Interview with Kurt Verbrugge, Sales Director of GRI for European market and LECTURA Press

An Interview with Kurt Verbrugge, Sales Director of Global Rubber Industries (GRI) for Europe and LECTURA Press about his first 3 months in company and his goals to achieve in years to come.

How did you experience the last couple of months at GRI?

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First of all, I want to say, that I have been working in the tire business for 22 years now. Starting with Trelleborg Wheel Systems industrial tires and afterwards I was working for Camoplast Solideal (now CAMSO) for 20 years. In a way, I am experiencing déya-vu right now because when I started working at Camoplast Solideal, we only sold solid tires as well.

Are agricultural tires the reason why you joined GRI?

Well, first I need to say that this was certainly a reason why I decided to join GRI on position as sales director for Europe. In a way, it was also a personal decision for my career. GRI is a very young company, with fresh dynamics which results in a high level of flexibility and the ability to reorganize certain structures, if we see that they don’t fit the overall concept or vision that we have for this company. I saw a chance to join and also contribute to this amazing project. I have faith in the product and also in everyone that has joined this company over the years to make something great and to produce the right product for our customers all over the world.

Let's talk about your contribution.

20 years is a long time working in one industry. I have seen many things, I have experienced changes and problems along the way and I am looking forward to share my knowledge. I have definitely learned from former mistakes and know how we went on fixing them. This is something I want to share with GRI. For example, patience and endurance are things, that the young and ambitious need to balanced with speed and efficiency. The key factors for success are always a combination of hard work, know-how and also communication. Communication internally and also listening to our customers, analyzing the market and extracting the most important factors for GRI. The customer’s satisfaction with our product and our service is in the center of our interest.

It is vital to observe the market and understand how it will change in the future. Which aspects will be important for us and which won’t. In order to be successful, every company has to give in to certain trends. But it is also important to recognize that some things are more time consuming to implement into internal systems and production processes than others. That is the challenge every company that wants to enter and stay on the global market needs to understand. Today agricultural machines are built to maximize their productivity every year. We as the tire manufacturer work on tire innovations accordingly. Innovation and technology will be important and this is something we take very seriously here at GRI.

What is your job in GRI specifically?

As the Sales Director Europe for Global Rubber Industries, my main focus is the new GRI specialty tires for Agriculture and Construction. GRI has already entered the European market in the solid tire sector with partners all over the continent. But for the specialty tire sector we need to select partners who believe in our product and GRI and who we can work with. I need to find the best partners to represent the brand GRI and our specialty tires. So, my job is to be the connection between our production and the European market. What are the requirements? Especially now with the smart farming UI, soil compaction, field consumption, drivers comfort, lifetime of the tire - the market wants the best and we are listening to the market.

You mentioned the lifetime of specialty tires. What numbers are we talking about?

Well here we need to really assess where the tire is being used. For the most part the problem for the specialty tire starts when the machine moves from the fields or back on the road again, to go from one working side to the other. If the tire is only being used on the field it will have a different lifespan that one that is being often driving on the road.

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