BMTR Group Make New Board Appointments
Birmingham based tyre wholesaler and distributor BMTR Group has announced the appointment of Gary Hickman as director and general manager. Mr Hickman will be based at the group’s Perry Barr site.
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‘Without Us Britain Stops Moving’
Product NewsAs part of the NTDA’s series of 75th anniversary celebrations, association chairman, Martin Rowlands, and director, Richard Edy invited NTDA members to ‘walk the halls of power.’
On a sweltering midsummer’s evening the Houses of Parliament provided the backdrop for NTDA members to rub shoulders with parliamentarians. The evening reception was held at the invitation of David Lidington, Member of Parliament for the NTDA’s home constituency, Alylesbury.
In their welcoming speeches Mr Lidington and Mr Rowlands encouraged dialogue between the industry and government. “We value our relationship with both government MPs and the civil service and will continue to represent our members interests on government working groups covering scrap tyre disposal and road safety. As one of the guest MPs said: ‘it is important that a trade association has a voice and that we parliamentarians have an organisation with whom we can talk’,” said Martin Rowlands.
Throughout the evening guests had the opportunity to network with influential members of the tyre business and, in chairman Martin Rowlands’ words, “bend the ear of politicians, with a particular interest in our industry.”
NTDA 75th Anniversary
Product NewsAs part of the association’s celebrations of its 75th anniversary, the National Tyre Distributors Association is holding a reception and buffet in the House of Commons. The reception will be attended by a number of MPs who have interests in the tyre sector and key industry figures. Tyres & Accessories will be there too bringing you coverage of the event from the nation’s capital.
NTDA Members Walk the Halls of Power
Product NewsAs part of the NTDA’s 75th anniversary celebrations, association chairman, Martin Rowlands, and director, Richard Edy invited guests to ‘walk the halls’ of power and attend an evening reception in the Houses of Parliament. The reception was held at the invitation of David Lidington, member of Parliament for the NTDA’s home constituency, Alylesbury.
Ford Keeps It In The Family
Product NewsAt its AGM, which coincided with the company’s 100th anniversary, Ford shareholders rejected proposals that would have weakened the Ford family’s hold over the company had they been accepted. Ford family members own four per cent of the company’s shares but control forty per cent of the voting rights. A further proposal, to set up a committee to investigate possible conflicts of interest between the Ford family and other shareholders, was also rejected, but attracted almost twenty per cent of the vote.
Scottish Plant To Manufacture New Michelin Tyre
NewsMichelin’s Dundee plant is to manufacture the new Michelin Energy 3 tyre being launched this week. This is good news for the workers at the Baldovie plant. The future of the plant had recently been the subject of speculation as Michelin moved production to cheaper labour cost centres in Eastern Europe. However the announcement of the selection of Dundee to manufacture the new tyre brings a boost in confidence. Plant manager, Trish Bailey said, ” This is a very positive signal for the Dundee factory going into the future. The new tyre is at the very heart of the Michelin range and we are going to play a very important role at the centre of its production. This will contribute to job security for the workers in Dundee.”
Looking Back Over 20 Years Of NEUE REIFENZEITUNG
Product NewsOver the past two decades, many things of interest have happened in the tyre industry, reported in the pages of NEUE REIFENZEITUNG and our twentieth anniversary is a good time to look back over some of these events. It is not our intention to produce an historic overview, rather to remind you of some of the significant happenings in the market which were important at the time and are still having an effect today. For example, we have seen many takeover attempts of tyre companies – both friendly and unfriendly – from which we have learned that biggest is not always best. Fifteen years ago, the Goodyear group was worth more at the Stock Exchange than today; now it is worth $4 bn, fifteen years ago, Goldsmith offered $6 bn. There have been many changes in the tyre trade too, and methods of selling tyres have changed significantly. Cooperations have been successful, but above all we have seen the development of Partnerships between the industry and the trade; today the basis for these agreements is more rational than emotional. Last but not least there are a lot of people who have made the news over the past twenty years. Among these are tyre dealer Schütze, the man who awarded himself numerous academic qualifications, and tyre dealer Hesse, who was the brightest shooting star of the early 80s, and bankrupt in 1984. On the other hand there is the tyre dealer from Weiden, Peter Unger, who had a big success story with his ATU stores; a success which is still on-going. Among the many other personalities worth mentioning is Horst W. Urban, the man whose actions ensured that Continental has remained an independent company, and Marco Tronchetti Provera; probably the most successful tyre company manager over the last decade.
50 Years of Eibach
Product NewsIn Mid-September, the Spring-, Suspension- and Chassis-specialist celebrated its 50th anniversary in Finnentrop, with the slogan: “50 years of experience – Ready for the future.” More than 400 guests accepted the invitation for the central celebration event, approximately 50 percent of them being customers, coming from 40 countries. The terror attacks in the USA had their effect on this event too: is it possible to celebrate an anniversary thinking about thousands of victims in the States and the pain of their families? “The main impact has come from our colleagues in the United States, who wanted us to continue with the programme. We also want to give a example of multinational understanding and positive relations”, declared a visibly-moved Wilfried Eibach, head of the family owned company. The success story started in 1951 with the production of industry springs. In the Seventies the department for automotive springs was founded. Nowadays the name Eibach is known world-wide as a synonym for leading chassis technology. For some years the programme has gone far beyond the pure spring. The construction process has been supported by “CAD”-applications and it has carried out pioneer work in the field of new methods of corrosion-protection. Also the chassis system harmonisation is a huge field of activities in the year 2001. Today Eibach AG stands as a family holding on top of the German company group, consisting of four daughter companies. Abroad, Eibach is represented with production, engineering and/or distribution facilities in Irvine (California, USA), Broughton Astley (Leicestershire, GB), Tokyo (Japan) and Warriewood (New South Wales, Australia) and through more than 50 exclusive distributors. In Germany the 250 employees have achieved a turnover of 25.2 million Euro. The world-wide turnover in 2000 of the 400 employees amounted to 48 million Euro. During the celebration guests had practical experience of the secret of Eibach’s success: the fact that – beyond the many technological qualifications – the family owners have never neglected the human dimension, and they have always been aware of their social responsibilities.
“Snowprox S950” – Toyo’s New Winter Tyre
Product NewsIn the autumn “Snowprox S950” will be available in 55/50/45/40-series. According to Toyo, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in Germany this year, the new winter tyre has (compared with its predecessor “M+S 920”) improved its performance dramatically.
New Technical Centre Building For Bridgestone in Tokyo
Product NewsBridgestone Corporation celebrated the completion of a major addition to its Tokyo Technical Centre on Monday, November 13th. The new building is part of a year-long series of events to mark Bridgestone’s 70th anniversary in March 2001. On hand for the completion ceremony were 56 Bridgestone executives, employees and guests, including Bridgestone President and Chief Executive Officer Yoichiro Kaizaki. The company has invested about 65 million Dollars in the project. The new Technical Centre Building stands eight stories tall and offers a floor space of around 34,000 square metres, bringing the total floor space at the Technical Centre to around 53,000 square metres.
Fifty Years Of Matador – Transformation Process Concluded
Product NewsAt the beginning of May the Slovak tyre manufacturer Matador celebrated the 50th anniversary of the company. The rubber factory in Puchov continued the long tradition of the trademark, which started in Slovakia’s present capital, Bratislava, in 1905. In the thirties Matador tyres were already original equipment on all vehicles then produced in Czechoslovakia. In those days Matador’s market share in the CSR was more than 20 p.c. Building work at the Puchov factory started in 1947, and the first tyres left the new production facility three years later, on 1st May 1950. In 1953 restructuring of the Czechoslovak tyre industry took place. A new trademark was created: Barum, combining the three manufacturers Bata, Rubena and Matador. From then on the Puchov factory also produced under this brand name. After the partition of Czechoslovakia in 1993 the Barum brand was taken over by Continental. The Puchov factory, however, was not part of the deal and reverted to the old brand name Matador. Today Puchov exports more than 80 p.c. of its output under this registered trademark. The 1999 turnover of the group of companies was about 600 million DM, with the tyre activities claiming a 65 p.c. share. Investments amounted to almost 15 million DM, and 12 million DM was spent on the research and development sector. This year investments are scheduled to double. More financial resources will be directed towards sales support measures and marketing for a further improvement in market acceptance. Since January 1999 Matador has produced radial truck tyres in a production joint venture with Continental, but with the distribution of the tyres still handled separately by the two partners. In the course of an ambitious restructuring programme the Puchov factory is to be thoroughly modernised to become the largest radial truck tyre factory in Europe. Read more in NEUE REIFENZEITUNG 5/2000.
