Before becoming an AcuTread retreader, Wonderland Tire Co. was affiliated with another tread rubber supplier and the Byron Center, Mich.-based dealership’s retread production was relatively modest. “We had two curing chambers and were doing about 60 tires a day,” says Jon Langerak CEO and president.
Wonderland Tire, at the time, also was buying AcuTread mold cure products from Newport, Ky.-based Sumerel Tire Service Inc., which it would eventually acquire in 2021. “We put them into our fleet customers to see how they would run,” says Jon. “And they were fantastic! We called (AcuTread founder) Bob Majewski up and said, ‘We want to become an AcuTread retreader.’”
“It was a million-dollar investment and we were only a $4 million to $5 million-a-year company,” says Dave Langerak, Wonderland Tire's co-owner and chief operating officer. “We were making money” before AcuTread. “But we also knew we were being pressed by the competition. We needed a product that would help us stand out.”
Wonderland Tire built its first AcuTread product in April 1998. Jon says customer feedback was immediate and positive.
A typical fleet customer “would try, say, 24 (AcuTreads), run them and then order more,” despite the fact Wonderland Tire charged $15 more for an AcuTread than a standard retreaded truck tire.
“If price was a problem, we told customers, ‘Tell us what you’re paying for your current retreads and we’ll match that price on your first 24 AcuTreads,'" says Jon. "Within six months, we needed four more presses. At the time, presses were hard to get, so we ended up buying two used ones, so we could continue running.”
Jon and Dave soon began developing new tread designs in conjunction with Sumerel Tire Service. “We were a big influence behind producing more designs,” says Jon. “When Bob (Majewski) came out with AcuTread, he had one trailer design and one drive design. We then came out with a waste haul design” and others — a process that continues to this day.
“We don’t go as wide as Michelin or Bandag or Goodyear, but we cover all the essentials,” says Jon. “We even have SmartWay-verified products.” (Pre-Q Galgo Corp.’s parent company manufactures AcuTread rubber, a proprietary blend, for Wonderland Tire. A company in Akron, Ohio, manufactures AcuTread molds to the Langeraks' specifications.)
Wonderland Tire and Sumerel Tire Service also established the AcuTread Alliance Group and began licensing AcuTread rubber and machines to other tire dealers. “We started soliciting members on the open market,” says Jon. “We wanted independents to join. The idea was that if you produced AcuTreads, you could be part of the group,” but still call your own shots.
There was no cash buy-in requirement. “We charged royalties, with the goal of putting those royalties back into the alliance. We eventually developed a program where we leased equipment to retreaders, which they could own over time. What that did was take away the cost of entry.” (Wonderland Tire manufactures its own AcuTread machines.)
AcuTread also enabled Wonderland Tire to make its own decisions regarding its retreading business. “It’s really the tread rubber supplier that controls most retreaders’ businesses, from the development of new products to the expansion of plants,” says Jon, who adds that this dynamic was even more prevalent 30 years ago.
Having its own system and products gives Wonderland Tire “the ability to be independent enough to do the right things for our customers,” says Jon. “Take a particular tread design — if we want to build it, we can build it. All of our designs and rubber compounds are proprietary.
“AcuTread is an exclusive product. Nobody else has it. If a customer likes AcuTread, he can only get it from us. We’re very independent. We like to do things ourselves. We don’t like people telling us how to do it.”
Dave says adding AcuTread was “the most pivotal, strategic thing we’ve done as a company.”
And it came with huge risks, according to Jon. “AcuTread was probably the first Wonderland project where if it failed, it would have sunk the ship,” he explains. “But AcuTread has been wonderful for us. It changed our company. We wouldn’t be the company we are today without it.”
