Original Founder Buys Finelist Brands
Chris Swan has bought the Autela and Edmunds Walker brands of Finelist, the car parts group which went into administrative receivership last year. Swan was the founder of Finelist in 1991, leaving the company in March 2000. The two brands will complement Bulldog Express, Swans new parts venture formed earlier this year, and together they claim to be the third largest player in UK automotive parts distribution market, which is estimated to be worth four billion Pounds.
Continue ReadingRomanian Acquisition For Michelin
Nomura International, which holds a substantial equity stake in Romanian tyre manufacturer Tofan, has announced the sale of parts of the company to Michelin. The French company has bought the Victoria car tyre plant, the Silvania truck tyre factory, a retreading unit, a number of warehouses and the Tofan-owned distribution network. The purchase price was not revealed but a number of tyre manufacturers are said to have been interested. Tofan will continue to manufacture agricultural and implement (brand name: Danubiana) tyres and this business will be expanded, says Nomura, which remains a significant shareholder.
Continue ReadingRecycled Reef Row
A man-made reef constructed from 1,500 used tyres, on the seabed off Newport Beach, California is subject to an ongoing courtroom battle. The pioneering reef is a private experiment to develop seabed agriculture, and the developer plans to extend the experiment, using 1,000 more tyre casings as an anchor for the reef. The California Coastal Commission though is fighting the experiment, saying that it is ineffective, unscientific and environmentally unfriendly, in that it debases a natural environment to create a new, unnatural environment without consideration for the effects of the development.
Continue ReadingCar Fleet Business
The car fleet servicing market in the UK is a very tough business. The size of this segment become evident looking at new car registrations in the UK last year, 57% of more than two millions were fleet vehicles. In absolute figures the German market surpasses the British, but the proportion of fleet cars is less. The potential is enormous: Industry sources say that the average fleet car needs 1.8 tyres replaced a year, which gives a total market of 9 million tyres in Germany. And it should be remembered that fleet cars are normally newer than the average, travel more miles per year and fitment rates of winter tyres are higher than for private cars. A fleet service provider knows how much he has to pay for tyres per mile. It should be routine to ask whether the fleet has the right cars and the most suitable tyres, but could another model of car be more appropriate to the needs of the fleet because of how it is used? Car fleets need a mobile fitting network wherever the cars are driving. The tyre dealer carrying out the service on behalf of a leasing company must know the state of the tyres, has to ensure that they are at the correct pressure, has to identify the reasons for unbalanced abrasion patterns and has to fit the car with winter tyres before the first snowflakes fall. Whoever wants to participate in the growing market segment of car fleets has to be fully professional – and he has to invest money. For example, an integral component of car leasing or full service fleet management systems is the use of the Internet. All those involved in the package use the Internet as a communication platform and they want to reduce the costs for the fleet parc. Customers are very interested in quality; the package they anticipate is more than only good tyres. Car fleet servicing might be an opportunity, but not a cheap one.
Continue ReadingTwo More Tyres For Europe From Cooper-Avon
Cooper-Avon has introduced another two new tyres to its range of products available in Europe. First of these is the Lifeliner Touring SLE (Sport Luxury Edition) and it is the first premium touring tyre from Cooper to be available in three speed ratings; T, H and V. The second product is the Discoverer M+S, which is a winter tyre made in Findlay Ohio, but designed for European roads. It features a number of pin holes for those countries where studded tyres are acceptable.
Continue ReadingGood Second Quarter Results From Nokian
Nokian Tyres has reported its Q2 results, which proved better than analysts expected. While sales were as forecast (up 11.7 per cent to 95 million Euro), operating income was much higher than predicted at 8.5 million Euro, with an operating margin of 8.9 per cent (last year, 3.5 per cent). Results were helped by the 1.9 million Euro operating profit recorded by the Vianor retail chain. Analysts are cautious about the outlook for the second half of the year, with much depending on winter tyre sales.
Continue ReadingNew Structure for Automechanika Frankfurt
With a wider range of OE-products, Automechanika Frankfurt wants to open its gates from 17th to 22nd of September 2002. For the exhibiting companies, an additional 30.000 square metres of space will be available at the Frankfurt fair. Furthermore the five existing product groups – autoparts, autotronic, auto accessories, autocare and autocolour – will be complemented by the new categories auto business and auto environment. The modified structure is designed to offer better presentation possibilities for the exhibitors and to make things easier for visitors.
Continue ReadingInternet Sales By Delticom Now In Great Britain
German e-commerce company Delticom AG (Hanover) is expanding to other European countries and is now starting to sell tyres and wheels via the Internet (www.mytyres.co.uk) in Great Britain. A subsidiary company, Delticom Ltd., has been founded in Oxford, with Lennart Pluim as Managing Director.
Continue ReadingHayes Lemmerz Faces Great Distress
Can you imagine? Hardly three years ago, the share of the world’s biggest wheel manufacturer was worth 30 US Dollar, sometimes it even reached 40 US Dollar. With one US Dollar only on September, 28th 2001, this share has reached is absolute baisse so far. An alarm bell that cannot be ignored. The company is in great danger of collapse. And the terrorist attack against the World Trade Center could have finished the company off. Already before that, the group had replaced its long-term boss Ron Cucuz by Curtis J. Clawson, who enjoys the reputation of a fireman within the automotive business.
Continue ReadingFailure To Sell Costs Conti
The collapse of talks to sell ContiTech are said to be behind the resignation of Stephan Kessel, who has been replaced by Manfred Wennemer, who was until recently the head of ContiTech. Analysts have been taken by surprise by the move and many believe it will result in a loss of confidence in Continental. The sale of ContiTech had been expected to fund moves into electronics and complete automotive systems, without these funds the execution of that strategy may have to change.
Continue ReadingSelf-Rescue Plan For Kumho
Kumho Industrial, parent company of, among others, Kumho Tires, is currently overwhelmed with debt, due largely to the performance of is Asiana Airlines subsidiary. The company has formulated a self-rescue plan, which involves raising money through selling shares in the tyre company. Few details are publicly available, but it is believed that two foreign financial institutions (one from Hong Kong, the other from the USA) have taken a shareholding worth US$ 1.2 billion in the tyre manufacturer, which will continue to run with the same management. The plan also involves Kumho selling off one of its three petrochemical plants.
Continue ReadingNew Boss For Pirelli Germany
After only one year, Dr. Paolo Masera (59), boss of Pirelli Germany, has left the company to take over responsibility for Pirelli in Brazil. His successor is Dr. Klaus Betka, up till now production chief. Betka should only be regarded as a short-term solution for two or three years, as it is said that he has already signed a contract for early retirement.
Continue ReadingGet The Lead Out
The motor industry is under attack from all sides by the green lobby and the car is subject to environmental constraints at all stages of its life cycle. It looks as though yet more restrictions will be imposed on the industry with the likely adoption of the End Of Life Vehicle Directive (ELV); this lays down minimum requirements for the recyclability of cars and also seeks to reduce or eliminate toxic or environmentally-unfriendly materials used in construction. Lead is one such material and it is not only used in car building, but also in wheel balancing weights. If lead is outlawed, what are the alternatives for the automotive industries, and the tyre trade? What alternative materials are available, and what are the likely costs? Coated lead weights do not solve the problem, which leaves steel and tin as the most likely solutions. Tin is easier to work than steel, but it is many times more expensive than lead, and could lead to significant increases in costs for tyre shops, who will have to decide whether or not to pass this on to the customer. The ELV places the responsibility for disposing of vehicles squarely on the shoulders of the manufacturers, and they will put pressure on their suppliers to ensure that levels of toxic materials are kept to a minimum.
Continue ReadingTemporary Closure Of Seven Vehicle Plants In North America
In an attempt to reduce vehicle stocks, Ford and General Motors have announced the temporary closure of seven factories in North America. GM is to close five plants (sited in Oklahoma City, Ontario, Michigan and Ohio) for a week, affecting over 14,000 workers. The two plants which Ford is to close temporarily manufacture vans and are situated in Ohio, employing 4,150 hourly workers.
Continue ReadingScottish Winter Tyre Safety Campaign Results
The annual tyre safety campaign in Scotland moved from October to December last year. A four day clinic programme held in supermarket car parks revealed that 20% of motorists had tyres with tread below 1.6mm. The clinic programme was followed by a week of police enforcement on the roads, which showed an illegal tyre level of 14.4% – almost exactly matching the UK average of 14%.
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