Awards
In the US, the publication “Consumers Digest Magazine” has named the Goodyear Eagle F1 tyre as the “Best Buy” in the performance tyre category – an accolade that CDM awards to fewer than three per cent of the products it reviews. The tyre was also rated as the “Premium Selection” – a designation that means the product is “the best at any price” according to CDM.
Pirelli has picked up a prestigious advertising award in the USA for its “Fist” campaign, where four tyres are shown merging into a fist. The accolade is a gold “ADDY” award for international consumer press advertising and was given at the recent American Advertising Federation (AAF) awards presentation. With 60,000 entries, the competition claims to be the world’s largest and this year was opened up to international entries for the first time.
Goodyear’s Eagle F1 GS-D3 “world tire” won praise just outside the company’s hometown last week, when company representatives accepted a NorTech Innovation Award for the unique, global tire.
Michelin’s Energy range of tyres was named “Eco Product Of The Year” at the Fleet Excellence Awards, held in London in January. The tyres polled over 25 per cent of the votes in the category, with votes coming from readers of EcoFleet, Fleet Week and Fleet Management magazines.
American Racing Equipment has been awarded ISO 14001 certificate of registration for its environmental management system. ISO 14001 provides a framework for managing environmental impact, similar to the way in which the ISO 9000 standard addresses issues of product or service quality. The International Standards Organization (ISO) awards the 14001 certification to companies whose environmental management systems conform to specified requirements and demonstrate a serious commitment to ensuring that company operations do not harm the environment.
For the fifth consecutive year Michelin has come top of the JD Power survey for satisfaction in passenger vehicle original equipment and top in the light truck OE tyre satisfaction league. The study has been based on reports from 33,700 consumers in their first three years on new vehicle ownership and reports on satisfaction with OE tyres. Michelin had the lowest percentage of owners reporting a tyre problem in the first year of ownership and more than 60 per cent of users said they would buy Michelin tyres as replacements. This is the highest level of repurchasing of any OE tyre brand.
The Toyota Motor Corp. presented Goodyear with two awards at its annual suppliers meeting in Nagoya Japan and another award was presented to Goodyear in the USA. First was a Global Contribution Award for Goodyear’s supply performance at Toyota’s 15 plants worldwide. The second award was a “Value Award – Superior” for technical approvals and tyre development on Corolla and Camry cars. The North American award is a Certificate of Achievement for delivery performance through 2001.
Superior announced the award of several new and replacement programs under the previously announced long term supply agreement which has now been finalized and signed with General Motors Corporation. The first of these programs will begin production in the Spring of 2002 and include the Saturn vehicle name plate; a first for Superior Industries. “These recent business awards demonstrate the value of this unprecedented year contract to both General Motors and Superior Industries because it was based on long term performance in delivering the highest quality, technology and service at competitive prices,” said Louis L. Borick, President and Chairman of Superior Industries.
Michelin’s PAX System has been named as the runner up in the Transport section of the Business Innovation Awards, handed out by the Wall Street Journal Europe. A panel of fifteen judges, covering all aspects of business disciplines, decided on the winners from more than 220 nominations. The paper also revealed that the PAX system is to be incorporated on the Edonis, a car from Italian company B. Engineering SRL, designed to break the world speed record.
Eight Goodyear factories have earned the DaimlerChrysler Gold Award, given in recognition of outstanding service. Seven of the plants are in North America and one is in Europe, at Philippsburg, in Germany. Goodyear was rated as “excellent” in the areas of quality, delivery, competitive pricing and technology and “acceptable” in customer support.
Every year, Canadian automotive journalists carry out a series of driving tests, after which they name their “car of the year” in various categories. In the 2001 awards, 10 out of 15 car and truck category winners were fitted with Goodyear tyres. Wayne Barnes, president and CEO of Goodyear Canada, said that the results underline the way the company works closely with OEMs to achieve better vehicle performance.
Members of the Retread Manufacturers Association have formed a group called the Marketing & Communications Committee, intended to promote the environmental benefits of retreading. UK car retread production has fallen from 7.2 million tyres in 1995 to an estimated 1.5 million this year. Truck tyre retreads have remained steady, at around the one million level over this period.
Bridgestone/Firestone UK (BFUK) has been presented with a “2000 Supplier Award” by JCB, one of only five companies to receive awards and the only tyre company to be nominated. The award was given for supply service, product quality, innovation and cost reduction. John Patterson, JCB’s CO, presented the trophy to Jim Wilson, MD of BFUK, at the JCB Suppliers Conference.
The ContiPremiumContact has been named as best tyre in the Product Honours Awards from UK motoring magazine AutoExpress. Judging criteria included wet and dry handling, aquaplaning, braking and fuel economy.
Once again, Goodyear has won the Golden Award from the BRV – the German tyre dealers association – for the passenger car and truck sectors. The prize reflects market- and customer-driven behaviour.
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