Bridgestone has been making moves to strengthen its position in the European bus and truck tyre segment through strategic retreading acquisitions for almost a decade now. Its targeted buyout of Bulldog Remoulds based in Lincolnshire in 2005 was one such key acquisition. About a year later, global pre-cure franchising expert, Bandag, joined this key aspect of UK’s mould-cure retread market. Bridgestone acquired both in quick succession, despite these being two entirely different facets of retreading. But the benefits have been obvious, and, over the years, Bridgestone has successfully integrated both into its comprehensive business strategy.
Bridgestone’s Tryst with Bandag and Bulldog
After several years of enhancing Bulldog’s stance in the market and persevering to integrate Bandag into its product portfolio, Bridgestone is being more candid than ever about the implications of this combination on the overall market, particularly for the fleets.
Bridgestone is laying great emphasis on its retreading operations, which was evident from the way the company pitched for the same at NEC in Birmingham, at the CV convention. Terry Salter, the retread development manager at Bridgestone, said that their company and the Bandag franchise network aim at facilitating significant savings and long tyre life for the CV segment.
Bridgestone Fosters Growth for its Alliance Partners
In 2014, Bridgestone is heavily investing in the pre-cure operational network through Bandag’s Alliance Excellence investment initiative. While there are no concrete figures released, this “huge” investment practically means several benefits for Bandag franchise partners. These include benefits from hi-tech shearography machinery, improvements in retreading capacity and introduction of bespoke training programmes across Britain and Ireland.
Ross Medlyn, the retread chief for Bridgestone and franchise manager for Bandag, shed some more light on the purpose of this investment. He said that their Alliance Excellence Programme rewards excellence in addition to driving it. The ‘reward’ element comprises driving investment in resources like training and equipment.
He added that with market evolution, they need to remain at the forefront of the changing environment, stay competitive and sustain product differentiation for customers. And this necessitates all their Alliance partners’ continuous improvement.
Bridgestone’s Key Goal
However, according to Terry Salter, regardless of company’s investment in Bandag, its primary goal remains clear. It aims at providing fleet operators the best-in-industry value for money, and Bridgestone’s retreading offering is a key aspect of this goal.
Salter and Medlyn, both believe that Bridgestone is successfully ahead of its competitors when it comes to fleet savings, owing to its “assets” – Total Tyre Life and Total Tyre Care initiatives, the Bandag franchise and a strong European network.
Bridgestone’s retreading operations fall under its Total Tyre Life initiative. This aims at maximising tyre life and, in turn, reducing cost per km over the tyres’ lifespan by supplying its new, premium tyres and Bandag brand retreads.
However, with all the discussions about Bridgestone’s investment in 2014 into pre-cure retreading, it is only valid to pose the following question. Does Bridgestone’s strategy to market pre-cure Bandag retreads affect Bulldog’s mould-cure production, and overall retread production? It seems that the company is working towards positioning both the business aspects as important, like two strings in its retreading bow.