Based in Japan, Bridgestone Corporation is the world’s largest tyre and rubber company.
Bridgestone will run a booth at the 39th Tokyo Motor Show to be held at Makuhari Messe in Chiba City from 22 October to 1 November.
The theme of the Bridgestone stand this time is “Technology for People”, and will comprise three corners – Premium, Future, and Safety – and will introduce aspects of tyres and technology supporting automobiles, which are such an important part of people’s lives.
The UK finalist of the Bridgestone e-reporter competition, Mike Channell, has been announced as the overall winner of its pan-European Bridgestone e-reporter young journalist competition.
He attended the European Grand Prix as part of his prize and reported on the inaugural GP2 Series for Bridgestone Europe and the GP2 Series’ websites. Channell will fly to Japan for this year’s Tokyo Motor Show, and also received a new laptop.
There was mixed news concerning demand for tyres in the USA during September. Light vehicle tyre shipments during the month were up 2.6 per cent compared with September last year, which came as a surprise to some analysts, who were expecting sales to fall as a reaction to high fuel prices. The good news is tempered by the fact that these figures represent shipments to dealers, rather than sales to consumers.
Bridgestone has called in some of its celebrity connections to help motivate workers in advance of next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barichello, and Ferrari F1 team managing director Jean Todt recently visited Bridgestone’s worldwide headquarters in Tokyo at the invitation of Bridgestone Corporation president, CEO and chairman, Shigeo Watanabe.
Deutsche Bank analysts have downgraded Bridgestone shares to hold. The news comes after the Japanese company’s share price reached the analysts’ target level. Bridgestone shares are now rated as ‘hold,’ with a modified target price of 2450 yen against the previous level of 2500 yen.
Bridgestone UK has appointed Tim Dougherty as Trade Sales Manager (North). He has spent his career in the tyre industry, working for a truck rental company and spending eight years as Bridgestone’s area sales manager in the Midlands.
Reporting to head of truck sales Julie Plumb, Mr. Dougherty will manage a team of five salesmen and will be responsible for all Bridgestone’s truck and bus tyre sales in the northern half of the UK.
Certain big names like Microsoft and IBM might be synonymous with information technology, but what about tyre brands? Which ones are the most powerful online and why? Tyres & Accessories asked Internet analysts Envisional to delve deeper into the fast moving world of e-marketing to exclusively produce the following rankings.
Six First Stop dealers joined forces with celebrities from the worlds of television and music recently to raise money for charity. Coronation Street stars Bill Ward and Tina O’Brien, who play Charlie Stubbs and Sarah-Louise Platt in the show, joined Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding and the dealers on the Bridgestone stand at the Truckfest North West show at Haydock Park Racecourse, Merseyside.
Renault driver Fernando Alonso has become the youngest ever Formula One world champion after coming third in the Brazilian Grand Prix. “I am the youngest champion in Formula One and now I need to find new targets because this one is done,” said the 24-year-old.
ADAC, the German automotive association, has published its new winter tyre test results. Engineers tested tyres in sizes 175/65 R14T and 195/65 R15T – and Goodyear’s Ultra Grip 7 was declared the winner in both categories.
In the smaller size Bridgestone’s Blizzak LM 20 and Pirelli’s Snowcontrol followed Goodyear, as did Semperit’s Wintergrip. Bringing up the rear was Matador.
Bridgestone UK is introducing the R249 – a new, long distance steer tyre, for trucks of 16 tonnes and heavier.
Before designing the R249, Bridgestone surveyed almost 1,000 fleets of varying sizes in the six main European markets in order to see exactly what they required from a steer axle tyre.
Bridgestone has launched an improved version of its revolutionary in-wheel motor drive system for electric vehicles. First announced in September 2003, Bridgestone’s system was seen as an advance in in-wheel motor drive systems that use motors installed inside vehicle wheels.
Installing the drive motors inside the wheels allows for controlling each wheel individually, which supports excellent handling, Bridestone says. It also eliminates the need for the differential and drive shaft and therefore allows for unprecedented freedom when designing vehicles. Designers can allocate more space to the driver and passengers without increasing the overall size and weight of the vehicle.
Dutch wholesaler, Van den Ban, has announced that it will add a new exclusive brand to its tyre portfolio. The new brand, Clear, is already available in a number of sizes. Van den Ban says it intends to introduce further sizes in the coming months ultimately leading to 30-size strong high performance portfolio. A further range expansion is planned for next year.
(Akron/Tire Review) Reuters reported this morning that Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire (BFNAT) will raise prices on its branded, associate and private brand tyres by as much as 8 per cent as of 1 November. The increase covers the US and Canada, and the company’s Bridgestone, Firestone and Dayton brands.
Duke Nishiyama, BFNAT president, said in a statement: “Our tyre companies are facing dramatic increases in raw material costs. Unfortunately, these dramatic raw material cost increases simply cannot be offset by the enhanced efficiencies and increased productivity that we have implemented at all levels of our company.”
Bridgestone has been granted approval to establish a new $25 million proving ground in China follwoing a period of negotiation with Chinese authorities. Bridgestone aims to use this testing and research facility to develop a system that enables the swift provision of tyres for original equipment and replacement in the Chinese market.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
