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Leonardo Müller and Fabricio Nedeff are responsible for Vipal’s activities in the African market.
COMPANY
REPORT
Fabricio Nedeff: “Our strength is hinged on the work we are doing in Africa, and our aim is to multiply the number of retreaders and distributors within the next five years.”
Vipal invested considerable resource in expanding its online activities to im- prove connections with its customers worldwide. For example, the Vipal team and international customers participat- ed in several hours of classes to improve their knowledge through the company’s corporate university— Univipal, which offers training on various topics related to the company’s business and the tyre retreading segment with real-time guid- ance from Univipal instructors.
The idea behind the e-learning platform that Vipal created, was to take advan- tage of social distancing and also keep Vipal’s sales team in touch with the team of professionals who provide trainings to customers, to improve and update their knowledge.
“Many customers participated in the training through YouTube, to learn all the processes of retreading and repair- ing tyres. It’s a distant support that is becoming very popular. So, it is very important for us to also give this sup- port to them to do the right job, so they can meet the new demands of the mar- ket,” said Muller.
While Europe is a consolidated market, there are still many opportunities on the African market. Vipal distributes
er they are in terms of the quality that we sell.”
Vipal is making efforts to service a bigger market, so it can become fully responsi- ble for the entire territory of Africa. The services it provides includes technical services, sales, and commercial servic- es. It also pays its customers technical visits and helps them to improve their retread system with shop inspections, equipment settings to ensure that they are following all the quality standards to get the best result from its products.
A RANGE TO MEET ALL NEEDS
Vipal promotes three lines of tread brands which are marketed in different countries according to their market ap- proach. For instance, it has clients for Vipalmold, which is its premium brand and the one which makes up the majority of its sales. It also has clients for Ruzi and PB Tread which are the company’s stand- ard and economical brands. According to Vipal, these tread brands are manu- factured under the same quality control, serving their clients differently, depend- ing on the country´s characteristics.
“Each country has different needs, and they have some specific requirements... Even within the same country, different
regions prefer one type of design than the others. Over the years, we have under- stood those differences and know how to work with each one of them,” said Fabri- cio Nedeff, Commercial Manager of Vipal Europe.
“Some designs that are very popular in Brazil are also popular in Africa, due to the similarity of application”.. We have a well-balanced portifolio of products to fit the needs of Africa.” Nedeff said.
Schmidt, who has previously worked in Vipal’s United States branch and has over 20 years’ experience with the company, emphasises Vipal’s “strong relationship,” in showing the end user the commitment that the retreader has, to provide the best product possible.
TECHNICAL AND TRAINING SUPPORT
Vipal’s Sales Representative for the Af- rican market is Leonardo Muller, who also boasts a number of years’ expe- rience with Vipal. “We offer technical support for all our products, we also provide training in all aspects of the re- treading process, showing our custom- ers the best way to use our products,” Muller added.
During the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns
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