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Retreading Business Ltd. 15 Blackthorn Close, Crewe, Cheshire CW2 6PQ, United Kingdom T: +44 (0) 1270 668718 E: info@retreadingbusiness.com W: www.retreadingbusiness.com EDITOR/PUBLISHER David Wilson CONTRIBUTORS Valentine Benjamin Rafik Kozman Leo Linkesch Daniel Rojas Enos Ewan Scott Satnam Singh Mary Tang Maria Tarazaga Vladislav Vorotnikov Richard Wilson ADVERTISING David Wilson T: +44 (0) 1270 668718 E: info@retreadingbusiness.com SUBSCRIPTIONS Karen Wilson T: +44 (0) 1270 668718 E: subs@retreadingbusiness.com LAYOUT AND DESIGN Jeff Woodall PRINTING BY Cliffe Enterprises Unit 6F Southbourne Business Park Courtlands Road Eastbourne East Sussex BN22 8UY All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photographic, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the Publisher. ¡ EDITORIAL THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATIONS I recently had the good fortune to be invited to Vaculug’s second Sus- tainable Thinking Forum, held at the Oxford and Cambridge Club in London. This series of events aims to enhance the sustainability of the tyre retreading sector by raising the profile of certain topics, instigating dialogue and carrying out work projects arising out of that dialogue. This fits in closely with Vaculug’s own sustainability plan – the company has set itself the ambitious target of being net-zero by 2030, the only retreader to have pledged this. Of particular interest at the event was an in-depth discussion on the general acceptance of retreads and the retreading industry’s overall failure to have really got the message across to fleets about why they would benefit from introducing a tyre policy that includes the fitment of retreads. Worryingly, one of the fleet guests present at the event admitted to having been unsure about retreads due a belief that they were more susceptible to blowouts, which just emphasises the problem faced by the industry overall. If someone attending an event such as this run by a major retreader like Vaculug, can think along those lines, what on earth can we expect from everybody else in the market? The problem was highlighted in an illuminating presentation by Hankook’s Guy Heywood about future developments in the tyre sec- tor, during which Heywood emphasised that the key to getting fleets to understand how best to save money by optimising the fuel consump- tion of their vehicles was to get the correct message across about the benefits of regrooving, retreading, and the need to maintain tyre pres- sures. Events such as the Sustainable Thinking Forum are highly useful tools, and Vaculug should be congratulated on their desire to create impetus for the retreading industry, but it’s clear that the sector still has a long way to go to communicate its sustainability message to the market. Is it not now time for the industry to once more consider the benefit of a Europe-wide agency that can impart these key messages effectively? This magazine believes such an initiative is long overdue. P.3