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Stephan Kessel, Continental’s CEO: A Separation On Friendly Terms

Someone who acquires a seat at the top, and even reaches the CEO position at Continental, will neither be fired nor will he just quit. There is what is called “a separation on friendly terms”. The question whether Kessel and von Grünberg could ever have been friends is not even relevant. Whoever thinks that von Grünberg just shrugged and happily retired to some comptroller’s position will find out that he was wrong. Von Grünberg is the type of man who may occasionally loosen the handcuffs, writes a German daily newspaper, but he also tightens them again. His thumb pointed downwards, and that gesture determined Kessel’s future, and the whole board went along, including the banker Weiss.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Talking Together – Stahlgruber’s “7th Round Table Reifentechnik”

At the end of April the seventh round-table conference concerning tyres and tyre technology organised by the Tip Top Stahlgruber company took place in Munich. This year’s 91 participants came from many, varied backgrounds: There were tyre dealers, retreaders, material suppliers, representatives of associations (ADAC, BRV, DEKRA, TUV etc.), scientists and representatives of the vehicle and tyre manufacturing industries. Some of the highlights of the event included Hans-Jürgen Drechsler, deputy managing director of the BRV (Association of Tyre Traders and Non-Industrial Vulcanisers), speaking about development trends in the German retreading industry, which is characterised by a fall in sales, specially in the passenger car tyre segment, and a consolidation process among the companies in that sector. Furthermore Drechsler gave an overview about the actual status of ECE regulations 108 and 109 and their transformation into national laws. Other topics concerned the efforts in reducing tyre-surface-noise, the wrong tyre pressure as one of the main causes for serious accidents and last but not least the presentation of various non destructive methods of tyre examination. Due to the fact that the organiser of the meeting shortened the list of speakers, there was much more time left for intensive discussions; something which was appreciated by the conference delegates.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Continental’s Results Have Slowed Down And Redundancies Are Possible

Compared to last year, Continental Group’s turnover for the first nine months of 2001 has increased from 7,438 billion Euro to 8,240 billion Euro (a rise of about 10.8%). The Group’s operational result (EBIT) of 238 million Euro (385 million Euro in 2000) has especially been affected by the North American tyre business and a non-recurrent expenditure of 58 million Euro due to the reconstruction process, begun in the second quarter and which has resulted in the closure of the truck tyre production site in Herstal (Belgium) and the remoulding site in Bad Nauheim. The Group’s result before tax has fallen by 160 million Euro down to 96 million Euro. After tax of 44 million Euro, the result is 104 million Euro more than last year’s amount, and the earnings per share are 0.35 Euro (1.16 Euro in 2000). Presenting the quarterly results at a press conference, Manfred Wennemer, who was appointed Managing Director on 11th September 2001, explained the Group’s directional change, concentrating on profits, results and cash flow and on cutting down financial debts, which also involves focusing on profitable transactions and devolving profit-and-loss responsibility on to the Business Units. Additionally, Wennemer announced some bigger restructuring measures: “All parts of the company are under scrutiny, and there are no holy cows”, he emphasised, adding the comment that factory closures and redundancies could be a possibility.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

JCB Award For Bridgestone/Firestone UK

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.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

8th Tyres/Chassis/Tracks Conference in Hanover

Home match for Continental: Not enough that the company’s head of Tyre R&D and Process Engineering, Heinrich Huinik, had been the chairman of the organising committee for the 8th VDI (association of German engineers) Tyres/Chassis/Tracks conference, the tyre manufacturer, which, after the reorganisation process in recent years regards itself as a whole service supplier, had been on the agenda for both several specialised and the two plenary lectures too. Thus, it was no surprise when, using the slogan”Global Chassis Control”, Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart, member of Conti’s Executive Board, again picked out their system network as a central theme in his plenary lecture. Another main topic of the conference in Hanover was the specialised field of “System Integration” which had twice the number of lectures than all other specialised meetings, titled “Track-Tyre-Interaction”, “Tyres”, “Tyre Modelling”, Chassis Simulation” and “Chassis Systems”.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Minicar-Segment Entered By Nissan

As announced in a press conference in Tokyo, car manufacturer Suzuki will supply 3,000 so called minicars a month to Nissan from 2002 onwards. With this agreement Nissan will enter the small car segment – with a maximum capacity of 660 cc – which already has a market share of 30 percent in Japan.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Grand Prix Planned For Moscow

At a press conference, Formula one boss Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that Moscow will host a Formula One Grand Prix event, probably in 2003. A new circuit is being built on a site south of the city, at an estimated cost of 112.7 m Euro. No new race will be added to the F1 calendar, so Moscow will replace an existing event. Both Italy and Germany currently stage two races, so one of these is favourite to be dropped, although a possible ban on tobacco advertising at the race in Belgium may make that event unattractive to sponsors, and thus vulnerable.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Cooperation Bandag/Continental Brings Only Advantages

Ron Carver (Bandag) and Dr. Nikolin (Continental) said during a joint press conference held in Hanover, that the cooperation creates a win-win-situation. On the one hand there will be a quality product and on the other hand the franchise net is, according to Carver, strong enough across Europe to guarantee deliveries in the shortest possible time. In the Precure Retreading market more and more customers are insisting on having their own casings retreaded.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Factory Closure And Reduced Profits For Bridgestone Corp.

At a press conference, Bridgestone President Shigeo Watanabe revealed that the company was to close its plant at Decatur, Illinois, where 1,500 people are employed. The plant closure will lead to a loss of $210 million, offset to some extent by cost savings of $100 million. Bridgestone will also incur an additional special loss this year, amounting to $549.6 million and the group has revised its worldwide consolidated net profit forecast from 48 billion Yen to 10 billion. For Bridgestone Japan, the company is predicting a net loss of 130 billion Yen for the calendar year 2001, the first loss for the group since it was first listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1961. Bridgestone’s shares fell nearly 2 per cent on the news, to stand at 1,273 Yen.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

ETRA-Conference In Leipzig

A year ago, the conference of the European Tyre Recycling Association (ETRA) was held in Schwerin, dealing with the present situation and future perspectives of scrap tyre disposal in Germany. Many questions and problems that were left unanswered in 1999 were also discussed at the following conference in Leipzig, which took place at the beginning of last December. Also this time there were few new answers to be found concerning the well-known problems in this area. Why is it so difficult to solve these problems connected with the recycling business? Some answers: the participants in this market are very diverse – and so are the individual aims. In addition, the market situation for recycled scrap tyres is still not the best, and new ideas for sensible and economical applications are few and far between at the moment. Even if they exist, they may still be blocked in many cases, e.g. the use of rubber in road surfaces. On the other hand there is a requirement for European quality standards for products which are already distributed. Furthermore, the knowledge of some companies in this sector is quite limited: it is either the tyre-, disposal- or the marketing-know how that is missing. In many cases the financial backing for new projects is insufficient. Not to mention a number of scandals concerning illegal landfills, which has negatively influenced public opinion about this business sector. Finally the serious market participants, as well as their association ETRA, have run up against a wall of disinterest on the part of the state and the tyre manufacturers.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Revised Earnings Forecast From Bridgestone Imminent

Bridgestone has said that it will hold a press conference today to give a revised earnings forecast and details of revised output plans for its US subsidiary. Last year’s results were hit by the Firestone recall, with group net profit falling 80 per cent. President Shigeo Watanabe is scheduled to attend the news conference.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Formula 1: The winner will not only be a tyre, but Michelin

It was December 1999, when Michelin announced its comeback to the Formula 1. In the 80s the French company held a leading position and withdrew after having proved to itself and the world that it could build unbeatable racing tyres. When the 2001 Grand-Prix season starts in Melbourne on March, 4th it will also be the start for an additional tyre supplier called Michelin. BMW/Williams, Mild Seven, Benetton, Renault Sport, Jaguar Racing and Prost Grand Prix have already chosen Michelin, and Toyota will join the club next year. So far, the Japanese Bridgestone seems to have an advantage. As suppliers to Ferrari and McLaren Mercedes they are already covering the “favourites” with four “winning” cars, whilst the other teams have to come from behind. There are various reasons for these racing teams to have chosen Michelin. Renault and Michelin simply belong together. And that Toyota, “the” motor-car company is fighting for points all over the world on Michelin tyres isn’t a minor consideration. At the press conference Edouard Michelin appeared as a truly enthusiastic company leader with a sense of sport. Michelin is not some newcomer to the scene who does not know what’s going on. The team around Edouard Michelin know this and that is why they are competing. They want to prove to themselves and the world, that there is only one company able to build the best tyres in the world: Michelin! Hence, Edouard Michelin enthusiastically let himself get carried away to imagine that in the future people will say that Formula 1 will be won on Michelin. The winner runs on Michelin, all others are on tyres.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

What Plans For Pirelli Tyres?

During a press conference held in Milan, Pirelli boss Tronchetti Provera did not give much away and remained vague. The company’s strategy will focus more on high technology and telecommunications in the future, but Tronchetti Provera stressed that he could not be more precise until he has made up his mind and seen all there is to see in Telecom Italiana. He said that he would focus on debt reductions as quickly as possible. Some parts of Pirelli are now for sale; a small part of the cables and the truck tyre division, for which Pirelli hopes to collect around 2 billion Euro. The passenger car and motorbike tyre division is not for sale. There are rumours that Pirelli is in talks with Michelin and Bridgestone. Of the two remaining major manufacturers, Continental may not have the money, as the group is already planning other take-overs, and Goodyear already has sufficient production capacity.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Acquisition In The Automotive Field Planned By ThyssenKrupp

Last year there were rumours concerning a possible hostile takeover bid for Continental by ThyssenKrupp. However, ThyssenKrupp was not able to bring its steel subsidiary company to the stock exchange as planned and it seemed that the acquisition pressure had been halted. On January 15th, the ThyssenKrupp management mentioned during a press conference that they are planning “a bigger acquisition in the automotive field”. No further details were made available.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Legal Threat From Bridgestone

Bridgestone President Shigeo Watanabe has said that the company is prepared to sue US regulator National Highway Traffic Safety Administration if that organisation were to order another recall of Firestone tyres. Last week the NHTSA asked Bridgestone/Firestone to recall more tyres, but the company refused, threatening court action if the NHTSA declared the tyres defective. At a news conference in Tokyo, Shigeo Watanabe again said that the investigation should focus on both tyres and vehicles. Fears over the possibility of protracted legal action were reflected in a fall of over 15 per cent in Bridgestone’s share price.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors