Nokian Ends Cooperation With Tofan
Nokian Tyres has terminated the agreement, made in November 1997, with Tofan, under which the Romanian manufacturer produced some agricultural and industrial tyres for the Finnish company. The reason given was that Tofan was unable to meet quality expectations.
Continue ReadingBridgestone Links Up With French Antivibration Specialist
Bridgestone has announced the formation of a strategic alliance in antivibration automotive components with Paulstra, the automotive antivibration sector of Hutchinson, a subsidiary of TotalFina in France. The objective of the alliance is for both companies to jointly develop new antivibration products at both the companies manufacturing plants around the world.
Continue ReadingMichelin Out Of The CAC 40?
There is speculation among analysts that Michelin and Valeo could be dropped from the CAC 40. Continental has been ousted from the DAX Index and Goodyear from the Dow Jones Index recently.
Continue ReadingContinental To Invest In Indian Tyre Producer
Continental has announced it will be acquiring a 15% share in Indian tyre manufacturer, Apollo Tyres. According to Indian media sources, the acquisition will enable Continental to build up a technological relationship with the Indian tyre market and there are plans to develop a truck tyre factory on a greenfield site in Pune. At the moment, neither Continental or Apollo Tyres have confirmed the partnership.
Continue ReadingHonour For Goodyear
For the third time in a row, Goodyear has earned top honours in Fortune magazines Rubber and Plastics Product category of Americas Most Admired Companies. Among things measured were reputation, product quality, innovation, social responsibility and financial soundness.
Continue ReadingBetter Conditions At The Stock Exchange
After having fallen to a 52-week low again in mid March the shares prices of Goodyear, Cooper and the other tyre manufacturers rose or at least remained unchanged in the first weeks of April while Hayes-Lemmerz, Volkswagen and BMW each slipped by -5%.
Continue ReadingShort-Time Working For Goodyear Wolverhampton?
Goodyear has suspended the guaranteed minimum 42-hour week for workers at its Wolverhampton plant. Union sources expect short-time working for many employees, blaming the strong pound, high stock levels and a decrease in sales to Rover. The union says that sales to Rover currently account for 5% of production.
Continue ReadingNokian Tyres Strengthens Retail Network
Nokian Tyres strengthens its retail network by purchasing Rengasmestarit-Kumi-Helenius Group that has 31 tyre retail outlets in Finland. After the acquisition, Nokian Tyres retail network covers the whole of Finland. The purchase price is 8.3 million euros. In 1999, the companys net sales amounted to approximately 34 million euros and it employed 240 people.
Continue ReadingFirst Quarter Results Of Michelin Better Than Expected
Michelins Q1 sales rose by 14.8% to 3.59 bn Euro; 464 m Euro more than for the same period last year. The EBIT level is, as expected, in the region of 10% of turnover.
Continue ReadingJuan Carlos Visits BS/FS Plant In Burgos
King Juan Carlos recently visited Bridgestone/Firestone plant in Burgos, one of the groups three tyre plants in Spain. The reason for the visit was the 100th birthday of Firestone this year. In 1990 Burgos was the groups first European tyre factory to start producing Bridgestone-branded tyres, at that time Firestones new parent company.
Continue ReadingJ.J.M. Baudoin Leaves Vredestein
The Supervisory Board of Vredestein NV has accepted the wish of J.J.M. Baudoin to leave the company on 1 June 2000. Rob Oudshoorn will be the sole Managing Director of the Dutch tyre maker.
Continue ReadingBridgestone Again GM’s Supplier Of The Year
The Bridgestone group, suppliers of Bridgestone and Firestone tyres to General Motors plants around the World, has received the Supplier of the Year Award from GM for the fifth year in succession.
Continue ReadingChanges in Goodyear Management
Edward T. Fogarty (62), former Chairman, President and CEO of Tambrands, Inc., has been elected to the twelve-strong board of Directors of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Comp. After 37 years of service James Boyaziz (63) will retire on July 31, his responsibilities as Corporate Secretary will be assumed by C. Thomas Harvie (57), who is currently Senior Vice President and General Counsel.
Continue Reading10% Share Of Sumitomo Rubber Industries for Goodyear
As part of the global alliance between Goodyear and Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) Goodyear now owns 10% of SRI making the Americans the second largest shareholder of the Japanese company. The biggest one is Sumitomo Electric Industries owning 29.5%.
Continue ReadingFirestone Recall Hysteria Fuelled By Advocates
Firestone has been forced, for the second time in the companys history, to recall tyres in North America. 22 years ago, the recall of 14 million f 500 tyres, almost ruined Firestone. The current situation refers to the recall of 6.5 million SUV tyres, the ATX, ATX II, and Wilderness line in the size P 235/75 R 15. About 2/3 of these tyres are earmarked for Fords OE demand for the Ford Explorer and the Ford Ranger. Bridgestone already announced that it would take a one-time $ 350 million charge and informed analysts that earnings estimates, $1 billion before the recall situation, had to be reduced by the amount of the taken charge. Whether this is the only financial impact that BFS will have to encounter is more than doubtful. In the US a horde of consumer advocates stand ready to sue BFS, all in the name of consumer advocacy. The likely cost of litigation is not included in the $ 350 million charge. The extent of the damage to BFS and its Firestone brand cannot be evaluated, it remains to be seen how the entire industry will be affected by this recall. Without any doubt, the Firestone brand has suffered a serious blow despite the fact that up until today it has not been demonstrated that the tyres were the cause of accidents investigated by NHTSA. BFS, so it seems, never really had a chance to manage the ensuing crisis in an optimal way. Although the crisis didnt hit BFS completely out of the blue, BFS had to take into consideration the interests of its largest OE customer Ford on the one hand, and its own interest to protect the Bridgestone brand from any spill-over effects. One thing became abundantly clear: two kinds of tyre manufacturers currently exist. One the one hand, there are those who have already had to deal with a disastrous recall situation and on the other hand are those that will have to do just that at some uncertain time in the future.
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