16 Dec Marangoni has entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to acquire the shares of GRP Ltd in the joint venture company in India
Marangoni GRP Pvt. Ltd. GRP is an India based Circular Economy focused company operating in the rubber, plastics, and composites sector. The 50:50 JV company, incorporated in late 2015, is a fast-emerging player in India’s commercial tyre retreading sector.
Commenting on this development, Vittorio Marangoni, President of Marangoni Group, said that India is a key focus for Marangoni being one of the largest automotive and tyre markets in the world where high quality tyre retreading is growing in preference amongst truck fleets. Marangoni with its flagship product, RINGTREAD, has established a premium and unique position in the Indian truck tyre market and believes that India provides it with a significant growth potential. Vittorio thanked GRP for the role it has played in coming this far. For its exclusive Franchisees in India, he had high praise and the message that Marangoni’s commitment to India has further deepened and they will see enhanced support to grow their business.
Speaking on the occasion, Harsh Gandhi, Joint MD of GRP Ltd., said that as part of its growth strategy, GRP will continue to sharpen its focus on its core rubber, plastics, and composites business with ‘circularity’ at the heart of its strategy. GRP Ltd recently won the FICCI Indian Circular Economy Award 2021 and sees that as an endorsement of this strategy. GRP believes that serving global and large Indian customers in their raw material needs is what it will continue to focus on moving forward. The almost two-decade association with Marangoni as a supplier is intact and GRP will continue supplying high performance products to Marangoni in addition to evaluating avenues of collection of end-of-life tyre materials from Marangoni’s expanding franchisee network in India.
Marangoni’s franchisee network has a footprint in 6 states in India – Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana and the company recently signed up its first Franchisee in the state of Orissa. Hemant Kaul, CEO since the company’s inception, reiterated that his team’s focus in the next few months is to support its existing Franchisees in growing their customer base and expanding the footprint into other states; with galloping new tyre prices, truck operators today view high quality retreads as a viable alternative to new tyres and are interested in growing their ‘retread-to-new tyre ratio’ to lower fleet operating costs. 2022 will see several new initiatives to further this trend in close partnership with its Franchisee Partners, said Hemant Kaul.
About Marangoni S.p.A
Marangoni S.p.A., through its Group, is a world-renowned leader in the green tyre industry, in the design and construction of tyre retreading machinery, in the production of TBR and OTR retreaded tyres, and in the manufacture of compounds for technical products. With more than 70 years of experience, the brand is now present with its own industrial and commercial facilities in Italy, Germany, Norway, Turkey, China, Brazil and South Africa and has 1,000 employees. The parent company Marangoni S.p.A. has 260 employees and is based in Rovereto (in Northern Italy), where the group’s headquarters and R&D centre are located. The group continues to invest successfully in innovation and environmental sustainability.
About GRP Ltd
GRP is a material manufacturer focused on helping customers fulfil their obligations of responsible end of life recycling. It operates across the end of life (EOL) tyre & plastic value chain to offer solutions in closing the circular loop for brand owners (Tyre, FMCG companies) and material manufacturers (plastic & rubber producers). GRP started as a tyre recycling company producing Reclaim Rubber from EOL tyres and helping tyre manufacturers grow use of this product in tyre manufacturing. Over the years GRP has leveraged its strength in the tyre recycling business to offer sustainable materials in plastic industry by way of Engineering plastic compounds for use in Automotive, Electrical & Furniture sectors. It also uses EOL tyre & plastic waste to produce composite solutions for use in Transportation, Oil & Gas, Shipping industries. It operates 7 units in India with a capacity of 76,100 MT.