Germany – Tyre manufacturer Continental AG of Hanover, Germany, is celebrating 120 years of CV tyre retreading. Currently, the multinational is retreading over one million of its commercial vehicle tyres a year throughout its retread plants/subsidiaries worldwide. Continental claims that this saves 50 percent of CO2 emissions compared to a new tyre as it requires up to 70 percent less energy. This all falls under the ContiLifeCycle* sustainable strategy, aiming to maximise tyre longevity for customers and improve environmental sustainability. Jorge Almeida, the new head of sustainability at Continental, is at the forefront of implementing the ContiLifeCycle strategy.

Over the last several years, Continental has made great investments in its retread business, opening up a massive hot-retread tyre facility in Stöcken, Hanover in 2013. In 2023, Conti’s UK re-tread subsidiary,  Bandvulc Tyres Ltd, rebranded its Ivybridge plant in Devon as a ContiLifeCycle production facility, with new signage installed, signifying a closer alignment to Continental’s Stöcken LifeCycle plant. The Ivybridge plant mainly focuses on hot-retreading for the UK market with Bandvulc tyres being designed and manufactured in Ivybridge as well as producing Continental rebranded tyres in partnership with the Stöcken plant.