United Planet Tires Retreading LLC, based in Dubai, was established in 2013 as a new branch of the parent company, United for Commercial & Industrial Tires Jordan, founded in Jordan in 1999. The tyre retread business flourished at that time, primarily due to the export of retreads to Iraq.
Retreading Dedication in the Middle East
General Manager Riyadh El Shqeirat is dedicated to improving and developing his employees’ knowledge of tyre retreading. He majored in machinery and production engineering and graduated in 1993. He has always focused on continual growth and betterment. He started his career in a tyre retreading factory in Zarqaa, Jordan, owned by his uncle.
In 1999, he founded his own company in Amman, specialising in tyre production and trading with a production capacity of 34 tyres daily. In 2013, he moved the company to Dubai. We asked him the reason for the move: “The laws (16% sales tax) imposed on the tyre retreading industry after the 2008 global financial crisis made it hard to compete with new tyre imports from China.” El Shqeirat had visited Dubai for 20 years and noticed it could overcome crises by imposing laws that considered all parties’ interests and concerns. “How Dubai dealt wisely with the COVID-19 crisis was the best proof.” He, therefore, decided to move to Dubai even though there were around thirty operating retread factories at that time.
Retreading Operational Excellence
From the start, El Shqeirat was committed to providing repeat customers in the UAE with a superior product. We asked him what strategies he had adopted to reach that objective, “we signed an agreement with “Mülot Autotechnik Reifen” from Germany, which included training on tyre retreading techniques and a transfer of German experience in business management.” After a couple of years in operation, United Planet Tires in Jordan reached an annual production of more than six thousand tyres; thirteen workers were employed, and the machinery had a production capacity of more than ten thousand tyres annually.
We asked El Shqeirat to brief us about the machinery situation in both the old operation in Jordan and the new one in Dubai: “Back in Jordan, the company used to import retreading machinery and material from the Elgi factory, situated in India, mainly imported materials and accessories from India, Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia, and the UAE,” he said. The machinery line comprised two Electrical chambers, one buffer, four skiving stations, and one building machine.
We also asked El Shqeirat about the added value that United Planet provides to the new UAE operation: “United Planet is the only factory in UAE that carries out the retreading process according to German standards, producing retreaded tyres that are equal in quality to the original.” In addition, he pointed out, “The company provides our clients with a 12-month warranty on those tyres.” This, he added, is reflected in the quality of the company’s products and the trust of its clients. The most significant proof is the satisfaction of the company’s clients, who demonstrate their willingness by paying more to buy the company’s higher-quality products.
Understanding the RetreadingMarket
The exchange of experiences between United Planet Tires Retreading and Mülot Autotechnik Reifen has certainly influenced the factory’s technical, administrative and financial management. Even the sales ethos has come from the exchange. El Shqeirat targets clients who buy new, high-quality tyres and then convinces them of the value and quality of their retreads. Clients are also given assurances that encourage them to make such decisions. As a result, he says: “Fleet owners are satisfied with the company’s partnerships and understand that tyre retreading is essential to the tyre life cycle.”
Desire to Always Improve Retreads
We wanted to understand United Planet Tires’ market share in Dubai, so we asked El Shqeirat about the company’s approximate market share in the Dubai retread market. “The retreading market share has been negatively affected by Chinese tyre prices. China has flooded the market with low product prices, substantially impacting the tyre industry. As a result, the market share of quality new tyres has dropped compared to that of Chinese tyres, which has a knock-on effect on retreading.”
We discussed the availability of casings in Dubai with El Shqeirat, who explained that he aimed to supply a trustworthy product based on his experience in the tyre retreading business. Hence, the company only retreads tyres that it gets from fleet owners.
To understand the management vision for United Planet Factory, it is necessary to take on board El Shqeirat’s desire for United Planet Tires Retreading to become a leading destination for tyre customers in the UAE. Accordingly, he believes his mission is to provide customers with the most cost-effective, high-performance tyres and work towards improved environmental sustainability. United Planet, points out El Shqeirat, is a family business, and this maximises stability, commitment, and trust, strengthening long-term goals, shared visions, and values.
