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RUSSIA
Russia’s PSK Insists Upon Kraiburg
Sergey Bondarenko, owner of the Russian firm PSK based in Togliatti (about 1,000 kilometres east of Moscow), is a man on a mission – a mission
philosophy at PSK – and has been for 20 years. Sergey Bondarenko started up PSK in 1992, initially working in the new tyre and tyre service trade
then PSK has invested 25 million euro in buildings and plant for precure and mould cure retreads for truck tyres and EM tyres. The first truck retread rolled off the production line in August 2008. The first retreaded EM
relationship is also very important to him and his wife. They are delighted that the business contact, which was made in 2009 at the Autopromotec fair in Bologna, has evolved to the level of a friendly partnership.
The Bontyre Sales outlet
Bontyre OTR moulding process
of zero waste, seeking to make full use of tyres at the highest possible quality standards. And so the 51-year-old is a businessman with a message. Retreads have not been around very long in his native country. His job therefore includes educating forwarding companies and truck drivers about the benefits and about handling tyres with care. The main aim is to preserve the casing. Sergey Bondarenko's business depends on this.
for cars and trucks. His wife Svetlana has been running the business with him from the start and is responsible for the finances. The enterprising couple also set up a dairy while running PSK. They do employ a managing director, however, to oversee the production of milk, cheese and butter. The Bondarenkos concentrate on the tyre business and have built up a strong base in the past 20 years, currently boasting annual sales of some 155 million euro.
An OTR enters the huge shearography equipment for testing prior to retreading
Good casings are in short supply in Russia – and all over the world. Until the middle of this year PSK had sourced casings from Central European dealers. In a bid to cut costs, the company has now installed a collection point for premium casings in its own country. Premium quality is a serious
Today PSK has a workforce of 380, with 70 on the production floor and the rest in the offices and in the seven tyre sales and service satellites in Togliatti, Samara, Ulyanovsk, Orenburg and Ufa.
It was in 2007 that Sergey Bondarenko acted on the idea of giving tyres a new life. Since
tyres were produced in October 2011. To date they have already clocked up 80,000 kilometres. All the experts, including the retreading specialist Kraiburg, are currently estimating that their products will approach – or even surpass – the standards of new premium tyres. PSK has primarily been using quality Kraiburg material and patterns for all its retreading processes since 2009. Only in the precure section does the company also work with tread rings. "The Kraiburg products meet our quality criteria", said Sergey Bondarenko, "and we are ver y satisfied with the service and technical support". However, the nature of the business
PSK currently makes 1,500 precured retreads a month the plant has production capacity for 4,000 tyres. The company can make the same quantity of mould cure retreads. Sergey Bondarenko has also started producing new truck tyres in order to utilise the full capacity of the plant. He has new tyres made in China under the "Bontyre" brand name which
do twice the mileage of the new tyres made by the Russian manufacturers. Over half of the tyres on the market are 20-inch tyres, followed by 22.5-inch tyres. Customers who buy new Bontyre tyres are offered retreads by PSK at the same time. Retreaded with Kraiburg
44 Retreading Business