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RUSSIA
the Chinese products. The tyres with a winter tread are particularly relevant, as in Russia the winter is very cold,” Ekimchev said.
It is also true that the cheapest Chinese tyres face certain problems on the winter roads. That is why they failed to hit the retreading industry so hard in Northern Europe. The same thing is true in Russia, where the truck owners are also concerned about the safety of the drivers. As the winter in the country sometimes lasts for 5-6 months and often is accompanied with a lot of ice on the roads, the transport companies simply could
not take the risk of using unsafe tyres.
“We offer our customers a special winter pattern with the potential to put studs in it from the NOKIAN Noktop range. With the help of our marketing department, we are pushing forward the right attitude for tyre handling among our existing customers and any potential new ones. Ever y year, Russian legislation is getting stricter in terms of the residual thickness of tread and used tyre recycling. Therefore, we anticipate only a positive dynamic in our industr y,” he added.
the Tyre Industry, and read a bunch of books about retreading. I decided that this business was worthwhile, so I purchased the equipment and launched the plant,” Koptyrev said. Two years ago, there was a peak of Chinese invasion in the Russian market. At that time the Russian government had not entered the protective duties yet, so the supplies from China were really overwhelming. Koptyrev admitted that opening a retreading plant was risky. Nevertheless, the impact of the Chinese tyres on the Moscow market, in his opinion, was overestimated.
“Being a customer myself, I almost never used Chinese tyres on my trucks. In fact, everyone here knows what a cheap Chinese tyre is. When you cut it, you see that there is no miracle, and it is clear where this low price comes from. That is why we never accept Chinese casings for retreading, with the exception only to the GiTi brand,” Koptyrev said. The company can afford to not work with Chinese casings, because there are enough casings available on the local market. The shortage is only seen in some sizes for construction vehicles. However, Renova does not import casings from abroad, as many other retreaders in Russia do, preferring to source casings solely from the local market.
The Renova retreading plant is based on the M4 federal highway. This is the main artery linking the Russian capital with the Black Sea, passing through several major cities on its way. In the country, where the road conditions leave a lot to be desired, the M4, by all accounts, is one of the two best highways. The second one is the northern highway linking Moscow with St. Petersburg and Baltic Sea.
Speaking about the location, Koptyrev said that he lives in Moscow, so he had no choice of where to open the retreading plant. Originally, he was planning to launch it on one of the federal highways, to be able to serve the needs of the trucks passing by. M4 was probably the best possible choice.
Once bitten, twice shy
Renova maintains good quality by working with two lines of raw materials, according to Koptyrev. One is in the premium segment and another one in the middle segment. “In this segment, I’m staying focused on the same raw materials, although there is a lot of choice. Just yesterday, I was called and offered a new tread for retreading. I refused, among other things, because it is not really convenient to have a wide range,” he said.
Basically, the quality is what Renova cares about mostly. It is especially important, because many customers had a bad experience with retreaded tyres. In this situation, they would think twice before spending their money on the same experiment again.
“The quality in our business is much more important than the price. Many of our clients suffered losses by getting retreaded tyres of rather poor quality. If this happens, it is extremely difficult to urge the client to consider tr ying retreaded tyres again,” Koptyrev said.
There are really some workshops releasing retreaded tyres with not just poor quality, but with no quality at all. In some cases, the tyres were “falling apart” before even touching the road.
“There are probably some people in our industr y who are buying retreading equipment and expect that it will work on its own. And when it appears that it is not working as they expected, the problems with quality begin. To be honest, I don’t know how this all happens and how these products of poor quality appear on the market,” Koptyrev added.
It is also not clear, how the situation with the quality of retreaded tyres on the market could be improved. Any changes in legislation, or state control on the market probably would not make things better, Koptyrev suggested. “It would probably be interesting to have a better look at the European experience, to find out how the state regulation in Finland or other countries in this segment is organised,” he said.
It is clear that sound retreaders could not just stay away from that problem, because it brings challenges to all plants operating on the market.
“Instead of just doing our job, we have to put a lot of effort to prove to our customers that not all retreaders in the industr y are the same. The only way of how we can do that, is with good quality,” he said.
On the other hand, there are many more retreaded tyres with poor quality in Moscow now than there were before. The market conditions are slightly improving now, encouraging retreaders that the positive trends on the local market are here for the long term.
Unfair Competition Concerns Moscow Retreaders
Deceptive trade practices in the retreading market of the Russian capital is one of the most important challenges that sound businesses have to deal with, said Vyacheslav
industr y.
Koptyrev said he never criticises his colleagues in the industry. In the countr y, where the retreading service is not so popular yet,
Vyacheslav Koptyrev, director of the Moscow-based retreading company Renova
Koptyrev, director of the Moscow- based retreading company Renova. With a population of around 20 million people, Moscow accounts for a share of around 26 per cent of Russian GDP, according to the estimates of the Moscow City Hall. More importantly, the city historically was a centre of the transport business in the country, and, as the saying goes in Russia, “all roads lead to Moscow”. Moreover, the local businessmen are believed to be more open-minded and less conservative compared to their colleagues in the provinces, so the retreading technologies here have to face not so much distrust and suspicion from potential customers, as they do elsewhere in the country.
Given this, Moscow is considered to be a perfect spot to open a retreading plant. However, as always, there are two sides of the same coin, and the local market has really serious problems with fly-by- night retreading workshops that cast a shadow on the entire
retreaders must stick together. At the same time, he believes that his company is offering tyres with one of the best qualities on the market. “Almost every time when a client comes to my plant, he eventually becomes our loyal client. He will not go anywhere else, even if the price there would be slightly more attractive. Not ever y company in our industr y could say that about its business. Good reputation is very valuable these days,” said Koptyrev.
Renova has been operating for only two years, although owning a transport company during some time before, Koptyrev knows the tyre business in Moscow well. That experience helped with his retreading project, as he was well- aware about consumers’ tastes and used his ties in the industry to get customers right from the start. “This all started accidentally, like probably every business does. I heard something [about retreading], consulted with scientists from the Scientific and Research Institute of
50 Retreading Business