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Hervé Coyco, Michelin Group Executive Council member responsible for worldwide car sales, will takeover responsibility for the running of Michelin’s Asia Pacific operations from Jean-Marc Francois. Francois is taking a year out to complete an MBA course before returning to the company in order to pursue other leadership positions.
Michelin motorsport director, Pierre Dupasquier has bowed out from international motorsport following the company’s 100th pole position and another Grand Prix win. Whilst always likely to be a Michelin pole – the French brand has taken 18 of the 19 top spots in qualifying this season – the 100th such achievement was a fitting way for Dupasquier to leave the F1 paddock, having presided over the company’s return to F1.
The tyre retail system in countries like Norway, Sweden and Finland presents a fairly unique brand of independent tyre retailing. Perhaps the best demonstration of this can be found in the example of Nordic retail group, Dekk Partner. Tyres & Accessories met the group’s managing director, Leif Kristiansen, and asked what other national markets can learn from the tyre trade in the north of Europe.
The success of the Dekk Partner retail group is quite possibly the European tyre industry’s best-kept secret. Think this is an exaggeration? Just look at the numbers. The group’s collective turnover is expected to reach up to 300 million euros in 2005. In recent years the Nordic tyre retail group has seen its geographical spread, number of branches and, consequently, its turnover grow dramatically.
(Akron/Tire Review) Shortly after announcing plans to develop polyurethane-based retread stock, Amerityre has joined the TRIB. “We are pleased to have Amerityre as a member of TRIB. They plan on becoming an important player in the retread industry and recognize TRIB as the only international association exclusively dedicated to promoting the use of retreaded tyres worldwide,” said Harvey Brodsky, TRIB’s managing director.
This year Cheshire-based casing dealership, Global Remould Services, is celebrating its first decade in business. Much has changed since the beginning. 10 years ago the company turned over £180,000 worth of casing sales. Now annual turnover is almost 20 times that size (roughly £3.5 million). When a casing dealership grows this much, it is important that it also owns it own fleet. That’s why last year Global Remoulds purchased a tractor unit and three trailers to assist in the transportation of the 100,000 tyres that the company handles each year.
Continental Tire North America has announced that it is increasing prices on its replacement passenger and light truck/SUV tyres by up to 8 per cent. However, the increase is not due to take effect until 1 January 2006. The price increase includes all Continental, General and private brand tyres.
Less than a month ago, Continental announced a second price increase in the US (passenger and light truck tyres), of between 3 and 8 per cent, which became effective 1 October after a 6 per cent rise last February. Analysts expect Continental and the industry in general to fully offset raw material price increases.
(Akron/Tire Review) Consumer Reports magazine has rated Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s Assurance TripleTred as best overall in tests of 18 different all-season tyres. The testing was done for the magazine’s annual tyre roundup in its November issue.
(Akron/Tire Review) The merger of Galaxy Tire & Wheel Inc. and Dynamic Tire Corp. has been completed, resulting in the creation of GPX International Tire Corp. The Boston-based Galaxy Tire and Toronto-based Dynamic Tire announced their merger plans this past June.
Combined as GPX, the companies will post some $300 million in sales for 2005, officials said, and will have operations in North America, Europe and Asia. GPX officials said that the new firm will market Galaxy and Primex brands as its “flagship” tyre brands.
Illegally storing 10,000 tyres cost a Halifax man more than £2,000, according to the Environment Agency. Halifax Magistrate’s Court fined Simon John McCormack a total of £500 and ordered him to pay compensation of £1,034 to SHD Holdings. A contribution of £500 to the costs of the Environment Agency, which brought the case, was also imposed.
Michelin has started an Economical Development Fund with the aim of helping small and medium sizes enterprises (SMEs) and creating more jobs. The company itself is providing 250 new places in Nyíregyháza through a 60 million euro investment, said regional director Joel Pouget. The factory in Nyíregyháza, which produces tractor tyres for the European market, will expand to include car tyre production from September. The company, as part of its Michelin Development Project, will sponsor SMEs within a 50-kilometer distance from its sites. They will also provide support in terms of loans of up to 1 million euros a year, the Budapest Business Journal reported.
Yokohama Rubber’s IAA exhibit was designed to continue the manufacturer’s strategy of pushing its premium Advan range. Under the banner of “Further Evolving Advan - A Global Flagship Brand” Yokohama showed visitors its commitment to becoming a world leader in tyre brand development through three aspects - its flagship product line-up, OE activities and motorsports activities.
When Tyres & Accessories last wrote about the pressures facing wholesalers, the issues pressing the business were not too dissimilar to what there are today. Then raw material price increases at the manufacturer level, not to mention high oil prices, were in danger of effecting wholesale pricing policies. Today oil prices (affecting both raw material and transportation costs) are almost 50 per cent higher, and almost all manufacturers have raised their product prices at least once if not twice this year. In order to get a feeling for how these issues are affecting international wholesalers, T&A spoke to representatives of US company Zisser Tire and Belgium-based Deldo.
Vredestein has launched a new agricultural tyre, which it describes as “the new standard for modern medium-class tractors.” The Traxion85 represents the latest stage of development of the company’s Traxion+ series, which has been on the market since 1997. The new tyre is available in 14 sizes.
(Akron/Tire Review) RMA says that shipments of tread rubber will grow in 2005, producing some 17 million retreaded tyres, the third consecutive year that tread stock shipments have increased. While overall economic growth is expected to moderate in 2005, RMA said that strong demand for OTR tyres will add 2.3 per cent in total tread rubber shipments for the year, up from 2004’s 1.5 per cent growth.
Continued strength in construction, increases in the number of trucks, expansion in the manufacturing sector and positive freight trends will sustain growth through 2007 at an annualised rate of 1.7 per cent. The RMA report did not include allowances for any additional tyre use as a result of reconstruction work in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Traditionally Dutch wholesalers can be among the most important business contacts tyre dealers can have. Their reliable feel for trade business is almost expected in Europe, and company news is often news of expansion. This also applies to Tyre Trading International BV (TTI). The Dutch wholesaler based in Numansdorp (south of Rotterdam) is currently building a new on-site warehouse, which will eventually increase TTI’s capacity from 40,000 to 70,000 units. Talking to Tyres & Accessories, owner Peter van’t Hof and his son Dr Peter-Alexander van’t Hof explained the reasons for this expensive step.
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