Vipal Rubber continues to expand its presence in the United States with the recent installation of its VR01 Smart Duo buffer at a Pete’s Road Service plant in Corona, Calif.
The challenges of 2020 have been immense, and commercial tire dealers are doing their best to weather the storm. As Bob Berlin, president of Orange, Mass.-based Pete’s Tire Barns Inc., put it, “We’re pretty much flat for the year — and we’re happy.”
RDG 200 Ringtread Drive retreads from Marangoni Tread North America (MTNA) have reached what the company calls “a rare milestone” in retread performance - more than 500,000 service miles.
“Expansion” and “investment” are two words that describe Marangoni Tread North America’s strategy. Marangoni expanded its network by three retreaders in 2019 and the company also is making significant investments at its tread rubber plant in Madison, Tenn.
Michelin North America Inc. – which has 77 franchised Michelin Retread Technology (MRT) plants and 80 licensed Oliver retread plants throughout the United States and Canada – continues to expand its product portfolio and add to its network.
The United States is just one of 90 countries in which Borraches Vipal S/A operates. But it is an important market for the Brazil-based supplier of tread rubber, retreading equipment and other items.
While maintaining 44% share of the United States retreaded truck tire market, Bridgestone-Bandag has had a busy couple of years. In addition to introducing new tread products for severe service applications, last year Bridgestone staged a 29-city roadshow, titled “Fleets We Depend On,” to educate fleets about the advantages of using retreads.
“A manufacturer cannot provide for the needs of fleets without a solid distribution network and cannot develop a solid distribution network without fleet business to support it,” says John Barnes, head of Continental’s ContiLifeCycle retreading for the Americas region.
