Mise en page 1 - Invest in Tunisia, The Foreign Investment ...

STIP is the only tire manufacturer in Tunisia, serving a national market that regularly grows by 6% per
annum. Still, there is competition from imports and trade in tires will be entirely liberalized by 2008.
The partnership with PIRELLI will be decisive in facing up to this situation and in preparing for these
changes.
Aside from providing the latest technologies, this partner has helped STIP to develop the attention to
quality that is a pre-requisite in today’s context of international competition.
Thus all products are certified ISO 9002 as well as meeting more targeted requirements: ETRTO for
European standards and DOT for American standards. This certification was attained in several stages:
monitoring during the production phase, including verification of raw materials by the company’s
laboratories;
verification of the finished product: visual, X rays to detect problems that are not visible to the naked
eye, verification of uniformity by electronic machines, checking of the tire’s balance, indoor trials attest
facilities specially equipped to meet Pirelli, ECE 30, ECF 54 and DOT norms.
Of course such a high level of quality is essential, given the overriding responsibility of the manufacturer
in turning out these items that are essential for the safety of merchandise and people. This requires staff
that is perfectly trained and highly motivated, and this is one of the major effects of the partnership with
PIRELLI.
STIP has 1,290 employees, 71% of whom are under 45.
P I R E L L I - S T I P
A clear sign that Tunisian staff can follow and benefit from such training is that PIRELLI has sought to
transfer a number of staff members to help develop new production lines in China.
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