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INTERVIEW
the raw materials, in doing that reduce CO2 emissions by 24%, use 29% less land to produce the rubber and 19% less water. That for me goes some way to explaining why retreading will play a part in future mobility solutions.”
Heywood added: “If you’re a retreader, you have three main challenges – how can I develop my products to provide the best value, how can I make sure I sell that value into the marketplace and how do I invest to avoid fighting on price, which
really is a race to the bottom, as we’ve seen that we can get imported tyres from overseas at very competitive prices which independent retreaders find very difficult to compete against. Our collective challenge to sell the value of retreads better to the marketplace so that users are more aware of why they should pay a little bit more for a high quality retread than a first life budget tyre.”
make inroads into new markets.”
An example of this is the company’s recent launch of the Tier 2 Laufenn range. Retreading, of course is something that also continues to dominate Hankook’s commercial vehicle strategy as it drives towards creating new mobility solutions for its fleet customers. Retreading, pointed out Heywood, offers natural advantages in three key areas, namely cost minimisation, environmental impact and maximum value for fleets. “This,” said Heywood, “is the reason why retreading, for Hankook, is a cornerstone for future mobility within the industr y.”
Finally, we asked Heywood a more general question about his views on the future of the retreading industry and the tyre manufacturers’ role in it. In answering, Heywood pointed to four key mega-trends that stand to exert an influence on mobility solutions in the future, these being urbanisation, globalisation, digitalisation and environmentalism. The first two of these trends are resulting in an increased requirement for mobility, he explained, and one of the key challenges facing industry was to provide this in a more environmentally sound manner whilst also making the best use of the opportunities offered by digitalisation.
“We’re going to try to achieve that by improving on our product performance, investing every day and improving on our range to offer maximum value to the marketplace,” said Heywood. “However, we also know that part of the story is being able to offer the consumer better use of the materials in areas such as recycling and circular economies, and retreading is, for me, the best
example of a circular economy, in that you can elongate the life of the tyre by reusing 70% of