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RUSSIA
Good Wheels and North Auto Combine to Establish Good North
In Russia, we can currently find an excellent example of a cooperation between two companies to develop and broaden activities in the retreading sector. Good Wheels is a well-established retreader in the Russian market, whilst North Auto is a leading tyre distributor in the country. Owners of both companies have recently decided to join forces and create a new company specialised in tyre
retreading. When deciding about the name of this joint venture entity, co-owners Sergey V. Belyak and Anatoli Yu. Agashin connected two words from the two original company names, and Good North was born. The official opening of the joint venture’s new plant took place in Orechovo, East of Moscow, on 14 March 2019.
Good Wheels (Chorosie Kolesa in Russian) is located in Saint
Ribbon cutting ceremony: A.Agashin (left) with S.Belyak
Petersburg, the second largest city of the Russian Federation and former capital, founded at the banks of the Neva river by Tsar
Peter the Great in 1703. The firm which is active mainly in the North West of Russia was founded in 1994 and celebrates 25 years this year. The owners and managers oriented to tyre sales discovered retreading quite early and started to import retreaded tyres from Europe, namely from Kargro. After some time, volumes were interesting enough to evaluate their own retreading operation.
Good Wheels approached the new retreading industry in an efficient way, negotiating with a number of potential suppliers and looking for the best options. The winner was Bandag at that time, supplying machinery and materials, as well as related services and technology. The company’s first precure retreading plant was built in 2004, already 15 years ago.
Ellerbrock from Hamburg, Germany (now Marangoni) became the company‘s main partner for retreading later on. The business went through several ups and downs, also related to the economical situation, and at one point, a big fire destroyed the plant. Nevertheless, the company‘s factory was re-built again.
Good Wheels is now, based on available data, the number one retreader in Russia in terms of per annum production, and is involved also in tyre recycling. Today Good Wheels is using Bandamatic, Nokian and Marangoni retreading materials. Concerning new tyres, the company follows a multi brand strategy including Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Hankook, both leading Russian truck tyre brands KAMA and Cordiant, as well as Asian tyres.
North-Auto-M (in Russian Sever- Avto-M) was founded in 1998. This was the year of the Russian rouble crisis - within a few days the rouble jumped from 6 roubles per dollar to 15-20 roubles while