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Retreading Industry in the Canaries Feels the Sting of the Pandemic
years. Seeing results in fleet operation, customers have started to trust the product more, although there is still a lot of work to be done to position it where it belongs," he said.
In numerous ways, the retreading market in the Canaries is different that of mainland Spain. As explained by Spínola, unlike most European retreaders, Maycan has not been affected by
hardware store. Then the company gradually expanded until it diversified into many activities, including automotive operation, tyre workshops, the retreading factory, and service stations," he said.
"It was in 1986 when we opened our first Maycan tyre workshop in Lanzarote and three years later our second tyre workshop in Tenerife, which is where our
Being stripped of most foreign tourists, businesses in the Canary Islands have endured some tough times recenty, and retreading plants are no exception. The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted the demand for tyres in this part of Spain, said Enrique Spínola Rosa, an economist and commercial director of local tyre retreader Maycan.
"The truth is that Covid-19 has
Covid-19 pandemic, only 3.79 million foreign visitors traveled to the region.
International tourism expenditure also plummeted due to the coronavirus crisis. In 2020, foreign tourists who visited the Canary Islands spent approximately 4.8 billion euros, down from almost 17 billion in 2019. The resumption of flights has filled local businesses with hopes that 2021 is going to be
affected us a lot. Since we are in the Canary Islands, we depend a lot on tourism, so a large part of our retreading business depends on fleets of buses that in these times have completely stopped operating, so we have had to suffer too," Spínola said, adding that he hoped that things would get better with the beginning of the holiday season in June, and that the company would be able to resume normal development. The Canaries are the second most visited Spanish region after Catalonia, according to official statistical data. In 2017, a total of 14.2 million international tourists visited the Spanish archipelago, the highest figure so far. In 2020, the year of the
better, but as the pandemic dynamics remain somewhat unpredictable, it is yet to be seen whether this optimism is justified.
According to Enrique Spínola Rosa, the past few years before the pandemic were relatively good for the retreading business in the Canaries with the demand for retreading tyres growing across the archipelago.
Maycan is currently retreading around 2,500 tyres per year. It is the sole tyre retreader in Tenerife, and one of only two retreaders in the Canaries.
"Companies were beginning to trust retreading again thanks to the technological advances that have been implemented in recent
the inflow of cheap Chinese tyres during the past several years. Retreaded tyres remain very competitive on the market not only due to good quality but also because of huge logistics cost of importing from the mainland. Against this background, Maycan sources all casings from its customers. According to Spínola, the company is not experiencing any shortage of casings even in these days.
"When you are on an island, tyre retreading is a perfect solution, as you don't have to bring tyres from outside the islands. These would be more expensive compare to retreads," Enrique Spínola Rosa said, adding that this is the situation the company plans to take advantage of.
"Our goal is to finish positioning ourselves in the Canary Islands, and we are working to achieve it," he added.
Maycan has a long history behind it. The company was originally founded in 1969 and focused on providing different services to automotive companies and car-owners.
"My grandfather Francisco Spínola was the one who launched it, starting with a
retreading plant is located," he added.
"As for the suppliers, when we bought the factory, it was already working with Bandag, so we continued with this brand for a while until we realised that we wanted to try another product, and that was when we met Vipal at a German fair. We believe that Vipal was not well known in Spain at that time, and we were among the first to bring this brand into the country," he added.
"Vipal knows how to go hand in hand with their client, and they have a very good product at a competitive price. So it is the perfect partner for this business," he said.
Enrique Spínola Rosa is confident that the retreading industry will not only be able to withstand the current crisis but, in general, has a bright future. “In the end, we are the last chain of the link. We are going to try to continue promoting retreading because we know that it is the future. The planet asks us for it daily, so we will continue our struggle to put it on the market where it belongs," he said.
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