Awards
Bridgestone South Africa’s Firestone range scooped the coveted ‘Best Tyre’ award at the inaugural FOCUS on Excellence awards evening, held in Johannesburg in November. Candidates for this top honour were chosen by four hundred owners and managers of road transport fleets operating more than 10 vehicles, selected at random from 22,000 records on a fleet owners’ database.
Last year, IMI the maker of truck balancing powder, Equal, launched a product aimed at the passenger car market. XactBalance, distributed in the UK by Rema-Tip Top, is a new style of dynamic balancing weight and is aimed at premium level fitments.
Bridgestone has been awarded the FIA Academy’s annual World Prize for Road Safety, the Environment and Mobility in recognition of its outstanding contribution to the promotion of road safety.
The FIA bestows this award upon individuals or organisations involved in motoring and mobility that have displayed merit beyond the ordinary. The Academy’s decision to give the 2006 award to Bridgestone stemmed from the company’s worldwide promotion of its Think Before You Drive campaign.
French tyre manufacturer Michelin has been honoured with a John Bolster Award for its contribution towards and success in motor racing. Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin’s former competition boss, received the trophy from former Grand Prix driver Carlos Reutemann.
A Lincolnshire tyre retail chain owner has won recognition for his decision to offer a second chance to young people who fear they are on the scrap heap. The Shaw Trust award recognises businesses that offer training and career opportunities to young people. Fossit and Thorne’s John Shelton now owns the chain of seven tyre and auto centres with his financial director Richard King, but nearly took a wrong turn himself, when he was expelled from school at 15.
A Sheffield First Stop tyre dealership is marking its twentieth anniversary with an investment in stunning new-look premises. Since opening its doors in 1986, Steadfast Auto Centre has evolved from a small, family-run business into an award-winning dealership spanning two prime city sites and affiliated to Bridgestone. To celebrate the 20-year milestone, the company’s flagship depot has been extensively refurbished – a move that will enable the business to expand still further.
The European Commission has awarded Goodyear a major research and development grant for development of an ultra low rolling resistance tyre with environmentally friendly resources. The grant of three million euros is part of the European Union’s LIFE-Environment program. The total cost of the project is more than 12 million euros. Goodyear is working in close co-operation with two research partners on this project – the Italian research company Novamont and the German carmaker BMW.
In an age in which it seems people move jobs on a whim, County Tyres reports that some of its employees have achieved up to four decades of dedication this year. County Tyre Group held it’s Long Service Awards on the 24th October at the County Show Ground in Bristol, showing recognition for some remarkable employees. Nine people have reached the timely milestone of 25 years service, whilst one truly dedicated employee, Alan Clark, is celebrating his 40th year of service.
An innovative tyre from Goodyear, with elements such as carbon fibre and DuPont(TM) KEVLAR(R) inside, has been named one of the “100 Most Innovative Products of the Year” by Popular Science magazine in the USA. The Goodyear Eagle(R) featuring ResponsEdge Technology(TM) leads the list of products named to Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New” in the Automotive Technology category. The tyre is featured in a special section of the December issue.
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(Akron/Tire Review) Goodyear’s Dunlop products took two top awards during the recent SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Dunlop’s Direzza Sport Z1 tyre received two SEMA International New Product Awards. In separate awards, Australia’s Hot 4s & Performance Cars magazine and Greece’s top enthusiast publisher Option Press also recognized the brand new Direzza Sport Z1 tyre. Developed and built in Japan for professional drifting, the Direzza Sport Z1 delivers high grip, excellent control and consistency, according to Dunlop. The tyre will be available in Spring 2007 in 17 sizes.
Amtel-Vredestein has won the EFFIE/Best Brand silver medal in the automotive category for its Vredestein brand promotion marketing project. Of 300 leading companies competing in 30 different categories, Amtel-Vredestein was the only tyre manufacturer to take a prize. The awards ceremony took place at the Forum Hall complex on 26 October. The EFFIE awards organisers describe the accolade as the most prestigious advertising and marketing award.
The Michelin’s Pilot Power 2CT was named Motor Cycle News Product of the Year at an awards’ ceremony held at the National Motorcycle Museum on 26 October. The entries were judged on a number of criteria including product performance levels, innovation, sales success and success in meeting the needs of the market. The Michelin Pilot Power 2CT was launched to match the ever-increasing performance of sportsbikes, and at the same time, was designed to raise the level of road tyre performance to that of a track tyre.
A nationwide campaign to drive sales and raise awareness of Firestone-branded tyres has “proved a major success” according to Bridgestone UK. The UK wing of the Japanese manufacturer is reporting impressive feedback from its recent Firestone Together initiative, which centred on a consumer reward promotion offering motorists a free family portrait in return for Firestone purchases.
Michelin picked up two prizes at the 7th annual Greenfleet Awards yesterday. The Stoke-on-Trent based company won tyre manufacturer of the year (the runner-up was Bandvulc Tyres) and the Industry Innovation award. The 2006 GreenFleet awards were held on 11th October at Arsenal football club’s new Emirates stadium. The awards recognise local authorities, manufacturers and innovators for their efforts to reduce the environmental impact of transport. Around 500 guests saw racing driver and TV personality Tiff Needell present the awards in 25 different categories.
Euromoney recently named PT Gajah Tunggal Tbk as “Asia’s Best Managed Company in Indonesia”. The award was presented to Christopher Chan, president and director of Gajah Tunggal by Neil Osborn, managing director Euromoney PLC as part of the Euromoney Awards event in Singapore on 18 September.
This recognition will serve to motivate the management of Gajah Tunggal to enhance its performance going forward, Christopher Chan remarked. “We take this Award not as an end but as an encouragement to continue our quest to rebuild Gajah Tunggal to be the blue chip company that it can and should. We also have to thank the Global Capital Market in general which contributed to our drive to bring a higher level of management to this company.”
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