Based in Japan, Bridgestone Corporation is the world’s largest tyre and rubber company.
Jorge Lorenzo resisted pressure from pole-sitter Casey Stoner in the early stages of to take a dominant victory and set a new lap record. Dani Pedrosa chased down Stoner and passed him on lap 23 to finish second, meaning that Stoner’s championship lead over Lorenzo is now down to 35 points leaving the title wide open for the remaining five races of the season.
Assistant to director at Bridgestone’s Motorsport Tyre Development Division, Hirohide Hamashima, has commented that the poor performance of the supplier’s harder rear option on the relayed, slippery Indianapolis track in practice was a reasonable trade-off for the durability it would give riders during the race. However, he also said that the company would analyse tyre performance carefully and reassess for next year’s tyre selection at the venue.
Tyre manufacturer Hankook will present its latest tyres along with what the company calls an exciting program at the 64th International Motor Show in Frankfurt from 15-25 September 2011. Hankook’s booth (Hall 8, No. F03) will have world premieres of new premium ultra high performance tyres, next generation winter tyres, and a concept tyre specifically designed for electro vehicles.
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The MotoGP paddock travels from Indianapolis last weekend to Rimini and the Adriatic Coast for the San Marino Grand Prix on 4 September. The Misano World Circuit is twisty and quite stop-start in nature, although there is a very fast section from turns ten to thirteen. Consequently riders spend a lot of time on the brakes meaning that braking stability from the front Bridgestone tyres is crucial. Confidence in rear grip is especially important through turns six, ten and sixteen, which all lead onto sections of straight.
Bridgestone Europe’s sales companies and warehousing have been re-certificated to ISO 9001:2008. The certification, independently verified by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance, requires companies to meet specific quality management system requirements across all business areas.
Casey Stoner and the Repsol Honda Team delivered a masterclass in consistency and tyre management in particularly tricky conditions to extend the Australian’s MotoGP championship lead to 44 points at the high temperature, newly resurfaced Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was followed across the line by teammate Dani Pedrosa in second and Yamaha Racing’s Ben Spies who recovered excellently having dropped to ninth to climb onto the podium for the third time this season.
Companies wishing to survive as retreaders these days either need to find a profitable niche where few competitors exist and margins are high or they must have the absolute will to follow current market trends and the ability to invest. A factor particularly responsible for changing the market is the growing demand for premium retreads by professionally managed fleets – the new tyre industry is a driver of this change. Therefore small and medium-sized retreading firms must make an effort to retain sufficient business. A real-life example of a company that is thriving despite the market changes is Bavaria, Germany based Reifen Müller.
Bridgestone has revealed that it will focus on its future strategy in ecology, innovation and reliability on its 284m² stand in Hall 8 at the 2011 IAA show in Frankfurt. The stand will be split into three sections, with the left devoted to ecological features, the middle and “innovation zone” and the right focused on reliability.
A US federal judge has sentenced two former Wyko engineers to four years probation and 150 hours of community service after they were convicted of stealing trade secrets from Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in a corporate espionage case that first surfaced in 2009.
In the final quarter of 2010 Bridgestone announced that it was reorganising its European operation into key “regions“. At the start of 2011, this plan entered its second phase with the establishment of the North Region (consisting of the UK, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Ireland and Sweden). As a direct result of this, there were a number of promotions for executives at the company’s UK headquarters.
On 1 January 2011 John McNaught became North Region managing director with Sam Enya as the North Region deputy managing director and also sales administration director. At the same time John Folliss became North Region commercial sales and marketing director with Andy Lane taking the position of North Region consumer sales and marketing director. Six months into his new role, Tyres & Accessories met with Andy Lane and learnt details of how the company sees the UK and other North Region markets progressing or otherwise this year and how the new approach positions the company to deal with this.
The first European shipment of the world’s largest tyre has arrived in Sweden. On August 10, six of Bridgestone’s whopping 4.02 metre diameter size 59/80 R63 off-road were unloaded at Gothenburg and then transported a further 1,500 kilometres north to the Aitik open-pit copper mine in Lapland. There they will be mounted on an electric-drive model of one of the world’s largest vehicles: the Caterpillar 795F mining truck, which weighs 570 tons fully loaded. A second set of six tyres has already been ordered by mine operator Bolidean and will be delivered in September.
As you might expect, the majority of the forthcoming September issue's winter tyre feature focuses on products designed for use on passenger cars, but what are the latest developments on the commercial vehicle side of things?
With 1.5miles of the 2.6mile Indianapolis circuit recently resurfaced, the twelfth round of the 2011 MotoGP season will pose a new challenge for Bridgestone’s tyres, though Hirohide Hamashima, assistant to director in the company’s motorsport tyre development division is unworried. Speaking as the company confirmed its allocations would remain the same as last season’s visit to the Brickyard, Hamashima said: “Reports are that IMS have done a great job resurfacing the circuit which will make for more consistent conditions this year. It won’t change the physical demands placed on our tyres, because the corners are still the same and haven’t been re-profiled, so we haven’t changed our compound selection from last year other than with the addition of the third spec of front tyre with the new regulations.
The city of Akron boasts strong credentials for being the tyre industry capital of the United States. Back in the US industry’s glory days it went by the name of “Tire City” and was home to the four major domestic players, Goodrich, Goodyear, Firestone and General Tire. Goodyear is the only one of this quartet to retain its main domicile there, the other three having been respectively acquired by Michelin, Bridgestone and Continental, yet in recent years new arrivals have also chosen Akron as home. Today both BKT and Trelleborg operate their national operations out of the city and Bridgestone’s US Technical Center is also located there. As of August 19, Chinese manufacturer the Triangle Group has added its name to this list with the opening of its US headquarters and research and development company.
While the HGV trailer containing £50,000 worth of tyres stolen in Brierley Hill last month has now been found, police are still working to ascertain the tyres’ current location. According to Dudley Police, the articulated trailer was loaded with 650 Bridgestone tyres when it was stolen from CVT Vehicle Services on the weekend of July 16 to 17. These tyres were to be delivered to various vehicle manufacturers. According to Police Constable Ian Leech, who is leading the enquiry into the theft, the stolen tyres are marked with a red and yellow dot – indicating they cannot be sold on to independent retailers.
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