“I genuinely feel the world needs sustainability,” argued Kandhari, before outlining Vaculug’s position as the first retreader to commit to Net Zero by 2030. Vaculug, he reminded us, had employed a dedicated sustainability consultant and was just about to publish its first sustainability report.
In terms of growth objectives for 2022, Phil West explained that there would be a heavy focus on growing the company’s VMS fleet management business especially in the logistics sector, which grew from 37-47% of Vaculug’s fleet business from 2021-22. Key plans, he said, include an integration with CAM Systems, a review of other platforms and a flexible and controlled approach to fleet growth. However, he emphasised that this growth would need to be achieved in parallel with growth in other sectors and be backed up with increased customer focus in all parts of business, including filling some skill shortages in certain key roles.
This strategy, he pointed out, would be built on the basis that Vaculug’s business is much more than just truck retreads. Apart from the VMS fleet business, which currently makes up half of Vaculug’s overall business, the company offers strong positions in the OTR and new truck tyre sectors as well as in tyre equipment
In the OTR sector, where the company works with brands such as Magna and Yokohama, Vaculug is on target to achieve 32% growth in 2022 concentrating on areas such as construction, waste, port, industrial, crane and mining. According to Phil West, the company is now aiming to achieve further growth in the OTR sector and encouraged dealers who were currently not active in OTR to work closely with Vaculug to gain a foothold in that sector. “We can help dealers get OTR business if they don’t currently do it,” he said.
