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14881

21st Annual Tire Industry Conference

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Clemson University will host the 21st annual Tire Industry Conference from 9 to 11 March at the Hilton Head Marriott Beach & Golf Resort in Hilton Head, South Carolina, Tire Review has reported. The conference will focus on changing facets of the tyre industry and how tyre and automotive manufacturers and consumers are affected. Twenty presentations will be conducted by representatives from the tyre manufacturing industry, academics and government. The impact of the economy on the tyre industry, vehicle dynamics and how the industry is addressing tyre safety issues are other issues that will be addressed at the conference. In addition, tyre-monitoring technologies, retreading, scrap tyres and the safety of oversized tyres promise to be hot topics, according to the magazine.

14882

Goodyear Sponsors British Skiing ‘Guru’

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Goodyear tyres have agreed sponsorship with Ali Ross – the guru of modern British skiing. Ali has carved a unique place in the world of ski instruction. In a statement detailing the news, Goodyear described, the skier’s ideas about technique as revolutionary, adding that it is just as concentrated on its technical excellence.

14883

‘Money not a Consideration’ for JK Tyre

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Indian manufacturer JK Tyre was reportedly one of three large companies that forked out nearly £16 million in sponsorship in order to see the Jordan F1 team hire Narain Karthikeyan. In fact, “money was really not a consideration” when it comes to F1 sponsorship, the company told the AFP news agency.

14884

Carlisle Tire & Wheel Sales up 19 per cent

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Carlisle Tire & Wheel Company has reported a 19 per cent increase in 2004 net sales, compared with the previous year. According to the company, most of the increase came from sales in commercial and consumer power equipment, lawn care products and ATV wheels and tyres.

14885

Kumho Tire Raises $363 Million in IPO

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Kumho Tire, South Korea’s second-largest tyre maker, raised 373 billion won (around £193 million) in its recent IPO, according to the Reuters news agency. The total equates to the country’s largest issue in more than six months, the report added.

Kumho, which controls 42 per cent of the home tyre market, is selling 25.49 million shares at 14,650 won each, near the midpoint of an expected range between 13,250 won to 16,000 won, a source familiar with the deal said. The world’s 11th-largest tyre maker, will use the proceeds to expand its operations in China and slash debt. The dual listing in London and Seoul attracted good demand while Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. of the United States pledged to buy nearly 30 per cent of the shares offered, the report concluded.

14886

Cooper Announces Three New Appointments

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Cooper Tire and Rubber has announced the appointment of three new managers. Dustin R Lepper has been named as manager of management education for The Cooper Learning Center, where he will facilitate training courses for the company and oversee other activities within the college of management education. Curt L Cramer has been appointed as territory sales manager, serving existing customers in the Northeast region as well as developing new business opportunities in this area of the country. Mr Cramer began his Cooper career in information technology eight years ago, and most recently served as a customer service coordinator. Clay S Lewis will become composite materials development manager, with responsibility for development of materials and compounds in the reinforcing components of tyres. Since joining Cooper as an trainee engineer in 1990, Lewis has worked as associate engineer, process engineer, tyre engineer and most recently as advanced manufacturing engineer.

14887

Tyre Wholesaler’s Group Annual Lunch

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One year after becoming chairman of the NTDA’s Tyre Wholesaler Group (TWG), Peter Gaster addressed his second TWG annual lunch. In his speech the managing director of Kings Road Tyres conveyed the TWG’s support for three millimetre tread depth, shared his thoughts on how businesses can protect their ever-decreasing margins, while warning members of the continuing and expensive reality of health and safety scrutiny. One of the industry’s best-known figures, Sir Tom Farmer, also addressed the collection of members and invited guests.

According to TWG chairman, Peter Gaster, profits margins are under continued attack: “In reality we all face many of the same problems and as we know tyre prices are on the way up, I think we will all have to carefully consider the need to remain competitive and take into account our rising costs, as I don’t think that wholesale margins can absorb these increases,” he said adding, “as wholesalers we need to focus on maintaining service, as essentially that is what we are, service providers. But rising costs are putting us under pressure to maintain this level of service and keep prices down.”

In his speech, Mr Gaster went on to define one source of this continuing pressure, the requirements of the health and safety executive. “I am not complaining about the need for proper and safe working conditions, and I understand that this needs to be monitored, but it appears to me that the tyre industry is under scrutiny and I can only repeat what I have said before – if you have not had a visit, you probably will,” he explained.

Wholesalers are not tax collectors

For Mr Gaster, the devil is in the detail: “I don’t hide from the fact that I am personally concerned about the increasing bureaucracy, red tape and legislation that this government continues to burden the industry with.” Warning that the powers that be were responsible for the current situation, the TWG chairman told of his frustration at being treated as an unpaid tax collector: “If anyone from the government should hear or read this speech, I will be very happy to explain in detail about my frustrations. I recently received a letter from our local MP who wanted to know how all the advantages of ‘government working with business’ was helping our company – I am still working on my response.”

However there was definitely a positive side to the story: “The good news is that the NTDA has been working closely with the health and safety executive and has recently agreed upon an advisory package regarding the manual handling of tyres in the workplace. I think it is fair to say that if the NTDA had not been consulted, the resulting regulations would have been extremely difficult to apply.”

When is an E-marked tyre not a European tyre?

The love/hate relationship between wholesalers and manufacturers was also briefly touched on. “I received a letter, as many of us did, from Goodyear/Dunlop regarding their right to protect their trademark on the one hand, and warnings about compounds etc on the other. In seeking clarification of these intentions I would ask one question. If a tyre is E-marked and is homologated for the EEC, wherever it is made, is that tyre not legal and fit for use in the UK?” From Sir Tom Farmer’s point of view this kind of banter comes with the territory. “They are just doing their job,” he said, adding that “its all part of the fun.”

Mr Gaster also highlighted the TWG’s “unanimous support” for the current campaign to improve awareness of three millimetre tread depth, which is being driven by Brian Smith of Continental. “We at the TWG and the NTDA are firmly behind this campaign and will do all we can to support it via out association and by choice as individual companies. Let us not forget that our parliamentarians and police forces do not ride on tyres with less than three millimetres tread depths.”

Referring to the government’s landfill directive, Mr Gaster explained that he was “delighted” to confirm that “the current thinking is the industry has taken care of the problem so far and has increased the recovery rate away from land fill up to approximately 85 per cent. Therefore the government has agreed to monitor this progress and in the meantime will not be putting forward mandatory legislation.”

14888

CGS Take Over Successfully

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The small Czech rubber group Ceská Gumárenaská Spolecnost (CGS) took over Continental’s agricultural business unit, Agrotyres, in November. As part of Continental the division demanded more attention to become truly successful, and CGS claims that it is now satisfying that. Of course, the moment the Czech company gained full responsibility of the business and its profit and loss statement, it was always going to receive its full attention. The newly acquired factory at Otrokovice is said to have transformed the business. Along with this and its new business ethic CGS is now in a position to focus on its core business.

Under Continental the unit was worth 100 million euros, yet its costs were so high that they ate into its profit and the agricultural business was not profitable until 2001; the year Thorsten Bublitz, CGS’ managing director of marketing and sales, believes the business truly “came into its own.” Under CGS the goal was to reach a double-digit profit by the end of 2004 and during an interview with Mr Bublitz in November he said: “It looks like we’ll make it.” In 2003 CGS’ turnover was 223 million euros, now, following the acquisition it is 320 million euros. The entire tyre sector turns over somewhere in the region of 230 million euros and tyres account for around 72 per cent of the company’s overall business. When it comes to the tyres, 60 per cent are agricultural products which rake in a turnover of around 130 million euros. The remainder of the company’s tyre sector is largely made up of industrial tyres.

The Czech company signed a license agreement with Continental giving it the right to use the Continental, Barum, Semperit and Euzkadi (sold only in Mexico) brand names. As far as its commitment to the Continental brands goes, it has signed a contract for the next 10 years, with a possible five year extension if it so wishes. The Conti and Barum brands are of the most importance to the company, followed closely by Mitas. The Barum brand is dominating its sales, and claims 80 per cent of the eastern European market according to Mr Bublitz. At present it still produces under the Uniroyal brand that belongs to Michelin and is licensed to Conti, but in CGS’ words the brand has a “short life.” The brands have been seen as lower quality in the past and CGS is tackling this quality issue by assuring the standard of the products in the market. The company wants the Conti brand to equal quality and will try to achieve this by stabilising its position in the market. By striving to improve brand image, it is attempting to gain more influence in the market.

With the amount of brands on the market increasing and the amount of shelf space decreasing, many retailers are concentrating on the premium brands and the higher margins that go with them. Because of this budget brands are being pushed off the shelves. Does CGS believe its budget brands will survive a reorganisation in the market? Mr Bublitz thinks so, as far as the tyres’ quality goes, he claims that the customer is getting “more than it pays for,” and he suggests that the decrease in customer claims against the tyres speaks for the improvement in quality.

14889

Amtel Aims to Expand into Europe

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Following the news that Amtel was in “detailed discussions” with Vredestein Banden, Amtel president, Sudhir Gupta has confirmed that his company will buy Vredestein Banden and that it is planning initial public offerings (IPO) in London and Moscow in the next two years.

According to Dr Gupta, Amtel is planning a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange followed by a secondary listing on the Russian Stock Exchange. In a conversation with far eastern business publication, Business Times, Dr Gupta explained why the IPO would take place in London and not New York. “Europeans always understand Russia better than the Americans and most of the investment in Russia is European. That’s why we think London is a better place to list.” The secondary listing is also the result of ‘encouragement’ from the authorities for successful companies to list on the Russian Stock Exchange, and because “the stock exchange has good liquidity because of high oil prices.”

The listings are due to take place in one of two time frames; either October to November 2005 or April to May the year after, the Amtel president said.

Currently, Dr Gupta owns about 85 per cent of Amtel. An international investment fund managed by Templeton Asset Management Ltd, owns 5.65 per cent, while 10 per cent of Amtel’s shares were recently sold in a private placement for $34.2 million. These shares were bought by about 22 institutional investors in Europe, the US and Russia.

It is clear that a key part of Amtel’s expansion plans will involve venturing outside of Russian borders. One part of this is the company’s purchase of Vredestein Banden. By purchasing the Dutch company, Amtel appears to have been aiming to buy a ready-made foothold in the market. At the moment Vredestein sells 40 per cent its tyres in Europe’s biggest market (Germany) and has well organised distribution operations across Europe.
When the news of this transaction broke, Tyres & Accessories spoke to Vredestein CEO, Rob Oudshoorn. He described the venture as a win-win situation, saying, “one plus one equals three.” When the Vredestein boss visited Amtel’s factory in the summer, he said that he was surprised to see such modern equipment, maintaining that it was of a similar standard to Vredestein’s Enschede facility.

From his point of view, there is still a quality gap between imported products and those produced in Russia. Apart from believing that it can fill this gap, Vredestein sees Amtel’s size and influence as positive factors that will help it to reach further.
For Dr Gupta, there were other economic reasons for the transaction. “We had two options, either go ahead, spend money and time to build a global brand out of Amtel or go out and do some acquisition. So we agreed to buy this brand,” he told Business Times adding “we are looking to buy 100 per cent.” According to Amtel’s president, the sale is expected to be completed by middle of March 2005. When the two companies merge, they are expected to have a combined market value of $1 billion.

Dr Gupta is surprisingly pragmatic about doing business in Russia. This is surprising, because only a few years ago he survived an assassination attempt, something that would put most people off a country. According to the businessman, the men responsible for the murder attempt have been caught and will be prosecuted very soon. Despite his experience, Dr Gupta still believes Russia is a good place to do business, citing the country’s geographical position, the education of its people and its rich supply of natural resources as reasons to stay.

14890

Yokohama Offers Global ADVAN-tage

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Japanese based tyre manufacturer Yokohama has officially launched its Advan brand. In an effort to unify its global image, Yokohama will now adopt one name for its premium products, instead of the regional variations that currently exist. According to Yokohama, the newly launched brand reflects the company’s “highest performance” and “highest quality” image. From now on, the Advan name will adorn all of the company’s new global high performance products. At the same time as launching this new product concept, the company also released two new Advan branded high performance products, the Advan Sport and Advan ST.

Although Yokohama only launched Advan as its “global flagship brand” recently, the name has actually been rolling around for a while, having first been introduced in 1978 as a motorsport tyre. Prior to its international re-launch, Advan was also associated with sports category products, mainly in Japan. In terms of branding, Yokohama considers itself to be something of a pioneering company. It claims to have challenged tyre manufacturers involved in motorsport activity at that time, by sponsoring a “works coloured” vehicle.

Speaking to Yokohama HPT managing director, David Seward revealed that next year Yokohama, and therefore Advan, would be involved in 26 motorsport events. In addition, the company will be running a UK dealer scheme in order to further promote its flagship brand. While attending the Advan launch in Dubai, Tyres & Accessories also learnt that Yokohama would be involved in Le Mans Endurance Series and would also be likely to take part in the Le Mans 24 hour race.

The so-called 2003 Advan Le Mans project is probably the most high profile event Yokohama has been involved in recently. In this instance the car not only ran on Advan tyres, but was plastered top-to-bottom in Advan colours and marketing paraphernalia. The car was driven by Japanese ex-Formula 1 driver, Ukyo Katayama, who was also on hand in Dubai to testify to the products’ quality. According to the Kamikaze Katayama, as he is sometimes known, any doubts he had about the quality of the tyres were proved wrong by the end of the race.

Now having publicised that it will use the new brand globally, Yokohama plans to continue with its “aggressive” two-pronged marketing strategy. That is, motorsport involvement and securing high profile OE contracts. The most recent example of this is the Bentley Continental GT. The GT is capable of speeds up to 198 mph and as such is fitted with ZR rated 20 inch versions of the new Advan Sport. In this instance the tyre features an embossed Bentley ‘B’ logo highlighting both the exclusivity of the vehicle and its associated tyres. Yokohama Rubber says it plans to continue pursuing this type of co-development opportunity and other similarly high profile associations look likely.

Yokohama plans to develop the Advan name into a “top-of-the-line” brand across all of its tyre categories including its Luxury and SUV lines. That is why the company released two new products and launched the Advan brand simultaneously. Available in 17 to 22 inch sizes, the ZR rated Advan sport, is described as a tyre that “boasts ultrahigh performance as well as driving comfort and quietness.” The ADVAN ST is a SUV tyre designed for use with high-powered SUVs. During production Yokohama tested the tyres’ high performance capabilities on the Nurburgring circuit. The company also assessed the product’s real-life high-speed proficiency on the German autobahn.

It was no coincidence that Yokohama chose to launch its new “global flagship” brand identity in Dubai, a country with growing associations to motorsport. One obvious reason for travelling to the United Arab Emirates was for the company to present the opportunity to test its latest offering on the Dubai Autodrome. The new course is competing to become a future Formula 1 venue, and therefore is certainly capable of testing the products’ high-speed resilience.

14891

Only One F1 Tyre Supplier?

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Formula 1 could soon become a single manufacturer series, the BBC has reported. Max Mosely has said that he is “strongly in favour” of the move, according to the minutes of a high level meeting the BBC claims to have seen. Mr Mosley, the FIA president, is said to have agreed with Ferrari, the only other team at the meeting, to discuss the idea with F1’s tyre suppliers. Ferrari also backed the idea of a significant reduction in testing as part of proposals to cut costs. The issue of rising costs and how to keep them under control has caused a split between Ferrari and the other nine teams, who refused to attend the meeting last week.

14892

Amtel Revenues up 18 per cent

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Amtel Holdings Holland (AHH) has announced that company revenues grew to $451 million in 2004, up 18 per cent. “Amtel produced more than 14 million tyres in 2004, making it a record-breaking year,” Mr Gurin noted. The unaudited results were made public by AHH managing director, Alexei Gurin, during a press briefing at Russia’s biggest annual tyre exhibition – Tires & Rubber 2005.

14893

Pirelli Confirms 2005 Motorsport Involvement

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Pirelli Tyres has confirmed its continued involvement with motorsport series across the British Isles. In the 2005 season the manufacturer will support the Kwik Fit Pirell British Rally Championship, The Irish Tarmac Championship and the Maranello Ferrari Challenge, to name but three.

14894

Bandag Profits Increase 10 per cent

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Bandag Inc experienced a 10 per cent increase in profits during 2004, Tire Review has reported. According to the magazine, Bandag 2004 results also showed a 5 per cent increase in net sales compared to its 2003 figures. During 2004 Bandag recorded sales of $854.2 million, compared with $816.4 million in 2003, and net profits of $66.9 million, compared with $60.2 million in 2003.

14895

Goodyear Dunlop Supports Tsunami Relief

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Goodyear Dunlop has teamed up with Southern Vectis providing tyres for ten IVECO 59-12 vehicles that the bus company is pledging to Asia Bus Response, a UK-wide appeal for vehicles by the bus industry.

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