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ESTONIA
and thus spreads the risks. “When the sales to one dealer are down, the sales to the others are up. In general, everything remains flat. In addition, a significant part of our retreaded tyres is taken by Hinkus, so we can survive with a little decrease,” Astover explained. Sepa Rehv supplies its partners with the highest priced retreaded tyres they could possibly find in Estonia, but this doesn’t create any problems. According to Astover, there are enough customers who are wise enough to understand that the main factor is not the price per tyre, but the price per km of mileage.
“I’m pretty sure that our retreaded tyres have the longest mileage and the best quality amongst all the retreaded tyres available on the market,” Astover stressed.
Unlike all other companies in Estonia, Sepa Rehv is not working directly with the customers. All tyres are being sent to the dealers. Currently Michelin is in negotiations with some transport companies about the long-term contracts on retreaded tyre purchasing. It is too soon to make any conclusions, but there are chances that in this case Sepa Rehv could begin supplying the retreaded tyres through Michelin under the new supply scheme.
Sepa Rehv is unique in using shearography in Estonia. The tyre is checked by shearography twice during the production cycle, once at the incoming
control and, if everything is found to be fine, as the ready- to-use product.
“At our plant ever y single tyre will pass through the shearography machine twice. I believe in our industr y this approach should be compulsor y for ever yone. There are obviously other options in the industr y, aside from shearography, but it is the most effective one. You can see all the blisters inside the tyre, and if necessar y, reject casings before buffing,” Astover said.
Things above all
Over the past several years, Sepa Rehv has been tr ying to match only the best standards in the industr y. The plant houses a
ver y professional team, and there is no staff turnover, Astover stressed.
“90% of our retreads use Michelin Recamic technology, and the other 10% are made with Michelin Newlife technology. Newlife is slightly cheaper and it does not provide the same mileage as Recamic, which is truly premium,” Astover said.
In 2018, Sepa Rehv embarked on a laser-based technology for tyre labeling. According to Astover, this approach enables the company to be more flexible to changing requirements from European regulations, from the government, and from the customers.
“For example, if tomorrow the lawmakers would rule that ever y retreaded tyre should carr y
information about the grip in some form, we would be able to match those requirements within five minutes. In addition, on the laser-made label we could put the information that the customer needs. Among other points, this is protection from some fraud schemes, when some high-quality tyres are being replaced with low quality at the roadside,” Astover
said.
A system like that could be bought in Germany roughly for Eur 60,000, but Sepa Rehv managed to make it using the experience of local scientists, with financial support from the Estonian Enterprise development fund. This system has been in operation since May 2018.
“In future, we have plans to cover the casings after buffing not with the strip, but by the extruder. Technologies of that kind exist on the market, but the price is above Eur 200,000. Nevertheless, we are elaborating these plans, and we will be moving in that direction unless there would be a decrease in the industr y,” Astover explained. “With this laser technology we were designing something brand new, something that has not been seen in Estonia previously.” Astover said.
By decrease in the industr y Astover means that continuing downward trend in the domestic transport industr y. There are problems with rising taxes, tolls, wages and other things in Estonia, and they are not good for the national transport sector.
Quality wins sales with Recamic
Retreading Business 57