Pacific Dunlop Appoints New Tyre Chief
Robert McEniry (52) has been named as Chief Executive Officer of the Tyre Unit in which Pacific Dunlop and Goodyear each hold a 50% stake. John Gurrieri gave up his post in February to seek new challenges.
Robert McEniry (52) has been named as Chief Executive Officer of the Tyre Unit in which Pacific Dunlop and Goodyear each hold a 50% stake. John Gurrieri gave up his post in February to seek new challenges.
During a racing series, changes from one tyre or wheel supplier to another one are very rare. In the very popular German Touring Cars Championship (DTM – Deutsche Tourenwagen-Masters) Dunlop is the exclusive tyre supplier. Now Opel-Phoenix has decided to change from BBS wheels to conventional cast alloy wheels from ATS, so that the Bad Durkheim-based wheel manufacturer is now the biggest supplier of racing wheels in this series. AMG-Mercedes has also used ATS wheels since the beginning of the series.
John Gurrieri, CEO of South Pacific Tyres for five years, is leaving the company at the end of February after 29 years’ service to seek new challenges. South Pacific Tyres is a 50/50 joint venture between the Pacific Dunlop group and Goodyear.
For a change, some good news for Bridgestone regarding SUV tyres. The Bridgestone Dueler AT 693 came out top in a survey of SUV tyres in US magazine Consumer Reports. The tests for the all-terrain tyres included wet and dry braking, emergency handling, noise, rolling resistance, traction in snow and braking on ice. The Bridgestone tyre was followed by (in order) Kelly Safari AWR, Dunlop Radial Rover, Cooper Discoverer A/T, Firestone Wilderness AT II and Goodyear Wrangler AT/S. In a separate table of all-season SUV tyres, the BFGoodrich Radial Long Trail T/A came top.
The Austrian Dunlop and Goodyear companies have been integrated into the new Goodyear Dunlop Tires Austria company, which is under 100 p.c. ownership of Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe B.V. located in Brussels.
Dr. Rainer Schieben, who used to be managing director of Pneumant-Reifenwerke GmbH, is now managing all associated brands under the umbrella of Goodyear-Dunlop Tires Europe BV. His successor in Fürstenwalde is Mr. M. Bald. Dr. Schieben has also been elected as Chairman of the Pneumant Supervisory Board.
After the STW race series, the new European Roadster Challenge (EUROC) is also under threat. As it seems that the German Touring Car Championship (Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft) will be successfully revived this year, well-known drivers anticipated to take part in EUROC have begun to look elsewhere at the last minute. Who will be equipping the Touring Car Championship teams with tyres is also not yet clear, although an exclusive contract is talked of, with auto motor und sport magazine already naming Dunlop. On the other hand the involvement of the Michelin subsidiary BFGoodrich in the EUROC series seems to have come to nothing even before the first race, unless Bernie Ecclestone can be persuaded to allow these cars, in which immense sums have already been invested, to take part in the Formula One circus.
Cosmetic cracks found in the sidewalls of Bridgestone/Firestone tyres fitted to Toyota Tundra and Sequoia trucks have resulted in more attention for the troubled tyre giant. Cracks were discovered by workers at Toyota’s Indiana plant and 2001 model Sequoias not yet delivered to dealers have been fitted with Dunlop tyres as a precautionary measure. Toyota plan to resume using Firestones shortly, and Firestone has given assurances that the cosmetic cracks do not in any way affect safety. The tyres were manufactured at their Wilson North Carolina plant, where Steeltex brand tyres, under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are also manufactured. However, Spokesperson for Firestone , Christine Karbiwiak said, “There is no reason to believe there is a defect at the Wilson plant”.
Paul Harrell, the MD of Dunlop-owned retail chain Motorway, has been appointed General Manager, Retail operations UK by the Goodyear group. In his new role he will be responsible for the operations of both Motorway and Goodyear’s Hi-Q retail chain.
Dr. Volker Wingefeld (49), Finance Director of Dunlop GmbH, is leaving the company within the next few weeks to join the board of Buderus AG, responsible for finance. Dr. Manfred Gerresheim (61), board member responsible for technical development and Robert Schäfer (61), chief executive of Dunlop, are considering leaving at the end of this year. The Dunlop management team is completed by its fourth member, Hans-Jürgen Wagner and, during the 90s, was very successful, turning in several record profits in a row.
Imagine the scene; Goodyear chairman Sam Gibara addresses an audience of 144 leading managers from around the world, telling them of Goodyear’s ambition to be not only the world’s biggest tyre manufacturer, but also the most profitable. He tells them of the reasons behind the Dunlop joint ventures and spells out the goals for which the Goodyear ‘family’ has to strive to achieve the company’s aims. What lies in store for Goodyear? Does size matter? What changes are needed in management attitudes, distribution policy and brand strategies if Goodyear is to be the best? How important is the adoption of a mullet-brand strategy in the various world-wide markets? These and other thought-provoking questions are discussed at length. As we said earlier, imagine the scene. The truth is there was no meeting in Hawaii and Mr. Gibara did not make the speech – but he certainly could have. The article can be downloaded in full length as PDF file (size: 2.84 Mbyte, Adobe Acrobat Reader required).
There was much celebration when Goodyear announced its “joint venture” with Dunlop, designed to make the group the biggest in the world. Since then, things not been going according to plan, with Goodyear’s share price plummeting. A new president has been appointed and an in-depth article in our January issue which can be downloaded in full length as PDF file (size: 1.20 Mbytes, Adobe Acrobat Reader required) argues that the group desperately needs to reorganise and change the way that decisions are made, to get closer to the market and to re-define areas of responsibility. An increase in size has brought inflexibility and a slowness to react, which is stifling the company’s chances of future growth. Our article suggests one possible solution to this problem, but it is one which will involve a radical change of philosophy and methods of operation.
In the USA, Goodyear has announced that three new dedicated Dunlop tyre lines will be available from Goodyear and Gemini outlets. These are the Dunlop Citation, the Citation HP (both for passenger cars) and Dunlop Pioneer for 4×4 vehicles.
Automechanika – the International Trade Fair for Car Workshop and Service Station Equipment, Automobile Spare Parts Accessories – has set a new exhibitor record: 3,909 exhibitors occupied all of the approx. 300,000 square metres of indoor and outdoor exhibition space to present their latest products and technical innovations. The almost three percent increase in exhibitor numbers was the result of growth in the number of German exhibitors. 67 percent of all exhibitors came from outside Germany. The top five exhibitor nations were Germany and Italy, followed by Taiwan, the USA and Great Britain. The exhibition ran from 6 to 10 September 2000 and Messe Frankfurt welcomed around 150,000 trade visitors from all over the world during the five days of the fair, where exhibitors took many orders and transacted a lot of business. In contrast to this positive attitude at the trade fair, the background situation of the market does not look that good: The car boom of previous years came to a sudden end this year. The EU-Commission in Brussels is thinking about ending the exclusive distributor networks of car retailers. Parallel to this the car manufacturers – especially Ford and Mercedes-Benz – are restructuring their distributor networks, which means that they are reducing the number of their retailers. The pressure on the suppliers exerted by the car producers continues to increase and as a result they are showing a stronger interest in the aftermarket business. Furthermore Goodyear/Dunlop’s daughter company Pneumant was the fist tyre producer for several years to have a booth at the Automechanika. However, it is doubtful that this is the first example of a growing trend, as the “Reifen” exhibition, central event of the European tyre world, was held just a few months ago and it is to be considered that – in contrast to the alloy wheel business – the target audience of the tyre manufacturers is most probably not those who attend the Automechanika. In NEUE REIFENZEITUNG 10/2000 we review the show.
DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen-Masters), the popular German racing series, will be revitalised this year. Dunlop is supplying all participating teams (Audi, Opel and Mercedes have confirmed their participation) with tyres. AMG-Mercedes’ teams, eight expected, will have wheels fitted by ATS.
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.