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COURAGE AND AUDACITY Our Middle Eastern correspondent, Rafik Kozman, recently interview Jordanian retreader Osama Fahmy from Jawharet Aman for Tire Retreading about his career in the retreading history and about the development of the sector in that particular country. The conversation reveals a story of courage and determination to survive in a challenging market. Osama Fahmy is a Jordanian entrepreneur, who started his career in the tyre retreading field in 1989 as a simple technician for the Alaalameya Tire Retreading Factory. He was supervised by an Indian Workshop Manager, who trusted Osama’s capabilities and trained him on all the stations within the factory. Osama progressed quickly, and within two years became Workshop Supervisor managing the in- itial and final Inspection as well as the buffing station and repairs. He also managed to convince the factory’s owner to invest in a computer system, and inevitably it was Osama who received the training for op- erating the system, and he proceeded with that task as well. Osama’s ambition, however, was to operate his own tyre retread- ing shop. His engagement in the whole management system of the Alaalameya factory helped him understand the financial aspects of the retreading business, and eventually, in 1995, he achieved his ambition by investing in an Indian production line, whose curing was done by the rim process, using a 15-tyre pressure chamber. Raw ma- terials and consumables were all purchased from the Indian company, Midas. This factory was called “Altheqa Tire Retreading Factory” and operated with six technicians on a five hundred square metre area, most of which was dedicated to the production line. Due to Osama’s long experience in the field, before starting his own business, he had quite a good knowledge of end-user classifications, and he targeted those end-users who were looking for retreads to work in harsh conditions like on tippers and concrete mixers. Accord- ing to Osama, these customers demanded tyres that would last for only six months, the most important aspect being no tyre bursting. The Altheqa Factory supplied retreads more for public sector fleets than for private sector customers. Osama managed to win the loyal- COUNTRY REPORT - JORDAN THE KEY FOR JORDANIAN RETREADER P.28