NTS Completes Expansion

The largest retreader in Tanzania - NAS Tyre Services has already concluded the expansion of its operations by setting up two facilities in the important cities of Arusha and Mwanza.

NTS is part of the Synargé Group, which began its journey in 1988 with a container office and one reconditioned Fiat truck in the industrial area of Vingunguti in Dar Es Salaam. The company was initially christened as East African Haulage and later changed its name to NAS Haulier. The strength of the fleet reached 85 vehicles in 2000, when the transport business sold out and focus began on the retreading business and on the distribution of products like Yuasa Batteries, tyre brands like Goodride and Bridgestone and a number of Chinese tyre brands," recounts Mr Manoj Thakkar, General Manager, Nas Tyre Services Ltd (NTS). It is now known as one of the most reputable corporations in Tanzania.

The Group's interest lies in a wide range of activities from distribution of tyres and retread services to automotive spares, smelting of lead, real estate development and mining. The products and services it delivers are designed to represent quality and value for money. The Group holds the franchise for Marangoni S.p.a of Italy, the second largest supplier of retread technology in the world; Marangoni's patented "Ring Tread Technology" and price sensitive tread from Vipal and Midas has enabled it to control over 55 per cent of the retread market.

However, NTS started adding more tread options to its fold by adding Vipal in 2009. "Price was a major reason for shifting to Vipal.

Tanzania is a price sensitive market and Marangoni is expensive for this market. Vipal makes us competitive and we had to add Vipal to strengthen our grip on the Tanzanian market," stressed Mr Manoj Thakkar. The young Manoj is known for working closely with his large pool of clientele.

NTS has shifted almost completely to Vipal with 70 per cent of the tread share it consumes followed by Midas 20 per cent and Marangoni 10 per cent. Sourcing from Midas commenced when the Mwanza plant was set up couple of years back. Dar Es Salaam is a Marangoni plant and Arusha uses mainly the Coimbatore based Rajmahal machinery.

NTS was in an expansion mode for couple of years when setting up plants in Arusha in May 2008. "We immediately set up the third plant in Mwanza ie around four months after the Arusha plant, to maintain our leadership position in the Tanzanian market," informed Manoj.

NTS retreads 2,500 tyres in a month - Dar Es Salaam holds the lion's share with 1,400 tyres, Arusha follows with 400-500 tyres and Mwanza is the smallest operation, retreading around 200- 250 tyres in a month.

The Dar Es Salaam plant was set up way back in 1992 to retread tyres of in-house fleets. Later on it started retreading tyres from the local market as well.

Tanzania is progressing as well as any other developing country. The infrastructure and roads are developing all over Tanzania resulting in a bright future for the transport, tyre and retreading sector. "Retreading is still not very popular in this country but the infrastructure has come up fast in the last five years. Things have really changed and we are moving towards a better future," Manoj believes.

"Neighbouring countries have started realising the strategic location of the country. Moreover, neighbouring land-locked countries are dependent upon the Dar Es Salaam port for supplies," Manoj stated.

On the future of retreading in Tanzania, he thinks, "Retreading has a bright future in Tanzania as fleet sizes have increased drastically in the last couple of years so that the smaller fleets have 40-50 trailers and bigger ones have around 300. The increasing number of trailers should definitely bring more tyres for retreading."

"The Retreading industry should continue to maintain a 5-10 per cent growth trend," Manoj observed. "We have set up two plants only recently and we have sufficient capacity as well as the fact that the plants are in strategic markets. Therefore, there are no further plans of expansion," he clarified.

Issue 2010/4