ContiLifeCycle Story

Part One: The Decision

In 2009, Continental was putting the key elements in place for a huge new idea. As the market for new truck tires was dropping significantly, and fleet managers throughout the Americas were desperately looking for ways to keep operating despite less freight and higher fuel prices, Continental’s vice president of commercial vehicle tires in the Americas, Paul Williams, was thinking bigger.

With no apologies, Williams was looking to out-maneuver other major tire manufacturers and do something they had never tried before. To take the leap and start a retread business across two continents was something people in the tire industry were calling crazy when they caught wind of it. Looking toward the company’s future, and with only a year at the helm of the business, Williams did it anyway.

LifeCycle Stories

01::The Decision
02::The Partnership
03::Mexico
04::The Andean Region
05::Leaders
06::Production
07::A Vision

Part Two: The Partnership

The story of how Continental was entering the NAFTA retread market was suddenly front page news in late April 2009. The Commercial Vehicle Tire division had a solution for starting a footprint into truck tire retreading – using the same premium technology and quality that customers expected from Continental new tires.

Marangoni Tread North America, a global provider of tire retreading systems, entered into a cooperative agreement with Continental to produce ContiTreads, available only to a select group of Marangoni dealers in the U.S. The products would use Marangoni’s Ringtread technology, a retread in the form of a ring that is cured in a centripetal press that had no tread splice…

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Part Three: Mexico

John Barnes had been spending a lot of time looking at blueprints. The former U.S. Navy nuclear power engineer, who had managed passenger and light truck plants for both Bridgestone and Continental, was getting back to his roots. As the business development manager for Continental’s commercial vehicle tires, he had at the time the most non-traditional task list for someone of that position in the entire Continental AG corporation.

In summer 2009, John was tasked with creating the complete plan of attack to enter the Mexican retread market in partnership with the strong Continental dealer network. John set about putting the plans in motion to hit the mark – securing the necessary retreading equipment and supplies to open multiple shops…

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Part Four: The Andean Region

Is success really ever good enough? It depends on how you look at it – and in the eyes of Paul Williams, Continental Tire the Americas’ vice president of truck tires, the best wasn’t good enough when it came to Latin America.

As Williams saw it, a competitive position in the Latin American region isn’t terribly competitive without the six countries of the Andean region: Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Columbia, Venezuela and Ecuador. So when Continental acquired a majority share of Compania Ecuatoriana del Caucho S.A. (ERCO) in July 2009, it was a natural location for the next effort to expand Conti’s retreading activities, the ContiLIfeCycle…

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Part Five: leaders

By fall 2010, the ContiLifeCycle had become too big to ignore. And it was too big for multiple people with multiple other business units to manage adequately on just a part time basis. At least that was the mindset of Continental’s vice president of commercial vehicle tires in the Americas, Paul Williams. The decision had been made by Continental management to turn what was once a small operation to bring retreading to the Americas into its own, full-fledged operation with business unit status and a dedicated staff. What they needed, Williams knew, was the right leader.

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Part Six: Production

Supply chain – the hidden backbone of any manufacturing operation, and a crucial step toward achieving success in any sales environment. As the former vice president of purchasing and supply chain for Continental Tire the Americas, Paul Williams – now the executive vice president of truck tires – had a better idea than most people of how vital it was to secure supply for the new ContiLifeCycle retreading business unit. From a purchasing standpoint, he knew that Continental’s retreading activities could even be in jeopardy if supplies weren’t secured.

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Part Seven: A Vision

2011 continues the momentum for Continental CVT. A new branding strategy is underway, segmenting Continental truck tires into three distinct product groups: Goods, People and Construction. The wildly successful “Untamed Innovation Tour” mobile exhibit has been completely revamped and is ready to continue building the brand in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Continental is planning the largest launch event for truck tire products since the Magnificent 7 debuted in 2003. And internally, CVT is committed to building our field sales teams into the most technically advanced group in the industry.

It makes sense then, given all of the ground-breaking decisions made, and the bold actions that Paul Williams and his team have taken so far with the emerging retread business, the future envisioned for the ContiLifeCycle is no less aggressive…