Brand representatives report that since its launch in 2005, Zeetex has developed a strong reputation for quality assurance, safety and compliance with environmental requirements, and holds an impressive range of certifications.
K.V. Gopiraj, CEO of Zafco
Still, ETRMA found at least one Zeetex branded ZT101 tire that was not REACH compliant being sold in the European market during a March 2011 test.
Speaking in a recent interview with Tyres & Accessories, the global product manager of Zeetex at Zafco, Zafar Jafri, explained the company’s perspective on this issue. “ETRMA found a so-called ‘dirty’ tire. At that time we were running two production lines – one for international sales and one for Europe.”
Explaining that the tire in question was certainly not intended for the European market, Jafri pointed out that “mishandling” led to the aforementioned tire’s arrival in the European Union, and could only have happened at the factory’s warehouse, or from similarly unintentional mishandling at Zafco’s distribution center or via grey-market imports.
Of course is it virtually impossible to trace exactly what happened in this incident, but the company said it has taken steps to make sure such a situation does not occur again.
First, the company has decided not to distribute the ZT101 in the EU anymore, replacing this with a new tire – the ZT1000 – which was designed with REACH standards and EU tire labeling in mind. In addition, tires will regularly be sent to the TARRC test facility in the U.K. in a bid to weed out the possibility of any future non-compliance.
Finally, Zafco’s Zeetex quality control representatives have reportedly told their manufacturing base to produce only compliant tires, instruction that took effect in June 2011, just a couple of months after ETRMA’s testing was published.
When Tyres & Accessories spoke with Jafri at the end of 2011, the new tires were expected to arrive on the European market by the end of the first quarter 2012. The ZT1000 will be officially launched at some point before this. Once the products are flowing into the European markets, the company is aiming to continue the previous relationships with customers Zeetex had under its former distributor in Germany, France, U.K. and Italy.
Zafco expects to generate 23% of its sales in the Middle East, 22% in Asia, 27% in Africa, 21% in the Americas, 5% in Australia and 10% in Europe. (Tyres & Accessories)