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INTERVIEW
Interview: Leo Linkesch
cold retreading is now the norm, and hot retreading more of an exception,” says Linkesch, “but retreading still has a small share of the market compared to new tyre sales, and there are significant regional differences.”
Another key difference, he points out, is that retreading was largely related to the large Sovtransavto trucking fleets who had realised that costs could be saved by retreading. However, their approach was to do the retreading themselves, never considering that this service could be supplied by quality third party suppliers. Of course, this has now changed, with the retread market dominated by tyre distributors and retreading specialists, with the fleets having realised that it is better for them to concentrate on their core business. A number of new companies were established at this time by young entrepreneurs who saw the opportunities offered by precured retreading. An example of this, points out Linkesch, was his compatriot, the late Vaclav Subrt, whose company Wetest, founded in 1991, became a key player in retreading sector in the Czech Republic.
With regards to the issue of the impact of cheap Chinese new tyres in Eastern Europe Linkesch points out that the impact has been varied. In those countries which are now members of the EU, there is little difference to the rest of Europe. At the same time, Russia and certain related countries such as Belarus and Kazakhstan have their own customs union and have been able to impose their own anti- dumping measures. The difficulties, however, have been in areas which belong to neither group, such as the Ukraine, which have no anti- dumping measures and have hence suffered considerably.
In terms of challenges that retreaders in Eastern Europe will have to face in the future, Linkesch believes that the key issues revolve around casings, in terms of availability, quality and prices. There are significant differences in regulations across the region. In some countries casing import is not allowed, in others it’s merely a cost factor. In some areas retreaders have begun taking on the role of casing collection themselves, a prime example being that of Radburg in Romania.
“There are other factors too,”
Leo Linkesch was the deserved winner of the Employee of the Year Award in this year’s Recircle Awards
The Marangoni Group Area Manager and the winner of the Recircle Awards in the Employee of the Year category
The Employee of the Year category in the inaugural Recircle Awards was particularly hotly contested. At one point during the last week there was little more than half a dozen votes separating all five of the shortlisted candidates. However, we were particularly delighted that our good friend and occasional contributor to Retreading Business, Leo Linkesch was able to walk away with the trophy once the votes were counted, and that his customers and colleagues within the Marangoni Group came out to support him in such large numbers.
Leo is based in Brno in the Czech Republic and is an Area Manager for Marangoni, responsible for the ex-CIS states including Russia and Ukraine as well as some Eastern European countries which are now EU member states including Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, and some clients in the Baltic States.
talks about abut his career and the challenges operating in the Eastern European retreading markets:
He first became involved in retreading in the 1990s after spending the early part of his career in the car and truck distribution sector. At that time Eastern Europe was beginning to open up, and the nature of the nascent retreading sector in that region was beginning to change. It was during this period that he learned his trade and forged his contacts throughout the wider region in which he now works.
In the 1980s retreading did exist but it was mostly hot retreading. Indeed, during that time Marangoni already had some business supplying machiner y to hot cure retreaders. However, after the collapse of the system, most hot retreading disappeared, and there was a gradual influx of precured retreading from West to East, firstly in markets such as Czechia, but then in places like Ukraine and then further east to markets like
K azakhstan.
“In most of these countries
Vaclav Subrt’s Wetest company was one of the pioneers in precured retreading in Eastern Europe
30 Retreading Business