4x4 Tyres Archives - Page 35 of 39 - Tyrepress

4×4 Tyres

Posts

Meeting Secures Threatened Jobs at Pirelli Plant in Spain

A July 21 meeting between Pirelli chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera, management from the company’s tyre manufacturing facility in Manresa, Spain and regional government officials has resulted in a deal that has reportedly secured the jobs of 280 Manresa factory employees.

On July 15 Pirelli issued a statement saying it had decided against building a new plant in the area as a result of unfavourable economic, automotive industry and tyre market conditions in the past 12 months. The company further announced it would instead restructure the current factory, opened in 1924, in order to retain its presence in Spain. This restructuring was to take the form of reducing production capacity and staffing at Manresa by 30 per cent in late 2008, and in future focusing upon higher added value products. At present the factory produces around 42,000 tonnes of passenger car and 4×4 tyres each year.

25th July 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Continental Puts European Tyre Prices Up 5%

Continental AG has announced that it will increase its European passenger car and light truck tyre prices (across of all brands) by 5 per cent. According to a company statement, the price hike comes in response to offset rising raw materials and energy costs and will take effect on 1 October. Continental increased prices by between 3 and 4 per cent in June.

In the UK, Continental Tyre Group will be increasing its prices a month earlier on 1 September, a move the company describes as being in line with the UK market strategy. The UK price rise will be in line with the wider European increase – 5 per cent across all passenger, van and 4×4 tyres and all Continental group brands. Continental is reportedly in the process of notifying customers this week.

14th July 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Grouptyre Launches Pirelli Tyre Sales Drive

As part of its recently announced restructuring programme Grouptyre is running a series of exclusive promotions designed to increase sales and improve market penetration. The first promotion is being organised in conjunction with Pirelli and offers independent tyre retailers and garages the chance to win an all expenses paid trip to the Spanish round of the World Rally Championships in October.

“Our aim is to develop into a national brand that plays the most influential role in the UK tyre market and to achieve this we intend to build retail sales through the independent sector,” says director of commercial operations Karl Naylor. “This is the first of a series of national incentives and special promotions we are planning to develop in conjunction with premium brand manufacturers.”

10th July 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Van den Ban Presents Its Brands

Van den Ban was an imposing presence at Reifen 2008 with a two level stand encompassing 170 m2 of exhibition space, displaying a wide assortment of premium and private brands. Blackstone, Novex, Federal, Hero, BCT, Silverstone and Sava were all exhibited.

VDB particularly concentrated on its Novex SUV Speed tyres, showing the wide range of SUV/4×4 tyres added to the Novex range during the last year. The SUV Speed is a very extensive line with sizes from 205/70/HR15 up to 275/40/WR20 and another 14 between them. The range boasts a very modern tread pattern, competitive quality/price ratio and the aforementioned wide choice of sizes.

8th July 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Unity Tyres Moves into New 28,500 sq ft Warehouse

After 26 years the Unity Tyre Co Ltd Northern Division has moved to new purpose built offices and a 28,500 sq ft warehouse in Keighley, West Yorkshire. Unity has operated its tyre distribution and wholesale service to Northern Division customers from the original site at Walk Mills, Keighley for almost three decades. Originally a woollen mill warehouse, Walk Mills was restricted in the amount of space available for the increase in stock holding that the company had planned as part of its expansion strategy. Unity needed to find premises that would allow scope for it to increase its stock holding so it could offer even more choice of products to its existing customer base in the North of England, as well as service the results of its successful sales and marketing drive.

13th June 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Apollo Tyres Appoints Chief of Research & Technology

Peter Becker, former senior manager at Goodyear Dunlop Germany, has been appointed Chief, Research and Technology at Apollo Tyres Ltd. He has formally joined the company this month and will be leading Apollo Tyres’ initiatives in tyre technology, research and new product development, especially with regard to European market needs. Mr Becker will be based in Germany, where he will be responsible for establishing an R&D facility for Apollo Tyres. He will be working with Apollo’s research, technology and design teams across geographical locations in India, South Africa and Europe. The company has previously announced plans for a 200 million euro passenger car radial tyre manufacturing facility in Hungary.

According to a company statement, the appointment forms part of Apollo Tyres Ltd’s ongoing plans for the European market. Peter Becker commented: “I am excited by this opportunity and impressed by the possibilities the future holds with Apollo Tyres. I am positive that we will be able to bring out competitive products which address customer needs.”

11th June 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Sinton Tyres Now Carries More Cooper Tyres Than Ever

Reportedly the largest independent stockist of the Cooper Tire range in the UK, Sinton Tyres representatives recently told Tyres & Accessories that the wholesaler has increased its Cooper offering still further, particularly on the items that are no longer available from Cooper Tire & Rubber Company in Melksham. The move is said to have come as a result of Cooper’s change of strategy in relation to 4×4 tyres.

The result is that Sinton Tyres Limited, reportedly the first authorised key dealer wholesaler to import the Cooper Tire brand back in 1994, now carries a greater breadth of stock than ever before. In fact Cooper Tyres now represent over 95 per cent of the products carried and Ian Bowell, Sinton General Manager, and his team are on hand to give comprehensive advice on options to original equipment specifications wherever required. Delivery is next working day anywhere in mainland UK.

5th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Generally Successful

Roughly a year ago Southam/Micheldever wholesale director, Alan Baldwin, told Tyres & Accessories that he expected General Tire’s 4×4 range to increase its UK market share by about 10 per cent. A year later, T&A asked if the company’s bold targets had been realised?

In answering that question with a resounding yes, Alan Baldwin explained that his calculations make Southam/Micheldever the largest seller of 4×4 tyres in the UK: “[Southam/Micheldever] had another phenomenal year in 2007…General 4×4 2007 sales grew by 15 per cent over 2006, and [the company] continues to produce the innovative tyre sizes that the very specialized UK market requires…More and more 4×4 tyre specialists and retailers stocking and selling the ever expanding General line up.”

5th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Maxxis Offers 4×4 Market Widest Range Yet

Following considerable sales in the USA, Maxxis is now targeting the UK 4×4 market with its largest range of off-road, on/off-road and road going tyres yet. Maxxis is promoting its products – which incorporate the biggest complete range to fit Land Rover 16 inch rims – with a high profile consumer advertising campaign in the leading 4×4 magazines, including Total Off Road, Land Rover World, Land Rover Monthly and Land Rover Enthusiast.

Meanwhile, Maxxis is expanding the range with the top-selling Marauder MA-S2 now available in four new sizes (235/60 R18 107V XL TL – for Volvo XC90 and Audi Q7 (2006 model onwards); 235/55 R18 100V TL – for Lexus RX300 [2003 model onwards] and RX400 [2005 model onwards]; 275/40 ZR20 106W XL TL – to fit the Range Rover [2005 model onwards], Porsche Cayenne and VW Touareg; and 255/65 R17 110H TL – for Nissan Navara [2005 model onwards] and 2006 and younger Pathfinders)

4th March 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Micheldever Develops Two-Wheel Efforts

The Micheldever name is well known across the tyre trade. As one of the leading UK wholesalers, Micheldever reports a turnover of £230 million, generated by selling a total of 7 million tyres each year. However, the fact that 70,000 of these are two-wheel products is something could easily be overlooked amongst all the masses of passenger (PCR) and 4×4 tyres that pass through the company each year. To those in the PCR tyre trade, this kind of volume may sound relatively small for a leading wholesaler, however in terms of the national two-wheel tyre market, this 70,000 tyres equates to just under 10 per cent share of the market. What’s more, the business has been operating at this level for the last three to four years, and as a motorbike tyre wholesaler for a decade.

4th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Going Wireless with Tyre Shredders UK

Northamptonshire based shredding specialists Tyre Shredders UK Limited (TSUK), a subsidiary of the Systems4Recycling Group, has a recycling ace up its sleeve – the company offers what it reports to be the only true single pass shredding system capable of removing virtually all tyre wire, creating 20mm rubber chip from whole passenger car and 4×4 tyres.

Two shredding systems are available from TSUK – the TS50 and the TS100 series. Both of these single pass machines deliver the pure 20mm rubber chip (TSUK reports that clean steel wire is removed from the tyre with only 5 to 9 per cent rubber contamination) that is frequently sought after by manufacturers of numerous rubber products, such as playground safety systems, equestrian surfaces and garden products.

24th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Keeps Charity Rolling with Tyre Donation

Bridgestone has donated a consignment of tyres to Mercy Ships, the international charity operating hospital ships that provide health care in some of the world’s poorest countries. A selection of Bridgestone’s rugged 4×4 Dueller tyres have been supplied, and these will see use on vehicles that travel into remote areas of the bush, across difficult terrain and dirt tracks to reach sick people that otherwise could not be treated.

For Des Collins, vice president Public Relations, Bridgestone Europe, this donation makes sense in several ways: “Bridgestone has a sister company in Liberia, Firestone Natural Rubber Company, which employs more than 6,000 people in the production of natural rubber. As a part of its commitment to employees and their families in Liberia, Firestone operates its own schools and hospitals there, and consequently knows well the local need for health care. Therefore, Bridgestone was attracted to helping Mercy Ships in their efforts in West Africa and we are confident that the Dueller 4×4 tyres will help them in their great work.”

24th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Tyrexpo Asia Continues to Grow Despite Clash of Dates

The sixth Tyrexpo Asia, held in Singapore in September, left no hint of a doubt as to the importance of the regional tyre market and of the show itself in comparison with other regions and events. The organisers of the biannual Tyrexpo Asia, the UK’s ECI International, have again been proud to present the show’s final figures, which show an exhibitor increase of about 30 per cent compared to the 2005 show: this year 125 companies from 25 different countries booked floor space in the Singapore Expo Center. In terms of booked floor space this year’s show has developed equally well: about 6,500 m² was covered which, representing a growth of 25 per cent. However, this success is not completely untarnished as the number of visitors might be expected to have grown on par – something that would been justified by the quality of exhibitors – if there had not been a clash of dates with the CITExpo tyre show in Shanghai, China. At the end ECI International reported a growth of nine per cent up to 3,219 registered visitors from 88 different countries.

22nd October 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Halfway Around the World with Cooper Tire

The ruggedness of Cooper Tire 4×4 tyres is being put to the test with an ambitious 40,000km trek from Cape Town in South Africa to London. Cooper’s products have been selected as the tyre of choice for the “Africa Overland” expedition, a journey being made by Australian couple Ron and Viv Moon. This is their eighth trip through the Continent in 20 years, and by mid-August the couple was already halfway through the mammoth 30-week adventure; Ron and Vic expect to arrive in London in mid-October.

With South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, the Serengeti and Kenya already visited, the Cooper Discoverer STT-shod, 4.2-litre Nissan Patrol will pass through a total of 16 countries in all. “The tyres have performed fantastically well,” said Ron Moon. “We’ve clocked up some 33,000km and put them through some of the toughest roads in Africa, varying from near non-existent tracks, to sandy Kalahari Desert roads and deep mud hole-dotted trails. They’ve been amazingly good for the areas we’ve been driving in, and the loads we’ve been carrying – our vehicle weighs around four tonnes.”

17th August 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Micheldever Releases First H-Rated 18-inch All Terrain 4×4 Tyres

In line with the company’s UK-focused product development, Micheldever/Southam Tyres have just released a number of new General Tire 4×4 sizes, including what the company describes as the first all-terrain 4×4 tyre in the world capable of H-rated performance with an 18-inch diameter. The new sizes are as follows:

255/60hr18 Grabber AT2 – According to Southam, this is the first all-terrain tyre available in this extremely important size for Land Rover Discovery, Range Rover, Isuzu Rodeo and Mitsubishi L200. Drivers and end users have “widely requested an upgrade product over the standard road pattern OE fitments,” according to company representatives. The only 18” ‘H’ rated All-Terrain tyre in the world, the 255/600r18 joins its hugely successful 255/55hr18 stablemate.

8th August 2007/by Tyrepress Editors