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Cooper-Avon has announced that it will be making 80 staff employees redundant in Europe. Locations affected are the Melksham (UK) HQ and offices in Switzerland, France and Germany. The cuts are blamed on the high level of the Pound and large numbers of imported tyres from the Far East and have been made, says Cooper-Avon, to reduce costs and increase job security for the remaining 900+ employees.
Pirelli recently invited journalists and analysts to its factory at Bicocca, Milan in order to see first hand the company’s new manufacturing process MIRS (Modular Integrated Robotized System). MIRS reduces the steps in tyre manufacturing from 14 to 3 and a tyre can be produced every three minutes. Tyres are built round a special drum, with the instructions given to the robots (the process is totally automated) through a barcode. The tyres are said to be more uniform and consistent. As well as its speed and flexibility, MIRS has the advantage of compactness and a line capable of producing 125,000 tyres a year can be sited in an area of a mere 350 square metres. Pirelli Chief Executive Marco Tronchetti Provera said that Pirelli will invest 50 million Euro over the next three years in 80 MIRS lines, increasing output by ten million tyres a year. Two of these lines will be located at Pirelli’s Burton-on-Trent factory in the UK, concentrating on SUV and 4×4 tyres. Burton stopped making tyres in 1994 and the news is a welcome change for the UK tyre manufacturing industry. It is a large factory, and there is ample scope for more MIRS lines to be added in the future, should this be Pirelli’s strategy. The figures associated with MIRS are truly impressive; investment costs are lower than for traditional factories and the minimum economic batch size has been reduced from 3,200 units to 375. The time taken to change sizes comes down from 375 minutes to 20. Workforce productivity is increased by 80% and MIRS uses less energy than a ‘normal’ plant. The manpower needed is significantly reduced too – it is estimated that 850 staff will be needed to produce the proposed ten million tyres. There is one other figure which, in these days of competition and falling prices, is even more interesting – a MIRS tyre is 25% cheaper to produce than a conventional tyre.
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 company’s restructuring plan. Most of them will be achieved by early retirements but approximately 100 employees will have to leave the company involuntarily.
Popular German car magazine auto motor und sport tested ten M+S tyre brands size 195/65 R 15 on a BMW 323i. The test winners were Goodyear’s Ultra Grip 6 (“best tyre”) and Uniroyal’s MS Plus 55. These were followed by Dunlop’s SP Winter Sport M3, Continental’s WinterContact TS 790, Pirelli’s Winter 210 Snow Sport, Michelin’s Pilot Alpin, and Nokian’s Hakkapeliitta NRW. Those tyres which achieved only limited recommendation were Toyo’s Snowprox S 940 and Firestone’s FW 930, while last place in the test went to Yokohama’s Winter F 310 Plus.
The slogan was “Service Makes The Difference”. Consultants MMS GmbH, together with the German dealer association BRV (which claims to be the “centre of competence”), organised this interesting seminar. Regrettably, representatives from only about 30 independent tyre dealers attended, with the majority of the 150 delegates coming from the tyre industry and their equities. Hubert Hannezo, Michelin’s Worldwide Marketing Manager for passenger car and light truck tyres, made a very informative speech and explained to the audience what is going on, for example, in the USA and what might become popular here very soon, and why. A totally new form of service is developing through the internet, and specialists from Continental enlarged on this in detail. Larry C. Morgan, a big tyre dealer from the USA, explained his growth philosophy. He is confident that his group will sell around ten million tyres a year from 2005 on. One of his statements was “Bigger is better, only if big is better” and “If it is to be, it is up to me”. Finally, keynote speaker Sir Tom Farmer used the opportunity to explain again what Kwik-Fit is, how it has grown, and for what it stands. One criticism of the seminar might be that there was no opportunity to ask questions, nor to initiate any discussion.
Michelin has announced that car tyre, van tyre and rubber mixing production will cease at its Stoke-on-Trent factory in the second half of 2001. Production of truck retreads, mould and steel cord production will continue. In total, 950 jobs of the 2,350 currently on site will be lost. The move is part of Michelin’s European rationalisation programme.
In the hot cure field Michelin is the European market leader with its product Remix. “Recamic”, Michelin’s cold cure process six years in the making, is still eyed with curiosity.In Europe Michelin has been a strong competitor for many years and has a current market share in truck tyre retreading of 23 p.c., which it intends to raise to 30 p.c. by the year 2005.
The biennial Reifen show in Essen has grown and grown to become what is regarded as the most successful and most impressive show in Europe devoted to tyres and ancillary products. This year’s event was the 21st show and boasted 408 exhibitors – a 13% increase over 1998. 40 countries were represented at Reifen 2000. However, visitor numbers dropped 3.75% to 15,400, but this was regarded as not significant and due to a number of one-off factors rather than a sign that Reifen has begun to lose its appeal. Our review of the show includes articles on no fewer than sixty companies who were exhibiting, from all over the world and the coverage reflects the importance of what many regard as Europe’s premier tyre exhibition, and one which is attracting an increasingly global exhibitor and visitor base.
Goodyear announced that it is to be the official tyre supplier to the Canadian CASCAR Castrol Super Series, underlining the company’s commitment to stock car racing. Special Eagle tyres were developed in Akron and manufactured at the company’s racing tyre plant in Chile.
In Tokyo, shares in Bridgestone have risen 3.09 per cent to 1,300 Yen, having recovered from an eight year low earlier this month of 1,067 Yen. This comes despite the news that Saudi Arabia has banned Firestone tyres; an action described by Bridgestone as “uncalled for and extreme”.
The new Eagle NCT 5, introduced to the trade press at Goodyear’s own South of France test track in Mireval in mid-February, is a high-performance tyre in speed categories from H (up to 210 km/h) to Y (up to 300 km/h) with the emphasis on comfort. The manufacturer claims that the new type of tyre, immediately available in more than 20 sizes, is an improvement on its predecessor, the NCT 3 – sometimes to a very considerable extent – in braking on dry and wet roads or aquaplaning both in straight-line driving or cornering. The new product is aimed at an interesting growth market. 52 million tyres of speed index H and faster are currently sold in Europe per year, and this segment already covers 28 p.c. of the market (186 million tyres). The market share of high-performance tyres in Germany is about 35 p.c. at the moment, but still rising strongly. In the new NCT 5 Goodyear’s tyre developers had ecological qualities especially in mind. Compared with its predecessor the newly developed tyre can boast rolling resistance reduced by 20 p.c. and optimised tyre noise. In addition to the reduced rolling resistance which, according to the manufacturer, saves up to 5 p.c. in fuel, the NCT 5’s mileage is said to be improved by up to 25 p.c. In naming this new tyre Goodyear quite deliberately skipped the number 4, since the Far East, one of the target markets for the NCT 5, regards the number 4 as a symbol of impending disaster.
Michelin has won a five-year contract to supply trailer tyres to Transamerica Trailer Leasing (TTL) across Europe. TTL is Europe’s second-largest trailer leasing company, operating more than 21,000 trailers. The company is based in Barking, in the UK and has offices across Europe. It is owned by a Dutch bank. Michelin tyres will be specified as exclusive OE fitment on new trailers, while Michelin new and Remix tyres are being fitted to the fleet. No details of the value of the contract have been revealed, but TTL currently spends more than US$5 million on tyres annually.
Goodyear has unveiled an “intelligent tyre system” at a mining exhibition in the USA. The six tyres on a 240-ton truck are fitted with a transponder which measures temperature and pressure and transmits the information every three minutes. The data can be viewed in the cab or at a remote location and, should a tyre become hot, operators can adjust routes accordingly. Goodyear expects to have 250 transponders in service this year and full commercialisation early next.
In the last week of March Yokohama Rubber Co. presented the new A 539 tyre to the European trade press at the Japanese D-Parc (Daigo Proving Ground and Research Center). Thirty-three sizes of this tyre will be available in Europe, about 20 of them are already in the market, the remaining sizes to be introduced within the next four weeks. The A 539 has an asymmetrical tread pattern and, according to the manufacturer, the excellent qualities of sportiness, quiet running and good cornering stability on dry and especially on wet roads.
Firestone has been forced, for the second time in the company’s 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 Ford’s 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 didn’t 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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