Galgo Europe : A Permanent Presence In Europe

Galgo has clearly established itself as a firm and fast growing factor in the European pre-cured retread arena. The traditionally established market leaders in Europe feel the pinch as Galgo eats into market share. One producer told Retreading Business, when discussing value line imports, that Galgo was becoming a real problem. Another changed the subject and refused to comment – one might suppose that if Galgo were not becoming an irritation they would have said so.

While cheap new tyres come in from China, the European retreaders are more and more in need of a TOP QUALITY no nonsense product, supplied at competitive prices, with “just in time” logistics.

Galgo Mexico has been producing retread materials for over 55 years and the firm has a dedicated R&D division, nothing less than any market leader of pre-cured tread rubber.

In today’s market, each serious producer of pre-cure needs to be ready for the ever changing market demands in terms of new compounds, new tread designs etc. We need to be as close as we can to the new tyre manufacturers, as well as to the ultimate end user: the trucker.

The challenge for Galgo’s R&D team is to maximise the performance of compounds used and that means matching new tyre performance in terms of longevity and rolling resistance. Galgo’s market share is growing in leaps, year after year. “Our goal is to be one of Europe’s top three tread suppliers , before the end of this decade“ says Joe Krimpenfort, who started up the European Galgo subsidiary in 2003, shortly after retiring from 14 years with Goodyear as General manager and 9 years as Vice President of Bandag Europe in the eighties.

However, there is more than quality and price that is helping Galgo to supply pre-cure treads to this demanding industry, and that is the firm’s dedication to technical support and logistics. Galgo Europe is far from being a “One Man Band”. In Europe Galgo work with a team of very experienced local agents and a versatile administrative manager from Mexico, Arturo Baladon, who is working on line constantly with the plant and the technical support team in Mexico.

Then there is the logistics operation. Galgo’s warehouse is based at Tongeren, in Belgium, minutes from the European motorway network, less than two hours from the main European ports, and centrally located for Europe-wide distribution. Galgo Europe is literally located inside the premises of HQ of Jacobs Logistics, a family run specialist in international transport and logistics, open for business 6 days per week. Galgo enjoys what must be one of the closest supplier/ logistics relationships possible. Jacobs can deliver anywhere in Europe within 48 hours, in Western Europe within 24 hours and the UK within 48 hours. The Jacobs warehouse in Tongeren is dedicated to Galgo, and for the third time in two years, it is being extended to accommodate even greater stocks as business develops.

Okay, so Galgo has the ability to produce a quality tread and deliver it on time but what happens when there are technical problems? ….Well, we very rarely have to face a technical problem in Galgo Pre-Q, and when we do, online communication allows us to handle the problem almost instantly, in spite of the ocean between Europe and the R&D dept. in Mexico. Our agents throughout Europe are all people who know the industry and their territory like the back of their hand, and, last but not least: they know their customers.

Our sales team makes the correct sale in the first place and we give the correct technical support right from the outset. If ever we do hear about a problem, it is solved swiftly, on line, with little or no paper work involved. We recently had a Bulgarian retreader customer contacting us with a small technical problem. We got the details documented with electronic pictures via e-mail in the afternoon, spoke directly with the technical people back in Mexico and by 11:00pm that same evening, we had the answer to his problem e-mailed back to Bulgaria, for the customer to find on his P.C. next morning. Our customer was amazed at how quickly & accurately we dealt with the issue. No big office palace that slows down the operations or communications, mainly adding to the overheads. “We have a lean, mean, fast & effective operation, delivering TOP quality products at competitive prices”, says Joe Krimpenfort proudly.

Galgo is very happy and proud to announce the most recent agency agreement concluded with Doug Howell, managing director of Tyre Supplies Int.Ltd. “A perfect fit” says Joe Krimpenfort , shaking hands with Doug, who distributes TRM retreading equipment and Pincott buffing blades as well as several other accessory products to the UK retreading industry.

Issue 2008/1