Leonard Restarts Béthune Retreading Plant Under Single-Site Plan

Leonard is rebuilding production at the former Black Star passenger-car retreading operation in Béthune after a consortium led by Cédric Meston acquired the business in June, preserving 91 jobs. The new operation combines a single-site manufacturing structure with rising production volumes, tighter costs and a new French support mechanism for retreaded tyres.

Black Star’s takeover was approved by the Arras commercial court on 17 June, with the industrial activity continuing through Black Star Next and Leonard becoming the market-facing tyre brand. The Béthune plant remains in production, while the former Black Star operation at Saint-Pierre-de-Bœuf was excluded from the recovery perimeter and has closed.

The structure is materially different from the business that entered safeguarding proceedings at the start of 2026. Instead of retaining Black Star’s previous two-site footprint, manufacturing is being concentrated at Béthune, with the new owners seeking to rebuild volumes around a narrower fixed-cost base.

Black Star Next is chaired by Arnaud Hage, while Adrien Eymard has taken the managing director role. Former Black Star chief executive Laurent Cabassu remains involved in an advisory capacity. Corporate records confirm Black Star Next's principal establishment at the Béthune plant and its activity as tyre manufacturing and retreading.

Production during the summer was running at approximately 850 to 900 tyres per day. Management said in August that it intended to raise that figure to 1,250 tyres per day from 1 September, but TNM has found no subsequent confirmation that 1,250 has yet been sustained as the current production rate. It should therefore be regarded as the September target rather than achieved output.

There are also some encouraging early trading figures, although they provide only a short snapshot of the restarted business.

Leonard reported sales of more than 42,000 tyres and approximately €2 million of revenue in July, its first full month following the takeover. Management said this allowed the company to pass its monthly break-even point for the first time, describing the month as “comptablement rentable”. It has not disclosed whether that measure corresponds to EBITDA, operating or net profitability.

Headcount had meanwhile risen from the 91 jobs preserved by the takeover to 117 employees, including fixed-term and temporary staff, by the end of July. Management attributed the improved trading performance partly to volumes supplied through a commercial agreement with former owner Mobivia, alongside changes to production processes and tighter purchasing. The share of current sales represented by Mobivia-linked channels has not been disclosed.

€6 Retreading Support Still Faces Implementation Delays

A potentially important change in Leonard’s economics comes from France’s tyre extended producer responsibility system.

An order dated 25 March and published in the Journal officiel on 27 March requires tyre-sector eco-organisations to provide at least €6 of financial support for an eligible light-vehicle tyre that has undergone retreading and is subsequently placed on the French market. The used casing must have been collected in France and the retreading operation performed within 1,500 kilometres of its collection point.

The measure is therefore not a €6 consumer discount or a blanket payment for every tyre manufactured at Béthune. It is support paid through the French EPR system to eligible retreading operators, intended to encourage reuse and reduce part of the economic disadvantage facing retreaded tyres.

Its practical implementation, however, remains unresolved.

The order required approved eco-organisations to submit a standard contract within one month, with the contract intended to take effect no later than two months after publication. Yet reporting on 8 September indicated that discussions had reached a fourth version of the contract and that the parties had still not completed the implementation arrangements.

At Leonard’s August reopening event, French transition minister Mathieu Lefèvre said two eco-organisations were not yet complying with the revised specification. Separately, Aliapur has challenged the March order before France’s Conseil d’État.

It consequently remains unclear how many Leonard tyres have so far received the €6 support, what proportion of its production will ultimately qualify or whether any support was accrued in the July result. The July break-even claim should not therefore be attributed to the mechanism.

Rebuilding the Economics of Passenger-Car Retreading

Leonard is positioning its passenger-car and light-commercial retreads between very inexpensive new tyres and higher-priced mainstream products. In the common 205/55 R16 size, Hage said in August that Leonard was selling for around €55 to €60 depending on the retailer, approximately €15 below a private-label tyre and €40 to €45 below a premium new tyre by his comparison. Current Norauto listings put a Leonard Summer 01 in that size at €61.89 before fitting.

That price position illustrates the commercial challenge. Retreading needs sufficient differentiation from mainstream new tyres to attract buyers while competing at the other end of the market with low-priced imported new products.

Those economics contributed to Black Star’s earlier difficulties. Before entering safeguarding proceedings, the company had increased Leonard sales to 373,000 tyres in 2025, generating €17 million of revenue, but former management estimated that approximately 450,000 units a year were required to reach break-even. Competition from low-priced imported tyres and insufficient utilisation left the company short of that threshold.

The restarted operation is not simply attempting to recover those volumes under a different name. Its economic proposition now combines a smaller industrial footprint, lower structural costs, higher utilisation at Béthune, secured distribution volumes and, once fully implemented, financial support for qualifying French-market retreads.

That gives Leonard a different starting point from the former Black Star operation, but July alone cannot establish whether the model is sustainable. The longer test will be whether Béthune can maintain sufficient production utilisation and manufacturing yields while securing suitable casings, distribution volume and consumer demand at prices capable of competing in a difficult passenger-car tyre market.

The restart has put the factory back into production. Whether that production can become a durable retreading business will be determined by the volumes and economics that follow.

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Tags: Leonard tyres, Black Star Next, Béthune tyre plant, tyre retreading, passenger-car retreading, French tyre industry, retreaded tyres, tyre EPR, circular economy tyres, Black Star, Mobivia, tyre manufacturing

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