Share Prices At A Low Point
With the exception of Peugeot, Porsche and Beru, other share prices from automobile and tyre companies have fallen to an all-year low. Companies in this category include DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen, Kiekert, Delco Remy, Delphi, Phoenix and Johnson Controls, as well as Continental, Cooper, Yokohama, Toyo and Goodyear.
Continue ReadingBridgestone Acquires Second Tyre Plant In China
Bridgestone Corporation has acquired control of a Chinese manufacturer who produces radial passenger and commercial tyres from the Republic of Korea’s Kumho Industrial Co. The company has a current production capacity of about 3.5 million tyres a year.
Continue ReadingPeter Faber Retires
Peter Faber, who, for the last decade has been President of Michelin Japan, and before that, Sales & Marketing Director of Michelin Germany, has recently retired.
Continue ReadingKeeping The Technic Name Alive
Last year the Technic Group – the world’s largest car tyre retreader – went into Receivership and it looked as if its assets would be sold off. However, the Technic name lives on, as the company has been purchased by Phil Blood and Lucia Farmer. Phil is one of the two original founders of Technic and Lucia is the widow of the other founder, the late Tony Farmer. Phil Blood could not say how many retreads would be made by the new company (called Technic Tyre plc) but he believes that there is a market for a quality retread. One thing is for certain; production will be a long way short of the 40,000-50,000 tyres a week which Technic was turning out at its peak. Phil’s comment on future production is it will find its own level. He admits that sentiment played a large part in rescuing the company with both he and Tony wanting the name of Technic to continue in the area. Tony and I put ten years’ hard work into Technic and neither of us wanted to see it wasted Phil commented. Some of the old Technic team are back working for the company, including Martin Gledhill and Ian Smith. Phil Blood emphasises that he is not employed by the company, he is part owner of Anguilla plc, the company which purchased Technic’s retreading assets. Bearing in mind Tony Farmer’s part in building up Technic, it was perhaps fitting that the first of the ‘new’ retreads were produced on March 1st – a day which would have been Tony Farmer’s 48th birthday. More about this in TYRES & ACCESSORIES’s March issue.
Continue ReadingTeam Kooperation Annual Meeting
Last weekend, Team Kooperation held its 4th annual meeting in Kassel. A special exhibition was held alongside the event in the Stadthalle Kassel which attracted such names as Bridgestone, Conti, Goodyear, Michelin and Pirelli, displaying their group brands. Some high-powered managers attended the event too; Bandags Martin Carver flew over specially from the USA. An important milestone was the planned merger between VRG and Team. The Kooperation has its own private brand for passenger and commercial tyres, made for it by the Conti group. Teams aim is to expand not only nationally, but on a Pan-European basis, attracting enough members to give the group ample coverage of the markets.
Continue ReadingGoodyear Wins New Confidence
First quarter results due to be released on April 19th should be better than expected. The capacity utilisation in all Goodyears factories was higher than last year and the fill rate has been further improved. If Goodyear can stick to the already announced price increases in the USA (3-5%), this will mean a faster than expected recovery.
Continue ReadingA New Force In UK Tyre Distribution
Two Continental-owned UK wholesalers, Viking Express and Birkenshaw International, have merged to form Viking International. The new company is one of the UK’s largest wholesalers and will operate from twelve warehouses across the country. In charge is Alan Revie, who was MD of Birkenshaw, and he will be assisted by Grahame Rooke, who held a similar role with Viking. There will be no redundancies among the 260-strong workforce. The decision to merge was taken by Continental in Germany and was implemented very quickly, although the two companies have experience of working together, for example as suppliers to the tyre expert programme. Alan Revie is keen to point out that the merger is not the result of panic, nor is it a defensive measure, as both companies were successful in their own right. Instead it is a conscious attempt to create a single force to give a better service to customers. The merger is effective immediately, although it will obviously take time to sort out new livery and new signage. More details are available in the April issue of TYRES & ACCESSORIES.
Continue ReadingVan den Ban Acquires Majority Shareholding In Reedijk Banden
Under the terms of the agreement Reedijk Banden Import will operate autonomously and current managing director, Marcus Reedijk will retain responsibility for the day to day running of the company. The Van den Ban group expects to realise a much stronger market position for its wholesale tyre activities. As a result of the acquisition the turnover of Van den Ban Autobanden B.V. is expected to rise to Euro 160 million.
Continue ReadingKumho To Compete In OE Business
Kumho Tire is seeking OE business in Europe and North America. The company has announced expansion of production in Asia, for example in the Nanjing factory.
Continue ReadingWheel Producer Accuride On The Way To Europe?
North Americas Accuride Corp. (Evansville/Indiana) is an enormously profitable producer of steel and aluminium wheels for trucks and recorded a record jump in sales to more than 500 million US-$ in 1999. Founded by Firestone in 1905, the company was sold in 1986 to Phelps Dodge Corp., cooperated with Goodyear 1992 and was sold again in 1998 to investment group Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts (KKR). Now the automotive supplier has its eyes set on the European market for investments, maybe also in aluminium wheels for cars.
Continue ReadingProfit Expectations At VW Have To Be Reduced
According to the German magazine Stern VW has to reduce its profit expectations for the actual business year by 1.9 billion DM in comparison with its mid-term forecast. In February VW-boss Ferdinand Piëch already requested better results from subsidiary companies Audi, Seat and Skoda. Critics fear that the latest excursion into the luxury-segment (D1) will have a negative effect on the core business of VW.
Continue ReadingLeasePlus By Peugeot
The new Full-Service-Leasing package LeasePlus by Peugeot, Germany, can be extended to three sets of summer tyres and two sets of complete winter tyres and wheels.
Continue ReadingStrategic Global Alliance Of Cooper And Nishikawa
Cooper-Standard Automotive of the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (Findlay/Ohio, USA) and Nishikawa Rubber Company (Hiroshima, Japan) are to strengthen their strategic global alliance.
Continue ReadingProfit Warning From Michelin
Michelins turnover increased during the first half of the year 2000 by 14% to 7.4 bn Euro but despite this fact Ebit will be much lower than the first six months of last year (611 million Euro). Yesterday the company only announced sales figures and will give more details in September.
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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