CHENNAI, India—A fourth Marangoni Ringtread franchised retread plant has opened in India, in Chennai, and Marangoni Group has four more in "various stages of commissioning" around the country.
The newest franchise, Xtramiles, opened recently in Maduravoyal, a western Chennai suburb, to service the trucking industry in the state of Tamil Nadu, according to Marangoni GRP Pvt. Ltd. (MGPL), a joint venture handling Marangoni's retread business in India.
MGPL Director Harsh Gandhi said the opening of Xtramiles reflects his company's desire to compete in a market with a "vast population of large, quality-conscious and discerning fleets" and follows the opening of franchises over the past 12 months in Karnataka, Haryana and Kerala.
He described the owners of Xtramiles as a "bunch of young entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds in IT, banking, sales and transportation who believe that they can offer a compelling 'product plus service' offering to chart out a different course from the usual."
Marangoni Vice President Giuseppe Marangoni said the company believes India offers great potential for growth and that Ringtread is the "perfect product" to help "quality-conscious" fleets bring their operational costs down.
MGPL CEO Hemant Kaul noted that once the four additional franchises come on stream, there will be Ringtread operations active in eight cities in seven states throughout India.
"Our pace of new franchisee appointments is picking up and soon we expect to reach double figures," he said. "With each franchisee establishment, we are bringing globally proven retreading technology and products to more and more customers through a set of Franchisee outlets that have superior equipment, trained technicians and a process-driven approach."
MGPL is a four-year-old joint venture between Marangoni and GRP Ltd., a publicly traded, Mumbai-based producer of reclaimed rubber from used tires, upscaled polyamide from nylon waste and engineered products die-cut from end-of- life tires. The company operates four business units—reclaim rubber, industrial polymers, custom die forms and retreading—with seven manufacturing units across India.