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UK Fleet Success Keeps Bridgestone Growth Consistent

Product News, UK News

In contrast with some other premium manufacturers Bridgestone’s 2006 and first half 2007 sales both grew 1 – 2 per cent. According to Bridgestone UK’s commercial sales director, Greg Ward, the key to the company’s continued growth in the mature market is consistency and continuity. From his perspective, the recent news that the company has retained the Ryder contract for another three years is case in point. (In this instance Bridgestone beat off early competition from another competitor to retain the 10-year long working relationship it has with the Ryder fleet). “If the second half is as good as the first half, I will be delighted,” added Ward.

Most sources agree that the influence and volume of Chinese products grew during 2006, but at the same time premium manufacturers like Bridgestone appear unfazed by their rapid growth. In response to the question of increased competition from the Far East Greg Ward commented: “Chinese & Budget brands may be trialling their products on fleets, but the biggest, most professional fleets need professional service providers in addition to tyres. The Truck Point Network is a real winner in this respect.” In addition, the recent US recall situation should be take as a warning, Ward added.

27th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone’s Think Before You Drive” Awarded in Spain

Bridgestone’s globally successful ‘Think Before You Drive’ campaign has been the beneficiary of further accolades, this time in Spain. The road show event conducted in that country has been voted the country’s “Best Responsible Event” in the Eventoplus Awards, Spain’s top marketing events awards programme. The prestigious prize was presented at the Eventoplus 2007 Awards ceremony held in Madrid on 10th July. The road-show campaign was one of 38 finalists from 159 nominated candidates.

The road show covered 6,500 km and crossed 26 Spanish cities during 2006, promoting key road safety messages to adults and children. It was a highly visible event in Bridgestone Spain’s overall road safety programme and included more than 8,000 free tyre safety inspections for Spanish motorists. In granting the award, the Eventoplus jury placed particular emphasis upon the attributes of corporate social responsibility that characterised the event. Other aspects that helped Bridgestone secure the award were the originality of the campaign, its precision in reaching the target and its effectiveness in terms of results.

26th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Awarded “Superbrand” Status in Germany

The globally recognised independent authority on consumer opinion and branding, Superbrands, has identified the “Bridgestone” brand as one of the strongest brand names in its 2007 awards in Germany. This year’s German awards are the third held in that country, and the tyre major was one of a hundred companies nominated by the Superbrands judging panel of financial journalists and industry experts.

The stated aim of Superbrands is to identify and spotlight excellent product names in individual countries, and to honour these companies through the conferring of awards. Independent business experts initiate the selection process by first nominating a number of outstanding product brands and trademarks present in their own country. The selection panel then is given the task of evaluating these companies and choosing one hundred that stand head and shoulders above the rest. The criteria for selection are the prevalence and acceptance of the brand name or trademark, customer loyalty, the durability of the brand and the brand value of the business enterprise.

25th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Ryder Awards Bridgestone UK & Truck Point network 3 year Contract

Ryder has awarded Bridgestone UK and its Truck Point network partners a new three-year contract. Under the arrangement, Bridgestone UK will supply new replacement and original equipment tyres, Qualitread retread truck tyres and tyre services though its national Truck Point service network.

Greg Ward, Bridgestone UK Commercial Director, said: “We are delighted that Ryder have awarded Bridgestone and Truck Point a new three year contract. We have been in partnership for over ten years and the new contract extends this even further. We share the same beliefs and hold the same values, the new contract is a great vote of confidence in our products and services.”

24th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone President Honoured with Polish Award

Shoshi Arakawa, chairman of the board, CEO and president of Bridgestone Corporation, has been awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland at an awards ceremony held at the offices of the Polish Foreign Ministry on July 2. The award was presented by Poland’s minister of Foreign Affairs Witold Waszczykowski in the presence of Pawel Wojciechowski, president of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ) and Ryuichi Tanabe, the Japanese ambassador to Poland.

The Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland is one of the most prestigious Polish orders that can be bestowed for economic relations. “The Commander’s Cross you kindly awarded me today, as I understand, is the demonstration of your high evaluation of Bridgestone’s contribution to the economic development of Poland. I can also recognise how high your expectation on Bridgestone is for the future” commented Arakawa. “It makes me more deeply impressed to have this famous and prestigious Commander’s Cross in a special year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relations between Poland and Japan.”

5th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Six Bridgestone Plants Receive RMA SHIP Awards

(Akron/Tire Review) The Rubber Manufacturers Association recently recognised six Bridgestone Americas facilities for outstanding safety performance.

Mark A. Emkes, chairman and CEO of Bridgestone Americas Holding, accepted the honors at the RMA meeting earlier this year. The six plants include Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire facilities in Aiken County, South Caroline, Warren County, Tennessee, and Des Moines, Iowa, as well as Bridgestone Firestone Diversified Products facilities in Kingstree, South Carolina, Prescott, Arkanas, and Noblesville, Indiana.

RMA’s Safety and Health Improvement Program (SHIP) awards, created in 1981, acknowledge enhancements in worker health and safety and reward companies’ dedication to worker health and safety.

28th June 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Top Technician 2007 Announced

Clive Atthowe has been crowned the UK’s best mechanic after winning the Top Technician 2007 competition. Clive took first prize in the nationwide contest during an awards ceremony at the GEA/Aftermarket Technical Workshop conference on 11 June at the Motor Heritage Centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire. Atthowe, who runs the Clive Atthowe Tuning garage in Norwich, was joined on the winner’s podium by joint runners-up Elliot Waters and David Wagstaff.

Atthowe scooped £2,000 tax free and a range of prizes from sponsors Bosch and Vauxhall Trade Club along with the prestigious title as part of his prize. He hopes the publicity from his win will give his garage a major business boost and help raise awareness among the public of the skills, knowledge and expertise within the motor trade. He achieved the highest score in the competition’s live finals, held as part of the Automotive Trade Show at the NEC in Birmingham, where he competed against 12 of the country’s best technicians in a series of practical tests.

20th June 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Toyo US Subsidiary Wins Gold Award for Website

Nitto Tire North America Inc. (Toyo’s Nitto Tire sales subsidiary in the US) has won a gold award for its website (http://www.nittotire.com) in the “Consumer Information” category of the Horizon Interactive Awards. The awards are an international competition recognizing outstanding work in the field of interactive media, such as on-line advertising and CD-ROMs.

15th June 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Leaseplan Award Customer Service Prize to Kwik-Fit

Kwik-Fit Fleet, Britain’s leading fast-fit provider, has been named Management Partner of the Year in the annual customer service awards from vehicle management company LeasePlan UK. The award from LeasePlan, which operates more than 129,000 vehicles in the UK, is the fourth fleet award won in 2007 by Britain’s largest independent fast-fit company. Kwik-Fit Fleet has already won a hat-trick of titles recognising innovation and first-class customer service delivery from industry publications, Fleet News, BusinessCar and Van Fleet World.

Graham Rixon, operations director at vehicle management company LeasePlan UK, said: “There was a lot of competition for the Management Partner of the Year award, so it was by no means a straightforward decision. Throughout the year, however, the Kwik-Fit team showed an incredible amount of dedication and have become a true and trusted partner in many areas of our business. Kwik-Fit Fleet carries out over 7,000 jobs every month for us and has one of the lowest customer query ratios across our entire business – an achievement in itself.

15th June 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Falken Gets Top Spot in Enthusiast Magazine Survey

(Akron/Tire Review) Falken Tire Corp. was selected as “favourite tyres” in the 2007 People’s Choice Awards conducted by C16, a digital automotive enthusiast magazine. C16 polls its readers each year, asking for their favourite brands in categories such as “Car Care” and “Car Handling.” Last year was the inaugural year of the People’s Choice Awards.

“It is victories like this one that prove that Falken Tire has consistently gained the most brand equity in the last few years,” said Nick Fousekis, Falken’s brand manager.

11th June 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Kwik-Fit Shows Training Academies to Fleet Customers

Kwik-Fit has thrown open the doors of one of its four UK training academies for the first time to show leading fleet customers the courses its apprentices, fitters and specialist technicians undertake. Representatives of two of the UK’s leading leasing and fleet management companies Masterlease and Carillion went behind the usually closed doors to gain a first-hand insight into the training undertaken by Kwik-Fit’s centre fitters and mobile technicians.

Kwik-Fit employs more than 4,000 people in the UK and the company’s Training Academy, which has operations in Derby, Gloucester, Harlow and Perth, is the foundation for its business success. That success in the fleet industry translates into a dominant market share of the UK fast-fit market with solus or dual supply agreements with almost all of the country’s top 50 contract hire and leasing companies; more than one million vehicles on tyre management programmes and more than 60 industry awards that recognise best practice delivery in the company car and van marketplace.

6th June 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Sportrac3 Rated a ‘Winning Tyre’ in Auto Express Product Honours

Auto Express magazine has named a Vredestein product as top performer in the tyre segment of the magazine’s Product Honours 2007 awards. The Vredestein Sportrac 3 performed well in the 15-brand tyre test that covered wet cornering, wet handling, dry handling, aquaplaning, wet and dry braking, noise levels and rolling resistance, coming out in the lead in all areas with the exception of dry braking and rolling resistance.

“The Sportrac3 stars on wet surfaces and is a worthy champion. A great tyre at a good price,” said Kim Adams, consumer editor of Auto Express. The report further added that “new Russian owners haven’t stopped the Dutch brand’s ability to produce a winning tyre, as this is Vredestein’s third victory in as many years.”

“Our engineers have once again achieved a remarkable success in producing tyres that are the best in an important and growing segment of the market,” commented Bert Stellinga, managing director of Vredestein UK, who further claimed “Our network of specialist tyre retailers throughout the UK can confidently promote Vredestein car tyres as the very best quality in the market today.”

5th June 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

‘The Acid Test is Quality’

When Peter Gaster is not acting as NTDA chairman, the other hat he wears is as group managing director of Kings Road Tyres (for details of his first speech in this role see this month’s TAFF awards coverage). On this occasion the conversation focused largely on KRT’s product range, the recent influx of OTR products and why many manufacturers failed to turn out at this year’s event.

With more tyres than any other stand at the show, Kings Road Tyres’ Brityrex exhibit marked itself apart from the rest. The majority of what was on show came from the company’s wide range of quality private and exclusive brand commercial vehicle tyres, but KRT also had selections from its passenger 4×4 ranges (including Cooper products) on show.

31st May 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin Foot-Pump Wins Auto Express Product Honour

Auto Express, Britain’s largest circulation motoring weekly, has recognised the outstanding quality and value for money of the Michelin Twin-Barrel foot pump with one of its twenty annual Product Honour awards. The Michelin Twin-Barrel pump scored a maximum 5-star Best Buy rating in a multi-brand product test carried out by Auto Express to check the accuracy, pumping power and ease of use.

Whilst the Twin-Barrel foot pump takes the important Product Honour, the Michelin Single-Barrel foot pump took the “Recommended” award in the same group test making it an impressive one-two for Michelin auto accessories range.

The Auto Express Product Honours list is respected throughout the aftermarket industry with retailers and consumers recognising the relevance of the distinctive labels. Tests on the pumps included assessments on how many psi each pump delivered after 30 pumps, the accuracy of the gauge calibration, footplate grip and stability.

30th May 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Renault Van Takes Fleet World Honours

The Renault Trafic van was voted ‘Best medium van’ for the fifth consecutive year at the Fleet World Honours 2007 awards ceremony in London recently. The awards are presented to manufacturers who, in the opinion of the panel of judges, have achieved the highest levels of excellence in their sector. The judging panel is made up of industry experts, including the editorial team from Fleet World, members the leasing industry, fleet managers and representatives from residual values guides.

18th May 2007/by Tyrepress Editors