Page 52 - RB-95-20-4

SOUTH AFRICA
Tonway Tyres Leverages on its Strength amidst Dwindling ZAR, Economy and Other Challenges
Bandag South Africa’s franchisee Tonway Tyres is arguably one of the largest single retreading factories in South Africa based on its production capacity, which equates to roughly between 72,000 to 78,000 units per year. The retreading company was established in the year 2000 by Tony Kalis and Wayne Sauvage, who both held 40%
took everyone by surprise. “Wayne Sauvage’s death in April 2019 literally opened a Pandora’s box of severe complications and challenges which revealed a company that was in serious need of direction and structure,” explained Renier Botha, Managing Director of Tonway Tyres. “This was concealed from the shareholders, Tony K alis and
quadrupled in size and turnover, making it one of the largest independent tyre dealers in Southern Africa. In 2016, he left to rekindle his first love, which was his practice as an attorney.
Botha holds 2 law degrees and had spent 11 years in legal practice before joining Lombard Tyres in 2005. “My passion for managing a business, growing and developing people and finding the results very rewarding, has kept me here until now,” he told Retreading Business. About 90% of Tonway’s business is dependent on retreading, using specialised machiner y. The factor y and warehouse is situated in Rosslyn, an industrial area outside Pretoria. It focuses mainly on the retreading of truck, bus, light truck and smaller OTR tyres, and operates 24 hours a day, 5 days a week on two, 12-hour shifts. The company retreads on average between 6,000 to 6,500 tyres per month. “In this process we use in the region of 80 tons of premium Bandag rubber, that is, if one were to join the tread end-to-end, it would measure a distance of 21.3 kilometres, said Botha. Tonway has a fleet of 14 vehicles that collects, delivers, and services its clients daily on dedicated routes. These vehicles cover on average an estimated 86,478 kilometres per month to provide services to clients from Mussina in the north, to Komatipoort in the west, Richards Bay and Durban in the south and Kimberley in the east—a fairly large geographical area in South Africa.
Tonway also supplies new tyres and manages websites for clients, looking after all their tyre needs. Its OTR retreading and repair plant in Pretoria serves both dealers and transporters. The plant is audited by Bandag’s service engineers on a quarterly basis through a strict and rigorous set of criteria. They certify and audit the plant’s
manufacturing, quality and environmental standards.
A high percentage of the company’s supply of rubber, cushion and other consumables come from its franchisor, Bandag. It has a number of other consumables suppliers and has close relationships with casing suppliers and a number of new tyre suppliers such as Stamford Tyres, Bridgestone and some importers of cheaper new tyre brands.
Botha says Tonway’s technological strength, which gave it an edge over other tyre retreading facilities handling OTR tyres in South Africa, is hinged on the high level of quality and aesthetics of the products coming out of the company’s factory. “We have scored 96% and 98% respectively in the last 2 audits conducted by the Bandag service engineers. We use the best available equipment and have a rigorous maintenance and preventative maintenance programme on all equipment.” “The norm amongst our competitors is between 7-10 days. But due to our 24-hour operation, we can literally produce a customer’s retreaded tyres within 24 hours. It is therefore our quality products, unrivalled service and incredible turn-around times that sets us apart from our competitors and give us the edge over them.” He told Retreading Business.
Aside from Tonway and its franchisor, there is also a wide variety of well-known brands such as Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Dunlop, Apollo etc. which are readily available and are holding their own in the highly competitive market. Cheap Chinese imports have had a ver y negative impact on both the local manufacturers as well as the retreading industr y for a long time. The South African tyre market is saturated with cheaper imported tyres from China which are ostensibly putting locally manufactured tyres under constant pressure, so much so
The Tonway Tyres factory in Rosslyn, Pretoria
shares in the business while its franchisor, Bandag held 20% shares.
Tony and Wayne were actively involved in the day-to-day running of the business until 2017 when the business was turned upside down by two key events. Firstly, Kalis retired in 2017, after 17 years of keeping the company running. It would not have been too bad for the entire management if that was where it ended, but Sauvage’s unexpected death in April 2019
Bandag by Sauvage, who was the majority shareholder and sole director at the time,” he added.
Kalis returned to the business following Sauvage’s death, and Renier was then approached by the shareholders in July 2019, to step in immediately in the capacity of Managing Director. Before this appointment, Renier was the Managing Director of Lombard Tyres (Pty) Ltd. During his 11-year tenure (2005 -2016), the company
Renier Botha (MD) on the left with Tony Kalis (Shareholder) during the company’s 20th Anniversary Celebrations
52 Retreading Business