Paramount Tyre Services — exclusive processes, a story of growth and service

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 24, 5 November 1985, Page 11

Paramount Tyre Services — exclusive processes,

a story of growth and service

A story of service and efficiency.

Company chairman, Trevor Kibby, started in tyres way back in 1930 with the Paramount Tyre Service in New Plymouth, making retreads. Later he left New Plymouth to form a partnership to operate Te Awamutu's Acme Rubber Company. After selling out to his partner in 1949 he moved to Cambridge. It was here that Trevor bought out a small, tired, tyre retreading operation — Cambridge Tyre Service — housed in an old stable, using five tyre moulds and a staff of three doing 10 tyres a day! By 1955 there was a new 3000 square foot factory, and the name was changed to Paramount. A bigger range of retread tyres was

offered, and annual saies were around $40,000. The potential was there and in the years since the Paramount operation has been enlarged to a 16,000 square foot factory and servicing complex on an acre block of prime commercial land. There is now a daily production of 200 retreads, a skilled staff of 130, and annual saies exceeding $5 million. Paramount is a story of keeping a step ahead. Ahead in trends, tyres, equipment, methods and service. Money has been poured into key equipment to produce a wider range of better retreads at competitive prices. The company has continued to expand and there

are now 1 5 branches, and 1 1 agents in which Paramount has a share holding. In 1976 Paramount entered a joint venture in Auckland with Freightways New Zealand Limited using the proven Bandag process, which resulted in Paramount Precured Treads Limited. Paramount achieved retread firsts for the country. The first Marangoni automatic truck retread press

with segmented matrices for steel cord-ed tyres. The first orbit tread extruder unit. And Bandag, which all adds up to progressive thinking, and advanced retread technology. Retreading has changed from hand-building retreads and handbuffing to a fully automated process. Moulds now guarantee a quicker, more accurate, longer lasting product.

The two processes are hot retread and Bandag. In the hotcap method the tyre is built with raw rubber and the tread moulded into the tyre using heat and pressure in a fixed type mould. In Bandag, the tread is moulded prior to applying to the tyre and it is then attached to the tyre by vulcanisation under a vacuum using low temperatures and low pressures.