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INTERVIEW
VM Rubber Celebrates
First Year in Business: Interview with Pablo Versini
It is now exactly a year since Pablo Versini founded VM Rubber in Rovereto, Italy. The company, which manufactures and distributes equipment and
tyre retreading sector. We are working very well in Italy and above all in international markets such as Europe and other parts of the world. Our primar y business
accessories for the retreading sector, as well as for other markets, has grown rapidly since its launch. On the occasion of the company’s first anniversary, we took the opportunity to speak to the company’s founder and Managing Director, Pablo Versini, about the company’s achievements during its first year of business, and its plans for the future.
Retreading Business
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Pablo, and congratulations on your first year of business. How would you evaluate this first year?
Pablo Versini
Very interesting. We had a very intense year. We are very satisfied with our progress, and we are little bit ahead of where our expectations were from the point of view of turnover and the response of the clients. In reality, we are very happy.
RB
We note that you have divided your product offering into four different groups. Taking this into account, what percentage of your offering is for the retread market?
PV
Currently about 80% of our product offering is focused on the
is the tyre retreading sector, but we are also focusing a lot on tyre repair and the demounting of tyres in the mining sector.
RB
What plans do you have to increase your product range even further?
PV
Currently we are working with various local businesses from our region here in Rovereto. We are doing some partnerships, studying new machines, new products and automating the retreading and tyre repair shops in order to widen our product range. In the upcoming months, we will be promoting these items more thanks to yourselves.
RB
You have already made some agreements with prominent names involved in distribution in the Italian market such as B&J, Sarv and Monaflex. Are there any other partnerships in the pipeline, and any partnerships that will give you distribution rights outside Italy?
PV
Recently, we arrived at an agreement with Oliver “Rubberhog”, who have given us the official distribution rights for Italy and also in Europe. In the coming weeks, we are also
Normally, we are ver y accustomed to travelling and our objective was to make various partnerships with these companies in Italy and then see if it was possible in other parts of the world.
RB
How much of your turnover is currently being achieved in export markets? Which are your key export markets, and which geographical regions are you targeting for growth?
PV
At the moment exports make up about 75% of our business and normally we have a good consolidation in the European and Italian markets. In the parts outside of Europe, we are working
namely the repair of conveyor belts, which is giving us a lot of satisfaction from a business point of view. After this, another key business objective is the North American market, USA and Canada, and then South-East Asia is also important for the retreading sector.
RB
Is there a specific group of products that you want to target at international markets?
PV
We are working a lot and expanding our line of extruder guns because we have seen a lot of demand for this product. We are also working hard in widening our range of bead breakers for the
coming to an agreement with an Australian company that manufactures wheel chocks for the mining, industrial and 4x4 sectors. We are finalising the agreement with this company.
In the last year when I was thinking of opening this business, I put some effort in finding out what the market was missing. I did some research into what the market required in Italy, Europe and the rest of the world.
well with Latin America where I have a lot of knowledge. We are working a lot with Brazil, Peru and Colombia, and we are currently working a lot with Chile as well. We have some good partnerships with clients in South Africa.
In the short-term future, we are going to be working a lot with the North of Africa and in the industrial sector. We also have another part of our business,
78 Retreading Business