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Pirelli has announced its title sponsorship of the Offroad British Masters Series in 2015. Run by Offroad Motorsport UK, the Pirelli British Masters Series will be run over six rounds at some of the UK’s top motocross circuits, including Foxhills and HawkstonePark. The manufacturer said it would enhance the availability of rider tuition and prizes for competitors as part of the deal.
Early in the Tyre Talks that ran in parallel with October's Brityrex, NTDA director Stefan Hay offered a strong, but pragmatic line on the current state of part worn sales within the UK tyre market as well as suggestions for how the market should approach this part of the business.
Hay began by quantifying the current scale of demand. In short, the NTDA director suggested that there were upwards of 4.5 million part worns being sold on these shores each year. While this is at the top end of part worn market estimates – which are notoriously difficult to objectively and empirically measure – it is difficult to counter the widespread feeling that “part worn dealers are opening up at an alarming rate” across the country. Indeed any alarm associated with the possibility that the part worn market could equate to circa 10-15 per cent of the whole passenger car market's replacement tyre demand (based on a 30+ million total market figure) or that this could well be growing in line with the openings of new part worn dealers, will only be amplified by the examples of non-compliance and downright dangerousness that recent NTDA, TyreSafe and Trading Standards research revealed.
Car and van fleets add £19.5 billion to the UK economy each year, according to market research firm Sewells, which released the figure during an industry briefing at a recent Fleet200 quarterly meeting.
The figure is based on an average annual running cost of between £4500 and £6500 per vehicle and a fleet car parc, which is said to be roughly 3 million units in total. Therefore the parc is said to add £19.5 billion annually. Based on commonly held long term averages that suggest cars require one new tyre per car per year, this could also suggest that the fleet parc consumes 3 million tyres a year or a bit under 10 per cent of total annual tyre demand.
Kumho staged a UK launch for its updated product range at Rockingham Motor Speedway. Dubbed the ‘Kumho Experience’, the manufacturer’s UK marketing director John Thrupp introduced the day long event, which allowed Kumho’s national network of dealers and media guests to sample the performance characteristics of such tyres as the Solus HS51 premium tyre, which became available in the last quarter of 2013.
A new study carried out by ICM Research for Kwik Fit suggests that 22 per cent of British drivers have purchased part-worn tyres for their car at some stage and nine per cent – a figure that represents close to three million drivers – have done so in the past year. However the survey of 2,561 adults in the UK found that only 17 per cent of respondents would consider buying used tyres in the future, with many saying they wouldn’t do so as they have experienced problems as a result of opting for used rubber.
TyresOnTheDrive.com has been awarded Cheshire Business of the Year (11-50 employees) at the prestigious Trinity Mirror, Cheshire Business Awards. The awards, which recognise the achievements and success of businesses of all sizes across the Cheshire region, were held at Chester Cathedral and hosted by popular Granada TV presenter Lucy Meacock.
The Business of the Year award which celebrates corporate achievements, business strategy, financial performance and potential for the future, was presented to TyresOnTheDrive by Jonathan Whittaker of SAS Daniels LLP. Despite strong competition, TyresOnTheDrive were able to demonstrate a marked differentiation across other similar sized businesses competing for the title of business of the year.
Cooper Tire & Rubber is now evaluating the first tyres it has built using rubber derived from guayule plants, and says that to-date the wheel, road and track tests suggest tyre performance that is at least equal to tyres manufactured using traditional Hevea-sourced rubber. The tyre maker reported this development to its consortium partners – PanAridus, Arizona State University, Cornell University, and the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS) – at the group’s recent meeting for its third annual meeting and progress report on their US$6.9 million Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) grant, ‘Securing the Future of Natural Rubber—An American Tire and Bioenergy Platform from Guayule.’
At the beginning of 2014, Kings Road Tyres entered a new era. A controlling interest in the wholesaler was purchased by a group involving Chinese European and North American interests, and involving the Sailun Group “indirectly”. Following its sale, the existing management team, led by Adrian Bader, has overseen the development of its brand portfolio, with an increased involvement in the passenger car segment for the commercial vehicle tyre specialist heralded by an agreement to distribute Aeolus-branded PCR and 4×4 products. KRT says this deal, launched at October’s Brityrex show, alongside other investments in its brand portfolio and business infrastructure is setting up leading UK tyre wholesaler Kings Road Tyres (KRT) for a sustained period of long-term growth.
Liverpool-based wholesaler Kirkby Tyres & Wheels has expanded to become one of the biggest – if not the biggest – wholesalers of agricultural tyres and wheels in the UK and Ireland during its 60-plus year history. The distributor now boasts a range of more than 6,000 different product lines, with sole distributorship deals on Alliance, Double Coin, Longmarch, Malhotra and Sailun brands within certain segments. It was also appointed as the wholesale distributor for Trelleborg’s premium agricultural tyre products, alongside Trelleborg Wheel Systems’ direct tyre dealer network.
British aviation tyre manufacturer, Dunlop Aircraft Tyres has identified a site in Mocksville, North Carolina as the preferred base for its first retreading facility in the United States. The world’s only specialist aircraft tyre manufacturer and retreader announced its decision to establish the facility in order to boost its competitiveness across the Americas.
A new habit in cost cutting measures by major transport companies in Australia is likely to come back to haunt them, according to independent industry expert, Brad Bearman, who says the revamping of tyre purchasing and management dynamics to save costs is highly likely to emerge further down the track as a higher expense.
“In general, a sizeable percentage of the larger transport companies are dropping links with the better-known tyre companies such as Michelin, Bridgestone and Beaurepaires for their supply and servicing,” said Mr Bearman. “Instead, they are purchasing tyres directly from non-traditional Asia-based producers and appointing inexperienced in-house tyre fitters in the false belief they will get better results. This is good in principle, but the real problems will emerge a little further down the track,” added Mr Bearman, developer of the world’s only software based Bears Tyre Tracker.
Falken is bringing its latest on/off-road truck tyres to the UK. The Sumitomo brand says it is building on the popularity of its products in the construction sector in the US, where the M+S marked and regroovable GI388 and GI378 tyres are already available. Falken is targeting operators seeking affordable yet resilient truck tyres, versatile enough to cope with the growing market demand for mixed usage on a daily basis.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton used a three-stop strategy to win in Singapore. After three stints on the P Zero Red supersoft, Hamilton completed the race on the P Zero Yellow soft. Hamilton was challenged by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, running a two-stop strategy from fourth on the grid. Vettel did two opening stints on the supersoft and then a final stint on the soft at the end of the grand prix, when the car was at its lightest on low fuel. His team-mate Daniel Ricciardo followed the same strategy to finish third in front of the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.
Dunlop will seek to extend its 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans success into next year as the manufacturer launches its 2015 GT testing programme. Dunlop also signalled its intention to expand its endurance racing activities to include new specification tyres for ‘open tyre’ GT classes.
Two Nokian winter tyres have achieved top results in German magazine winter tests. The Finnish manufacturer’s WR SUV 3 won both the test and a top “highly recommended” rating in the winter tyre test of German magazine Off Road, while the WR D3 passenger car tyre won a test conducted by Deutscher Sprachraum automobile clubs.
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