European E-Commerce Director For Goodyear
Goodyear Tire & Rubber has appointed George Rietbergen (37) as its European director of e-commerce. He comes to the tyre manufacturer from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, where his most recent post was director, e-commerce and commercial development.
Continue ReadingDT818 And DT824 Complete Goodyear’s Optitrac Product Family
Only a few weeks before the start of the Agritechnica fair, Goodyear presents its brand new Optitrac DT818 and Optitrac DT824 tyres – the latest additions to the Optitrac family of agricultural tyres, to which the super volume tyre DT830, introduced at the end of last year, also belongs. The DT818 is the familys super-wide tyre, created primarily for use on todays higher horsepower tractors with large implements. According to the tyre manufacturer, the DT824 is the perfect choice for very heavy machinery including harvesters and combines. Both tyres hold a much greater volume of air than standard-width tyres, and, because they are wider, have a much larger footprint. The weight is distributed over a greater surface area, reducing the pressure at any single point and minimising soil compaction which has negative effects on the plants‘ development. The DT818 and DT824 have also been designed for optimal traction in all types of weather. They feature deeper, more powerful curved lugs for greater draw-bar pull and broad square shoulders provide extra grip. The tread area between the lugs has been specially shaped for better self-cleaning of the tyres. During the presentation of the new tyres Serge Daleiden, responsible for the farm tyre division in Europe at Goodyear, mentioned that future developments in the farm tyre sector could possibly also include the companys BioTred technology. This is not a promise, just an idea, said Daleiden.
Continue ReadingTruck Tyre Production Ceases At Burnley
Michelin has announced the closure of its truck tyre plant at Burnley and an end of the production of steel cord at Stoke on Trent, with the loss of a total of 732 jobs. The closures are said to be due to the downturn in the US truck market. Burnley is to close in March 2002, steel cord production in September.
Continue ReadingThe European Market For Agricultural Tyres – Consolidation At All Levels
The worldwide market for tractors has seen many mergers over recent years but, with four big groups, this now seems to be coming to an end. Consolidation among tractor producers was regarded by their suppliers as a negative move, because the tyre manufacturers knew very well that the pressure on oe prices would intensify. In the European original equipment market for tractors, the three market leaders Michelin (including Kléber), Pirelli and Goodyear have a combined market share of 85 percent. This dominance was threatened in 1994, because the big tyre companies all trusted the (completely wrong)forecasts of their oe customers. Instead of the market contracting, the tractor producers found they could increase their sales. This was the hour of smaller tyre market competitors in the field, such as Continental or Firestone, oe exotics like Taurus or Galaxy – and even the hour of some specialist wholesalers: when before had vehicle producers been forced to go to dealers asking for tyres? However, the attack of the smaller tyre competitors was stopped, as the better service of the larger companies asserted itself, and the customer also helped things to return to the status quo. Unlike with car tyres, many buyers order their new tractor fitted with a certain brand of tyre. Because few farmers ask for Titan, Vredestein or Stomil, Pirelli, Goodyear and Michelin/Kléber regained their shares and the market returned to normal, once they had built up enough capacity to satisfy the oe business. Within recent years, market settlement also occurred because the number of independent tyre producers (but not the brands) has dwindled. Specialist producer Taurus (Hungary) and Stomil (Poland) became part of the Michelin group; Barum is a Continental brand. Others were looking for alliances and so the Romanian brand Danubiana (Tofan Grup) was on the wish list of Goodyear, because the US tyre concern found out that it lacked a brand at the economy level. (Later Goodyear managers considered Sava could fit the bill.) The US brand Titan has had a lot of problems in its North American home market and had to sell some niche segments. Israel’s Alliance closed one of two factories, Vredestein suffers under the high prices for raw-materials, Finland’s Nokian even gave the order to Michelin’s Poland plant (Stomil) to produce agricultural tyres because it did not seem sensible to produce this kind of tyre in the Finnish factory. Consolidation in the segment of agricultural tyres has not yet come to an end.
Continue ReadingLondon Stock Exchange Listing For Pirelli?
Pirelli is reported to be moving its group treasury operations and investor relations activities to London – seen as a move to an eventual listing on the London Stock Exchange. This reflects the growing international nature of the group, with the Italian market now accounting for 13% of annual revenue. Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera is reported as saying that he wants to expand the group, with analysts suggesting that any acquisitions would be in high-technology areas such as telecoms and energy.
Continue ReadingHigher Turnover for Audi
The turnover of car manufacturer Audi increased last year to 39 billion DM (1999: 29.6 bn DM). The Italian importer Autogerma S.p.A., which distributes Volkswagen cars in Italy, is included in this figure for the first time. Worldwide, Audi sold 653,404 cars in 2000; a 2.9 per cent increase over 1999.
Continue ReadingA Better Press For Kwik-Fit
Following the negative Which? report on UK fast-fits, including Kwik-Fit among others, there is better news for the company from other magazines. A survey carried out by the publications Top Fleet, Fleet Management and Business Car voted Kwik-Fit best fast-fit company in the UK for the eighth year running. The readers of these magazines comprise fleet management companies and people responsible for the maintenance of the majority of UK company cars.
Continue ReadingEighth Member Of RubberNetwork.com
Toyo Tire & Rubber has become the eighth manufacturer to sign up to RubberNetwork.com, the world-wide electronic purchasing and procurement marketplace. RubberNetwork.com will be launched in North America next month and further launches are planned for July (Europe) and September (Asia). The eight members represent over half of the worlds tyre manufacturing capacity.
Continue ReadingISO 9002 For Firestone East Africa
In a ceremony in Kenya, Firestone East Africa was awarded ISO 9002 quality accreditation. A spokesman said that Firestone will invest heavily in Uganda and Tanzania to boost its market share. The company already claims a 50 per cent share of the Ugandan tyre market.
Continue ReadingExpansion In Eastern Europe For Tenneco
Tenneco Automotive has acquired a plant in Gliwice, south-west Poland, to produce shock absorbers for OE manufacturers based in Europe. The investment is $20 million and involves refurbishing the site and installation of new equipment. Production is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of this year. Richard Sloan, MD of Tenneco Automotive Europe, said that the low labour and operating costs, plus special investment conditions in the Katowice Special Economic Zone, made the decision to come to Poland straightforward.
Continue ReadingOriginal 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 Reading