Solideal Loadstar plans to make Lanka a global hub for tyres

One of the world's biggest solid tyre makers is trying to double its turnover and turn Sri Lanka into a key exporter of rubber products.

Raw rubber has been the country's second largest export commodity after tea, but a Belgian-Sri Lanka joint venture is trying to re-invent the way wheels are made and make the island a global hub for tyres.

Solideal Loadstar is one of Sri Lanka's biggest exporters, accounting for over two percent of the nation's near seven billion dollar export earnings.

"In the world market, we now control 20 percent in the solid tyre and about five percent in the industrial tyre markets," chairman Nihal Jinasena told AFP.

"Any fool can make a tyre," said Jinasena, whose family controls 40 percent of Solideal Loadstar. "What is difficult is to keep innovating, penetrate markets worldwide and to support your sales."

Loadstar's closest rival in the global solid tyre market is Sweden's Trelleborg, said the firm's joint managing director, Koenraad Pringiers, whose family controls 60 percent of the Sri Lankan company.

The 250-million dollar firm is now working with top management consultancy McKinsey and Company to fine tune operations and ensure a firmer grip on the global tyre market.

"We want to double our turnover in three years. To do that we need to attract new talent to the company who can transform our vision to bigger things," said Jinasena.

Loadstar makes industrial and construction tyres, rubberised tracks, wheels and rims at its Sri Lanka facility, catering to buyers in the United States, Europe, Australasia, Africa and the Middle East.

Working across five plants close to rubber producing areas, the company turns out about 6,500 tyres daily for heavy equipment firms such as Caterpillar, JCB, Komatsu, Fiat, Yale and John Deere.

Loadstar is also making rubber tracks to replace the steel traction chains used in heavy earth-moving equipment.

The company's 7,000 staff produce one of the biggest construction tyres in the world, with a diameter of seven feet (two metres) and weighing about 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds).

"These giant construction tyres are very costly to make due to high labour involvement because it is made using manual methods," Jinasena said.