Some of the largest tire manufacturers in the world have had their branches and factories in Serbia for years, and Tigar Tires from Pirot dominates the domestic companies in this sector, which since December 2009 is 100% owned by the French corporation Michelin Group.
Official data from the Ministry of Finance show that Tigar Tires was on the list of the largest exporters in the period from January to September 2022 with 370.8 million euros, while the total export of all companies in that period was 5.4 billion euros. Exports of this company in the first quarter of 2022 amounted to 131.2 million euros.
According to data from the credit rating company CompanyWall, a total of 53 companies are currently operating in Serbia whose main activity is “production of vehicle tires, retreading of vehicle tires”.
The total profit achieved by companies operating in this sector in 2019 amounted to 9.6 billion dinars, while in 2021 it reached 10.7 billion dinars. “Gumari” was the most successful in 2020, when they recorded a profit of more than 13 billion dinars.
Tigar Tires, according to the latest available financial reports from 2021, ranked first in the list of the most successful in its industry. This company is engaged in the production of automobile tires, footwear and technical tires, and was founded in 1935 when it started producing rubber tires.
Today, Tigar Tires operates as a limited liability company (d.o.o.) since 2002, and is owned by Compagnie financiere Michelin. This Pirot company had 3,595 employees last year, that is, slightly less than in 2021 (3,634).
The total revenues of Tigar Tires have been growing in recent years. In 2020, the company generated a total of 95.6 billion dinars, in 2021 it was 104.6 billion dinars, and last year it was 135 billion dinars. The net profit in 2020 amounted to 9.2 billion dinars, in 2021 it was 9.15 billion dinars, while the result for 2022 was slightly weaker – 8.84 billion dinars.
Also, in 2021, the company from Pirot was among the most successful large domestic companies in Serbia.
Second on the list of companies that had the highest profit in 2021 is the Kruševac-based Trayal Corporation, with a long tradition dating back to 1889, which started by producing black powder. Since 1995, the production of tires, protective equipment and industrial explosives in five factories with common services has been combined into the Trayal Corporation.
Trayal Corporation A.D. is today the largest collective in Kruševac, and one of the largest exporters in the region and Serbia. It had 1,091 employees in 2020, 1,140 in 2021, and 1,232 last year. Total revenues in 2020 amounted to 5.79 million dinars, while in 2021 and 2022 they were similar, i.e. 7.98 and 7.96 million dinars.
At the beginning of this year, the Kruševac Regional Chamber of Commerce awarded awards to the most successful companies, and the most successful export company in the Rasin administrative district was awarded to Trayal Korporacija.
At that time, it was stated that the value of over 60 million euros was realized in total sales in 2022, which is the best result in the history of Trayal Corporation, as well as that a large part was realized in the export of tires, protective equipment and pyrotechnics. The largest export markets are the former Yugoslav republics, France, USA, Turkey, Poland, Bangladesh, Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
It Is important to note that not all companies on the list are involved in tire production, or even just tire retreading (the process by which used tires are “revived” by replacing the worn or damaged tread with a new one), but have included in their offer more products than those listed are implied by the activity code.
By definition, these include companies that manufacture tires for motor vehicles, equipment, mobile machinery, aerospace, toys, furniture and other needs. Then there are those that produce inner tires, but this also includes manufacturers of replaceable parts for outer tires, wall protectors, tapes for retreading outer tires and others, as well as those that deal with retreading outer tires.
Also, although Linglong and Toyo Tire are mentioned a lot in the media, these companies were not among the most successful in terms of profit in 2021.
Tigar tires are mostly used
As explained in an interview with Biznis.rs from the company Inter gume, which is an online service for the sale of tires, in Serbia tires produced domestically by the company Tigar Tires are mostly used.
“Tigar tires are the most sold, as well as all their sub-brands (Riken, Kormoran, Orium, Strial, Taurus), of which there are many, and which are made in Pirot”, explained the company Inter tires, with the assessment that it is a lower the quality of the tires and that the quality itself is determined on the basis of the certificate, which can be seen from the tables on the tires themselves.
“Each factory has certificates and there are several levels of quality – lower, medium and higher. In our country, the most sold is the lower level, possibly something from the middle class. The upper class is sold, but it is mostly bought by people from Belgrade. There were also Russian Kama tires, which are even cheaper, but they are no longer available due to the war in Ukraine. Kama was made from recycled tires and they were really cheap but of poor quality. Now the current story is about Chinese tires, for which the 20 percent customs duty will be abolished, which will lead to a collapse if tires enter the regime of free trade with China”, our interlocutors assessed.
They reminded that the Toyo tire factory was also opened, but that they are intended primarily for export, because it is a class of tires that is too expensive for our market.
“Ling Long works in Zrenjanin, but we still don’t know how their sales are going. We have Trayal, but they no longer produce passenger and truck programs, only tractors. The Yokohama TWS Serbia company is actually the former Ruma Guma, which was previously bought by Trelleborg, so the owners just change there. And they do a lot of work, except that we don’t sell the agricultural tire program”, they stated from Inter tires.
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