002 the production range was expanded to include retreading industrial tyres, especially those used on freight dump trucks, loading machines, autograders and other special equipment, with
Med in general is doing slightly better than the other retreaders in Bulgaria, primarily because it is the sole retreader of agricultural tyres in the country. For instance, agriculture has been playing an important role in the national economy, with the large number of tractors, harvesters and other agricultural machinery securing demand for tyre retreading in this niche.
New technologies
Medina Med was originally using Kraiburg cold retreading technology, but from 2006 it switched to the use of Michelin – Recamic. According to the Medina Med website this was undertaken, because with the use of this technology “the distance run by the retreaded tyres manufactured is commensurate with the distance run by the new Michelin tyres”.
According to Bagerov, Vanina Export imports a lot of agricultural tyres, but doesn’t retread them, leaving this task to Medina Med. However, the company also has its own niche on the market, in the segment of racing tyres. He recalled that his plant occasionally has been retreading tyres for racing
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