45 years of inexhaustible energy of Bila Tserkva tire workers – from the past to the present

Anna Tkach

AutoPortal editorial team

1,305 views 3 min read

In the early sixties of the twentieth century, the state commission of the USSR was choosing a location for the construction of a plant for tires and rubber-asbestos products.

Among the ten candidate cities (from Donetsk, Luhansk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne and other regions), the choice fell on Bila Tserkva – a provincial town in Kyiv region. The main argument was the presence of the Ros River - a large water basin necessary for the technological process of tire manufacturing, the convenient geographical location of the city and its proximity to strategic automobile and railway highways. It was planned that the future industrial plant would produce 4 million tires for passenger cars and agricultural machines. The estimated cost of construction of the plant was 306.22 million rubles.

In January 1967, builders install the first columns of the frame of the tire plant. Specialists come here from all corners of the former USSR. Commissioning works of industrial equipment continue ahead of schedule. By the way, equipment was supplied not only domestic, but also from the GDR, Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia. In February 1972, the plant was headed by M.T. Mitrofanov. And on December 22, 1972, at five o'clock in the morning, the first tire was produced. It is noteworthy that the average age of tire workers was then only 22 years. Young people radiated energy of enthusiasm and set record after record – the millionth tire, the ten-millionth, the millionth inner tube...

PHOTO – Construction of the main production building

PHOTO – Production of the first tire

PHOTO – Production of the first inner tube

PHOTO – Reconstruction of the tire assembly shop

Over time, the plant and employees gained experience and continuously learned. Therefore, their inexhaustible energy of growth was transferred to production. The plant of the early eighties – mid-nineties – is a large-scale reconstruction of the preparatory shop and production of truck tires, transition to the first in the former USSR production of radial tires of more than 40 models, the first 15 and 16 inch tires for light trucks.

Bila Tserkva tire workers did not stop there. The difficult period in the economy of the 2000s forced a sharp reorientation of production from supplying AvtoVAZ, searching for new channels and sales markets. Then the plant compensated for the loss of demand for 13-inch tires by offering 15-16 inch tires. This is how the historical energy of leadership arose. It was at this time that the production of more than a hundred new tire sizes for vehicles and agricultural machinery was mastered, and the production of large-sized tires began. It was in the 90s that a system for monitoring and managing all technological and regulatory documentation of the enterprise was developed and created in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001:2000.

Today, the enterprise, preserving the best traditions, lives with new energy of development, which seems to have no boundaries at all. Large-scale modernization of production continues: new lines of shaping-vulcanizers, the most modern tire assembly complexes, and the latest quality inspection line have started operating. Focusing on the consumer market, tire workers expand the assortment with modern tire models with improved technical characteristics. Sales of 16-inch and larger tires are growing. Therefore, new opportunities, new export markets and new kilometers of roads in all corners of the world are opening up for the Ukrainian tire manufacturer.