Conti's Williams: fleets need retread solutions

Sept. 28, 2011

King Tire Service Inc. in Bluefield, W.V., recently held a grand re-opening as the first ContiLifeCycle licensee in the U. S. Paul Williams, Continental Tire the Americas LLC’s executive vice president for truck tires, says the move was two years in the making.

“What’s always amazed me is how a dealer can sell one type of new tire and then some other type of retread to a fleet,” Williams explains. “For truck tire manufacturers like us, you have to make a decision. We made ours two years ago. You have to decide that you’re going to be a solution provider with retreads or you’re not.”

Williams says Continental has become a retread solution provider with ContiLifeCycle. The retreaded ContiLifeCycle tires sold at King’s Tire will be the first produced in the U.S. from flat precure treads featuring the same pattern designs, rubber compounding and tread technology that are included in new Continental brand truck tires.

“Surely for the fleet, once they decide on the best tire for their application, then they’re done,” he says. “You retread it and you want something that’s always going to perform at the same level as the product you picked in the first place. I’m just amazed how this industry has worked that other way for so many years. You flip-flop an argument every 18 months.”

Williams says that to be a fleet solution provider, a tire maker must give the fleet a product that’s going to work for its entire life. For its first life, its second and maybe even its third or fourth life.

“That’s what you have to be if you want to be a solution provider to a fleet,” he explains. “If you want to drive his lowest overall cost, that’s you’re only option.”

Look for our exclusive interview with Paul Williams in an upcoming issue of MTD.