TAURAI MANGUDHLA
National Tyre Services (NTS) managing director Kennedy Mandevani is leaving the company later this year after a three-year stint.
Mandevani was appointed to head NTS when it was in a loss position and introduced a turnaround strategy which, after two years has left the group now in a profitable position with a stable solid foundation.
“The major highlight of my tenure is turning around the fortunes of the company. This company was loss making, we worked on it for two years, it’s now profitable and is expanding,” he told Business Times.
“To me that is the cherry on the cake and whoever takes over now has got a base to take the company to even greater heights.” Mandevani once doubled up as acting chief operating officer for NTS in 2011 when he was still Dunlop managing director.
The outgoing MD said the company’s sales for the first three months of the current financial year – between April and June 2018 – are projected to be 21 percent above same period prior year.
In terms of the first half this year, compared to the first half of last year, Mandevani said the company is projecting a 20 percent sales growth.
“In the second half of the year we are looking at halving that to 10 percent so overall we are looking at 15 percent growth (annually) and it is at the back of your support as shareholders,” he said.
Mandevani said being a retail business, distribution plays a key role with speed to market being critical.
NTS, he said, has plans to improve its distribution network by opening an unspecified number of new branches in different areas of the country in the second half of the year.
“We are sitting on 13 branches and as times goes on, in the second half, we are looking at increasing branches. We can’t say where exactly,” he said.
Works are ongoing for refurbishments of branches to modernise them to international standards to beat competition starting with the flagship. The company, Mandevani said, was going for expansion with growing the retreading business being a long hanging fruit.
“In terms of retreading, our relationship with our key supplier of retreading material is sound. We need to keep ahead of one or two competitors by retreading and producing affordable products,” Mandevani said.
The company recently invested in ICTs to put the business on a sound footing in terms of customer care and controls, effectively reducing waste and improving general accounting standards.
The company also targets to improve the supply chain.
Currently most tyres are imported primarily from South Africa, followed by China with a few now coming from Malaysia under a recent agreement.
“We will be looking at future sources of supply the intention is to lower costs without deluding quality,” he said.
“In terms of truck tyres the company has been getting supplies from Japan. Plans are in place to get supplies for trucks tyres from South Africa, reducing the costs of acquiring supplies and the lead time for customers.”
Truck tyres are NTS’s best-selling product, constituting 50 percent of sales followed by passenger and agricultural tyres which jointly constitute the balance.
In the outlook, Mandevani believes the business will continue to be profitable.
“We believe the business will continue to meet budget, we believe there are no major shocks in the trading environment such that it creates negative variances so we are upbeat about outlook. We don’t know about the rainy season because our business depends a lot on the rainy season. In fact the combination of rain and heat is good for our business.”
