Goodyear Dunlop Europe appoints new retread director

Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe has appointed Leszek Szafran as Director Retread Operations Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He will take over the position from Hubert Moquet, who retires after more than 34 years’ service with the company. Szafran will be responsible for the company’s retread operations across the EMEA region. He will partner the field organization to offer innovative retread solutions.

“One of my key objectives is to make retread an integral and competitive part of the complete tire management package we offer to benefit our end-users, in particular fleet operators, as well as our trade customers.” said Szafran.

The new retread director, a native of Poland, joined the company in 1995 as Business Analyst. He progressed through several posts before becoming Sales Director Truck Tires in 2002 and then in 2006 Sales Director Consumer and Commercial Tires for Goodyear Dunlop Tires Poland. In 2010, he moved to South Africa as General Manager of Goodyear South Africa (Pty) Ltd. The following year Szafran returned to Europe, becoming Sales and Marketing Director, EEMEA. In his new role he will report to George Rietbergen Vice-President of Goodyear Dunlop’s Commercial Product Business Unit EMEA.

“The importance of retreading within our product and service offering for commercial customers has increased significantly. I am pleased that Leszek has accepted this role since he has gained vast experience in the commercial business in various roles across the region. We thank Hubert Moquet for his 34 years of dedicated service and wish him all the best for his retirement.” said Rietbergen

Moquet, who retires in March, led the company’s retread operations for three years. He joined Goodyear in 1978 from the truck industry, as a truck tire salesman. Having worked in fleet and government sales, Moquet started Original Equipment sales in France, before becoming Director of Truck Tire Operations there. In 1999 he took responsibility for truck tire replacement sales in Europe. Then in 2002, he created the OE truck tires operation. Returning to France in 2007, Moquet took charge of the commercial business, which included Truck, Farm and OTR (Off The Road) product groups. For his last assignment, he became Director of Retread Operations EMEA in 2010.

Goodyear Dunlop offers an extensive range of retread products to ensure the prolonged life of its new tires. These include the Goodyear TreadMax and Dunlop MultiTread moldcure ranges, which closely replicate the latest premium tires from both brands, as well as NextTread moldcure and precure products, which further cover a vast range of applications and sizes. The main truck tire retreading plants are at Riom in France, Wittlich in Germany and Wolverhampton in the UK. In addition to these are many local Goodyear Dunlop supported retreading partners across the region, where tires are retreaded to the same high standards.