Lassa Tyres sponsors all indoor FC Barcelona teams
FC Barcelona ad Lassa Tyres have signed a sponsorship deal which makes the Turkish tyre brand a global partner for the next four years. Under the global partnership rights, the club’s basketball, handball, futsal and roller hockey teams, will officially be named as “FC Barcelona Lassa”. The deal took effect on 1 June 2015 and makes Lassa Tyres the “Official Tyre Partner” of FC Barcelona.
Continue ReadingKorea’s Nice Holdings acquires majority stake in wheel maker BBS
An investor consortium led by Austrian industrial holding Tyrol Equity AG has signed an agreement to sell a majority stake in German high performance alloy wheel manufacturer BBS GmbH to Korea Exchange listed industrial group Nice Holdings. The parties have declined to disclose the transaction value, and the deal is subject to relevant regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to be completed within the coming months.
Continue ReadingContinental boosting Hefei, China PCR capacity to 14 million tyres a year
In late April Continental concluded an investment agreement with the Hefei provincial and local governments in China, and has now unveiled plans to significantly expand its passenger car tyre factory there. Annual production capacity will rise from the current level of 5 million tyres per year to 14 million by 2019. In addition, bicycle tyre production in Hefei will be boosted from around 2 million units per annum to 13 million pieces by 2025.
Continue Reading2015 tyre manufacturer rankings: Stability at the top?
Today we at Tyres & Accessories published our annual ranking of global tyre manufacturers on our tyrepress.com website. As always, this yearly survey takes the turnover of the industrys leading players into account and also provides information on operating profit/EBIT(DA) and annual net income.
Continue ReadingDayco restructures UK distribution operation
Dayco has opened its own centrally-based distribution centre in Redditch, West Midlands. Having previously worked through a national distributor, the power transmission parts supplier says the new opening is the final part of a restructuring process that it says will bring significant benefits to motor factors and their workshop customers.
Continue ReadingFruehauf announces MWSD partnership
The UK’s leading manufacturer of tipping trailers, Fruehauf has selected Motor Wheel Service Distribution (MWSD) as a leading supplier for both forged aluminium and steel wheels. The agreement includes technical support and supply of commercial vehicle wheels for the company’s complete range of tipper units.
Continue ReadingAnother Luxembourg Green Product Award for Goodyear
Goodyear has been awarded the Luxembourg Green Product Award for the third time in the Luxembourg Green Business Awards’ five-year history. The award was handed over to Henk van Tuyl, technology directory for commercial tyres at Goodyear Europe, Middle East and Africa, during an event held in May as part of the Luxembourg Green Business Summit.
Continue ReadingConsolidation now
A couple of months ago we discussed the “restructuring” of relatively large and modern Chinese manufacturer Deruibao Tire. Back then, Qingdao Doublestar was top of the list of firms connected with an acquisition/cooperation/merger rescue orchestrated by the local government. A month later government-owned ChemChina announced that it was buying Pirelli. This latter point has been covered in some depth in the pages of Tyres & Accessories, especially in our April edition. The Pirelli/ChemChina story will no-doubt garner more attention as the very complex outworkings of the deal are walked out, but what remains of interest is the way in which both the local Chinese market and the global industry are engaged in a period of both parallel and inter-connected consolidation.
Continue ReadingSumitomo Rubber confirms Goodyear partnership dissolution talks – but cautions against speculation
Responding to reports from a number of media outlets regarding the dissolution of the 16-year old global alliance between Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) and Goodyear Tire & Rubber, SRI stated today that these are “purely speculative in nature.” The company doesn’t refute the reports’ veracity – SRI admits that “it is true that SRI and Goodyear are currently engaged in discussions concerning the possible dissolution of our alliance agreement and our joint ventures” – however it wants to make it clear that neither it nor Goodyear have issued an official announcement on the matter. Nikkei Asian Review, which published the news yesterday, says an announcement may be made “as early as this week.”
Continue ReadingPoint S extends its North American network
Two developments have extended the Point S retail network’s presence in the North American market. Independent US tyre dealer network Tire Factory has joined Point S, while Canadian group Unimax – a member of Point S for the past two years – has elected to rebrand its network using the Point S corporate identity. Point S International operations manager Fabian Bouquet views both measures as a means of reaching the target of rolling out the Point S corporate identity in 600 retail points of sale throughout North America within four years.
Continue ReadingGoodyear Dunlop names Jürgen Titz DACH region group managing director
Jürgen Titz, who served as UK and Ireland director of consumer replacement tyres at Goodyear Dunlop between 2009 and 2013, has been appointed the new head of Goodyear Dunlop Tires Germany. He begins as group managing director of Goodyear Dunlop’s DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) organisation on 1 June, succeeding George Rietbergen, who held the post since 1 August 2013 and will now, according to a statement released by Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe president Darren Wells, “follow a new career outside the company.”
Continue ReadingHonda targets fuel economy world record
Honda will put the real-world fuel economy of its super-efficient 1.6 i-DTEC engine to the ultimate test in an 8,500 mile drive across all 24 contiguous EU countries, with the aim of setting a new Guinness World Records title for fuel efficiency. On Monday 1st June 2015, two members of Hondas European Research & Development (R&D) team will climb into a Honda Civic Tourer and set out on an epic journey from Aalst, Belgium. Heading towards the Netherlands and Germany, their trip will see them navigate the Continent in a clockwise direction, with the aim of returning to their starting point some 25 days later, on June 25th, having covered a planned total of 13,614km.
Continue ReadingSRI takes a break from growth in Q1 2015
Sumitomo Rubber Industries’ new financial year got off to a sluggish start, with sales declining 2.9 per cent year-on-year in the January-March period to 185.2 billion yen (£976.3 million). Ordinary income went down 34.6 per cent to 12.0 billion yen (£63.3 million) and gave a margin of 6.5 per cent, compared with 9.4 per cent a year earlier. Net profit fell 29.4 per cent to 7.7 billion yen (£40.6 million).
Continue ReadingTurnover down, profits up at JK Tyre & Industries
While JK Tyre & Industries was unable to maintain turnover in the previous financial year, profits at India’s third-largest tyre maker rose significantly. The company reports that turnover decreased 3.6 per cent to Rs 73.3 billion (£743.9 million) during the 2014/15 financial year, which ran from 1 April 2014 to 31 March this year. Operating profit rose 11.7 per cent to Rs 7.7 billion (£78.1 million) while net profit jumped 26.7 per cent to Rs 3.2 billion (£32.5 million).
Continue ReadingKumho wins A’ Design award for Maxplo
The Maxplo, a super-low aspect ratio concept tyre developed by Kumho Tire to demonstrate how tyres of the future may look and operate, has been awarded a Platinum A’ Design Award in the Futuristic category. Along with the other winners of no less than 89 different categories, Kumho received its A’ Design Award last month at a gala dinner in Italy. The Platinum award received by Kumho is the highest of four A’ Design award levels – the others being Iron, Silver and Gold.
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