Budini's History

It all started when Mr. Antonio L Nicolini (Tony), a very dedicated commercial tax attorney decided to successfully retire at the age of 33.  In doing so, Tony bought a few businesses, one of them being an old fashioned tire retreading factory that belonged to one of his customers in his law firm.

From time to time Tony would visit the tire retreading factory with his driver, Mr. Ferreira.  Every time they visited the factory Mr. Ferreria would complain that the car would get very dirty from all the black tire dust, and he needed to wash the car again and again.  (This is a true story! )

So Tony decided to come to the U.S. in search of better tire retreading technology that wouldn't get his car so dirty every time they went to the factory and, by fate, discovered that Bandag was also looking to establish itself in the Brazilian market.

In 1982, Budini became the first Bandag dealer in the country.

With very strong market competitors at the time and a retread product that cost 2.8 times higher than the perceived competition, Budini had the need to differentiate its products (Bandag retreads) and services (none) from the competitors (other tire dealers and retreaders) in order to gain market share and prove that our product offered more value. This scenario set the stage for the birth of the first ever computerized tire management system.

By 1983 the company had formed a team of researchers, testers, computer programmers and fleets willing to put tire management theories to the test. Hundreds of thousands of men hours were dedicated to make this initial project successful.

Through the information generated by the tire management system, Budini was able to gain market share by providing customers with real life proof of a lower cost per mile though the use of its products (Bandag retreads) and services (tire management and information). 

At the same time a very important lesson was learned: Not only the product we were selling provided a better cost per mile over the life of the casing, but most importantly that much greater savings could be achieved by managing tires properly than by changing products.

Tire Management soon became an entire separate division within the retreading company. The sharing of information created strong alliances between Budini and its customer fleets. Many new tire information systems were developed to meet the needs that experience revealed over the years.

In 1988, Budini entered the U.S. market (largest market in the world) and proved that tire management could be just as successful in much larger fleets, with more complex operations than the Brazilian market (2nd largest market in the world).

In 1996, most of our tire management programs were converted to Windows; and with a friendlier user interface Budini established many worldwide partnerships to market and use our systems. A new company named Apolo was created to house the increasing number of developers and technical support staff in the tire management division.

Not until recently has the market begun to recognize the need for tire management. Stricter safety laws, rising cost of fuel,  environmental awareness and the need to maintain competitiveness are driving fleets to better tire management solutions. Tires and fuel are usually the largest operating costs of any fleet. Professional tire management can reduce both dramatically while increasing safety.

To this day, Budini continues its constant research to improve and develop tire management systems and invent new solutions for the industry. Budini's worldwide clientele includes fleets of all sizes, multinational tire and retread manufacturers, vehicle leasing companies, fleet consultants, and vehicle maintenance software companies. Their goal, as the bottom line of any Budini system, is to improve tire safety and obtain the lowest cost per mile.

Today Budini provides management solutions to millions of tires spread among over 40 countries in 5 continents around the globe. It is our commitment to supply tire management solutions that brought us where we are today.  With the use of state-of-the-art technology, Budini is prepared to face the challenges of the future, providing systems, programs, information, training, service and support for all its products and services, virtually anywhere in the world.