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PRODUCTS
Marangoni Step Up With Black Line
Marangoni, the only global independent retread specialist, has looked at the challenges of the market and has taken a bold decision. At a time of ongoing economic turmoil, financial uncertainty, cutbacks and retail depression across Europe;
quality retreads, and Marangoni had to either accept that there was going to be an increasing gap, or they had to increase performance and close the gap with state-of-the-art retreads. Giuseppe Ferrari, explained that the larger fleets, the volume market, were increasingly looking for a single
help reduce noise and increase grip. However, the Black Line ethos does not stop when the treads leave the Marangoni plant. It extends to the retread shop. Here only those retreaders who operate to Marangoni’s exacting standards will be considered as suitable Black Line retreaders. They will have to operate with Marangoni specified equipment and they must use shearography, before and after retreading. Ferrari closed by saying, “ We can say that Black Line is more than just a product range – it is the best materials, best design, best build and is aimed to match the performance of the best new tyres”. The design manager at Marangoni is Angelo Priori. Angelo explained that when Massimo de Alessandri and Giuseppe Ferrari came to him with the outline for Black Line he knew that he had a challenge. He was being asked for a tread that would give a 3 per cent saving in fuel economy, 10 per cent improvement in rolling resistance, 15 per cent on mileage, 10 per cent on grip and 20 percent on on/off road life.
As everyone knows, a tyre is a compromise and one requirement is the enemy of the next. However, by targeting performance to the sector it was possible to arrive at a series of improvements across the range, which gave each sector the optimum Black Line tread for its purposes. One of the big issues was on rolling resistance and ever y retreader will give a sigh of relief to know that ETRMA research has established that the impact of the casing on rolling resistance and overall performance is limited, with variations in a narrow band of performance, the bulk of the impact on tyre performance, around 80 per cent, is in the tread. Rather than rolling resistance being the
anticipated issue for retreaders, the quality retread can actually improve upon the performance of the original casing, according to Priori. Production of Black Line has already started at Ulzberg, and by the end of spring the complete range should be available to those retreaders who meet the strict requirements to carr y Black Line.
Black Line will be Marangoni’s premium product, Ringtread will remain as a medium to top end, with other brands serving other segments in the market. Intriguingly there was a hint of a dramatic change in policy in the longer term. A number of Ringtread retreaders had realised that by offering that premium package, and selling the whole life benefits of Ringtread, that they not only had happier customers but also better margins. Some had started to supply exclusively Ringtread retreads, others were increasing the Ringtread share of their output. In a longer term vision, the idea of a Premium, Black Line, Mid range Ringtread and economy ring product being the focus of Marangoni operations has not been ruled out.
Asked if that was a sign that Marangoni was focussing on the top echelon of the market and leaving the price conscious low end of the market to imported brands, Giovanni de Bei emphatically denied that was the case. “Marangoni will always have a presence throughout the market at all levels,” he insisted.
Marangoni has upped the stakes. At a time when many businesses are cutting costs, buying cheap, looking for immediate savings; Marangoni has taken a longer view and launched a new premium brand ring tread line under the Black Line Brand.
Black Line is, according to Marangoni, simply the best, being positioned just below the retreads from the top tier manufacturers, though performance wise Marangoni might argue that they can offer a better package than some of their big name competitors.
Giovanni de Bei, Marangoni’s marketing manager for retread and industrial products explained that the company had identified that there was a clear need for a product that could compete at the top end of the market. Ringtread was good, but the top fleets were looking now focussing on whole life costs, and that meant there was a demand for more mileage and a lower cost per kilometre, amongst other performance elements of the retread. That, in essence was one of the key elements motivating the development of Black Line, a need to offer better whole life costs to the fleet operators.
Black line is being manufactured at the Ulzberg plant in North Germany, because the expectations are that the bulk of the demand will be from the mature fleets of Northern Europe, where fleet management and tyre management is more developed and better understood. Future production is estimated to be 2/3 at Ulzberg and 1/3 in Italy.
These are the markets where the leading new tyre manufacturers are developing and marketing their top
supplier, a single invoice point. The retreaders, the tyre suppliers who could supply a whole life solution were increasingly taking hold of the mature fleet market, and developing fleets in Eastern Europe, for example, were maturing rapidly. By being positioned to be able to serve this market with high quality retreads, where the end user saw cost benefits and the retreader also saw reasonable margins, this alleviated the need to sell low margin, low price new tyres. It helped drive retread sales where there was more margin in the retread than in a new tyre.
He added that if the European market were to recover to the US level of one retread for every new tyre then the producers must understand the reasons why some fleets do not use retreads. Ultimately, Marangoni needed to give the market a reason to use the company’s products. Black Line is to be the solution to that challenge.
It is an improved offer, with better technology and a better performance that helps the fleets cut costs and perform better.
Black Line uses only the best of materials. Marangoni use a range of suppliers of raw materials and the quality control is now increasingly tighter and only the top quality raw materials are used to produce Black Line. Furthermore, improvements to the mixing line ensure that the products are mixed to ensure the best quality and consistent quality masterbatch.
There has also been a refinement of the mould technology, including interlocking sipes to stiffen the tread and minimise hysteresis and heat damage to the tyres, which can also
Ring building is the only way for Black Line, and retreaders will have to meet exacting standards to access Black Line products
52 Retreading Business