Automechanika Shanghai, which will be held from 7 – 10 December at the Shanghai New International Expo Center claims to be Asia's largest trade fair for automotive parts, accessories, equipment and services. The show is expected to house a record-breaking 3,600 exhibitors, a 15 per cent increase compared to the previous show.
As of October, Continental’s service package for fleet operators will be available in a further European market. The Conti360° Fleet Services package for truck tyres, first established in the core markets of Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Poland and the Czech Republic in 2010, and extended into Austria and Ireland this year, is scheduled to be launched in Hungary next month.
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.
As of July 2011, Conti360° Fleet Services has extended its European coverage into Austria. This is the first addition to the German tyre maker’s service portfolio following its launch in eight core European markets – Belgium, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Spain and the Czech Republic – and Continental now has plans to further expand the network into other regions.
Earlier this year, NDI Tyre & Tube Supplies Ltd. announced plans to outsource the distribution of its passenger car private brand and alter operations to shift the company’s focus onto the supply of specialised and niche market products. Since this time the local subsidiary of Denmark’s Nordisk Daek Import A.S. has been busy implementing these plans, and the result of this is that NDI is now ready to participate in the OTR sector to a far, far greater extent.
DuPont’s acquisition of Danisco has been finalised. On May 16 the chemical company reported that its wholly-owned subsidiary DuPont Denmark Holding ApS had taken on 92.2 per cent of Danisco’s outstanding shares, having paid 700 krone (£82) per share. Following the acquisition’s finalisation DuPont CEO and chair Ellen Kullman said “we are delighted that the tender has been successful and we can move on to the process of integrating Danisco into DuPont.” Danisco chairman Jorgen Tandrup added the Danish company is “very pleased that a vast majority of Danisco shareholders have accepted DuPont's offer” and commented on the two companies’ shared outlook on science and research capabilities.
2011 promises to be an exciting year for one of Europe’s major suppliers of specialist and industrial tyres the Starco Group, according to Group marketing manager Brian Lorentzen. Since the onset of the recession at the end of 2008, Lorentzen says Starco’s strategy has been to trim its organisation – “both to weather the financial storm and to prepare the company for the future. It is natural that we have focused on reducing operating costs throughout the group; by reducing unnecessary stock levels and by cutting expenditure on those activities which do not relate to our core business.” All this, of course needed to be achieved “without reducing the company’s ability to innovate and operate, and without impacting the customer satisfaction on which our current and future business depends,” as Lorentzen acknowledges.
Arla Foods, Scandinavia’s largest dairy producer, recently signed a renewed tyre management agreement with Bridgestone covering its fleets in Denmark and Sweden, and, for the first time, the agreement has been extended to include the United Kingdom. The three-year agreement, which came into effect on April 1, 2011, is based on a cost-per-kilometre package that applied to around 2,000 Arla milk tankers and dairy distribution trucks in the three countries. Bridgestone service is delivered according to its ‘Total Fleet Management’ approach, intended to help fleet operators raise vehicle productivity by optimising tyre performance over the whole tyre lifecycle.
After a two-year absence from the endurance racing calendar, the Le Mans Test Day was revived this year as part of the teams’ preparations for the 79th Le Mans 24 Hours – and Michelin reports that it and its partners profited from the eight hours of testing gained through it. The French tyre maker says its aim was to validate its latest ranges of tyres ahead of the French endurance classic, which will take place on June 11 and 12. The session provided Michelin and its partners with one of the year’s few opportunities to lap round the full 13.629 kilometre circuit, which uses roads that are open to ordinary traffic the rest of the year.
At the start of March, Starco increased its involvement with Schaad products throughout much of the Nordic region. The group’s home market distribution company, Starco A/S, took over the range’s distribution in Denmark and Starco has also taken on a sales and support role for Schaad throughout the Scandinavian market, aside from certain products in Sweden that will continue to be handled by Gripen Wheels.
A lot is happening within Starco, says group marketing manager Brian Lorentzen. Some of this activity was witnessed in the days and weeks before he spoke with Tyres & Accessories; during this time the firm announced the establishment of a joint venture with Argentine agricultural tyre and components manufacturer Buco plus the pilot rollout of its first online shop. These two events are part of a wider growth strategy covering the next few years, Lorentzen shares.
Automotive supplier Continental and ten other European and Israeli companies active in the electric vehicle sector, have joined together to form ‘Easybat’, a consortium dedicated to furthering EV development. On March 2 the consortium announced formal approval from the European Commission for a research and development programme into means of facilitating the European production of electric cars with switchable batteries. The March 2 announcement is the first switchable battery electric car project approved by the Commission.
Denmark’s Starco has announced the formation of a joint venture with Buco S.A., a family-owned company located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Buco specialises in the development of rubber parts for agricultural machinery, and under the joint venture’s terms the Starco Group receives exclusive European distribution rights for the entire Buco product range – including a comprehensive range of semi-pneumatic tyres and wheels, corrugated hoses and telescopic tubes for seed drills. Starco Europe group marketing manager Brian Lorentzen states that with the joint venture both companies will “benefit from their combined product expertise and market knowledge, all of which supports a strategy of expanding further into the agricultural segment in Europe.”
NDI has announced plans for the reorganisation of its UK operation including taking on a new warehousing site. According to a statement released by the company, the UK subsidiary of Nordisk Daek Import A.S., ‘NDI Tyre & Tube Supplies Ltd’ is embarking on major changes to the way it conducts its UK based operations.
Current operation will be “fundamentally changed” in order to concentrate the focus of the business onto the supply of specialised and niche market products, thus “allowing the business to build on the reputation of being a market leader in the more diverse sectors of the industry.” One such change is that at the end of February NDI will cease operating daily deliveries to passenger car tyre customers as they have consciously withdrawn from this market sector based on an agreement to supply the Nordexx branded products exclusively through Mr Tyre limited of Birmingham.
Bridgestone’s decision to introduce a new management structure in Europe has resulted in a number of promotions for executives at the company’s UK headquarters. John McNaught will become the North Region (UK, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Sweden) managing director with Sam Enya as the North Region deputy managing director. Enya will also become the North Region sales administration director, focusing on business administration, budgeting and reporting. The North Region countries have already been working together for a number of years but the result of the reorganisation is that the management of all activities has now been defined.
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