Kwik-Fit To Acquire Silver Shield Screens
Kwik-Fit is to buy Silver Shield Screens Ltd, the automotive glass repair and replacement company. Silver Shield has 57 branches and 225 company-owned and franchised mobile fitting vehicles, providing a 24-hour windscreen repair and replacement service. The purchase price was £6 million, with up to another £2 million, dependent on future events. Silver Shield is number three in its market, with annual sales of more than £20 million.
Continue ReadingGibara Explains Goodyear’s 2000 Strategy
At a dealer conference in Las Vegas, Goodyear Chief Gibara explained to an audience of 4,500 tyre people the need for consolidation in 2000, following the recent aggressive expansion strategy. Gibara pointed out the importance of the personal touch despite the fast growth of e-commerce and the Internet. The fill-rate problem will be improved through shipments from Latin America, Eastern Europe and Turkey for the US replacement market.
Continue ReadingPorsche Award For Bridgestone
Bridgestone has won Porsches Supplier award for 1999. The tyre company was also assessed by Porsche as Top Best for product quality and delivery; the only tyre manufacturer to achieve this ranking. The award was presented to Michael Conrad, OE sales manager for Bridgestone/Firestone Deutschland, and Stephen Rambow, engineering account manager in charge of Porsche affairs, at a ceremony attended by senior representatives of Europes auto industry.
Continue ReadingPart Worn Tyres Collected By Mercedes
As part of the Mercedes Recycling System (MeRSy) the car manufacturer collected 508,000 part worn tyres in Germany during 1999.
Continue ReadingRecord BRV Membership
Membership of the German tyre retailers association BRV (Bundesverband Reifenhandel und Vulkaniseur Handwerk) reached record levels in January, when 82 new tyre retailers joined. The association now has 1,115 members with 1,443 outlets, which represents around 73 per cent of the 3,500 tyre dealers in Germany.
Continue ReadingSupplier Accolade For Hayes-Lemmerz
The Anderson Consulting Supplier Index recently carried out a survey to establish the most stable and competitive US automotive suppliers and ranked Hayes-Lemmerz joint second alongside Federal Mogul. Top performer was Tower Automotive.
Continue ReadingMeritor Automotive Expands Wheel Plant in Mexico
Meritor Automotive, a subsidiary of the Rockwell group, has announced the expansion of production at its wheel plant in San Luis Potosi (Mexico) to two million units annually. The expansion is necessary because of increased demand in the North American OE market for light truck and pick-up wheels and includes the completion of assembly facilities. A major consumer is Daimler Chrysler (Dodge Ram).
Continue ReadingMichelin Cuts Jobs In France
The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung has announced that Michelin intends to shed 1,800 jobs out of a total of 28,700 at its four plants in France according to the companys restructuring plan. Most of them will be achieved by early retirements but approximately 100 employees will have to leave the company involuntarily.
Continue ReadingGood US Scrap Tyre Recovery Performance
Significant progress has been made in the management and disposal of scrap tyres in the USA, says Terry Noteboom, senior environmental engineer for Goodyear. Last year over 71% of the 272 million scrap tyres generated in the US was recovered, exceeding the recovery rates for aluminium, glass and paper.
Continue ReadingNew Cars With Recycled Tyres
DaimlerChrysler has launched two Dodge Stratus concept cars in co-operation from a number of suppliers that has been produced mainly from recycled materials including scrap tyre. The programme is part of a scheme to verify which recycled products can be used for the production of future models.
Continue ReadingBetter First Quarter Results For Pirelli
The Pirelli group has increased its turnover in the first quarter of this year by 18 p.c. The cable division achieved to a turnover of 1.05 billion Euro and an Operating Profit of 52 million Euro. The tyre division turnover increased by 12 p.c.up to 700 million Euro and the Operating Profit was 54 million Euro. Despite of fierce price competition Pirelli could achieve a 17 p.c. increase units and evidently win market shares.
Continue ReadingNew President For Alliance
Zwika Meiri is to succeed Yinon Esroni as President of Alliance Tire Co. (Hadera/Israel) within the few next weeks.
Continue ReadingAquatred 3 By Goodyear
At the beginning of the 90s Goodyear had great success – especially in USA – with its aquachannel tyre Aquatred. Now the tyre manufacturer launches in North America the dual-aquachannel tyre Aquatred 3 with greater dry traction performance and an 80,000-mile treadlife Warranty. The all-season tyre will be introduced initially in 18 popular T-rated sizes.
Continue ReadingWeather Master SiO2 By Cooper
The first Cooper winter tyre designed specifically for the Alpine market is to be manufactured at Cooper-Avon Tyres Melksham (United Kingdom) plant. The Weather-Master SiO2 will be available in 15 T-rated and 11 H-rated sizes this autumn.
Continue ReadingDeceit at BRW?
The current total of 153 employees of retreader Berliner Reifenwerke (BRW) have been waiting for their salaries since March. However, they are now hoping that after a proposal of insolvency, one of the three potential investors with whom the Berlin economic authorities are negotiating, will take over the plant this month and continue production. The two BRW owners Cohnen and Krüßmann are suspected of misappropriating 46.1 million German marks which were given for investments. Meanwhile a German magazine reports a Credit Suisse (Frankfurt) account of approximately 32 million German marks. Account-holder is a Tahiti-registered company belonging to Horst Krüßmann, former Managing Director of Berliner Reifenwerke. Berlin Public Prosecutors are conducting judicial inquiries.
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