Hankook and Vaculug have signed a five-year agreement for the latter, one of Europe’s largest independent retread producers, to manufacture Hankook’s Alphatread retread brand in the UK, as the tire maker continues to focus on its retreading business for commercial vehicle tires. Vaculug will also work with Hankook products as a premium fitment for all its fleets.
“To offer our fleet and dealer partners a cost-effective and ecological solution, Hankook continuously invests in its range and volumes of production of premium Alphatread hot-cured tires,” said Guy Heywood, vice president, marketing, truck and bus tires at Hankook Tire Europe. “Our new partnership with Vaculug will support our mission to offer attractive and sustainable products. This new agreement also ensures maximum value for our fleet customers.”
“We are very proud of our association with Hankook and look forward to growing this relationship to new heights,” added Vaculug managing director, Jorge Crespo. “While this agreement is only for an initial period of five years, we as a family have had a relationship with Hankook that goes back over four decades. We look forward to building on that partnership where the next generation of both Vaculug and Hankook help the environment through more sustainable initiatives such as this one.”
The Hankook SmartLife Solutions concept demonstrates the advantages of a hot retread for fleet companies. All Hankook commercial vehicle tires are designed in such a way that they can be regrooved, and the high-quality carcass can be retreaded several times. These features enable fleet companies to realize economic benefits: 5-9mm of additional base rubber under the tread delivers up to 25% more mileage after regrooving. Hankook Alphatread hot retreads can deliver up to 100% of the mileage achieved with a new tire and equivalent performance, for around 60% of the cost. If the regrooving and retreading process is continued in line with the Hankook SmartLife Solutions concept, the service life of a new tire can be increased to 250%. In addition, around 70% of the raw materials used in new tires can be saved during retreading.
