Bridgestone has been named Tyre Manufacturer of the Year honour at the TyreSafe Awards 2018. The manufacturer prevailed in the competitive category thanks to a number of safety initiatives and pro-active partnerships, which were noted by a panel of independent judges.
Bridgestone has announced details for the 2018 Chase Your Dream Trophy with England Golf. The championship gives thousands of amateur golfers from more than 1,900 clubs the chance to advance through club, regional, and national rounds to progress to a round at the pro-am of the Bridgestone Challenge. The three overall winners teed up with Ryder Cup hero Nicolas Colsaerts at the pro-am of the British Masters supported by Sky Sports. The cup was launched alongside the manufacturer’s global Olympic partnership last year.
Bridgestone has extended its support of golf with its new Bridgestone Chase your Dream Trophy. Played for the first time in 2017 and open to members of England Golf’s 1,900 affiliated clubs, the new event will run annually with separate men’s and women’s competitions to discover the country’s top handicap golfers of the year. Club golfers will get the chance to win a place in a European Tour Pro-Am. The trophy is presented by the tyre manufacturer in partnership with England Golf.
Sigmavision has announced the findings of a recent survey conducted in collaboration with Bridgestone and First Stop at the recent Sky Sports British Masters golf event. The company’s technicians surveyed 2,400 cars over two days away from the fairways and greens at The Grove, measuring tyre tread depths with Sigmavision’s TreadReader handheld scanners. The results of the survey back up Bridgestone’s hypothesis that motorists currently do not make the regular checks necessary to ensure their tyres are safe.
Bridgestone UK’s tyre division is embarking on a golf sponsorship that it says is “quite unique to the UK tyre industry.” The sponsorship includes a European Tour event partnership, the resurrection of a high-profile English tournament and a nationwide amateur competition that reaches up to 1,900 golf clubs.
The sales and marketing teams at Bridgestone and Firestone have been strengthened by the arrival of two dedicated brand managers. Peter Coleman and Stuart Attfield join the two respective teams and in doing so supplement a strengthened salesforce and pricing department. Both report to consumer marketing manager Wim Belckx and sales and marketing director Farrell Dolan.
The Europe-wide Firestone Music Tour, part of the relaunched brand’s efforts to reach a vibrant, youthful audience through music, will make its UK stop at Reading this weekend. The Bridgestone second-line brand’s ‘Roll on the Summer’ consumer campaign has been taking place in participating garages across the UK, offering a series of prizes for every tyre sale made, including a top prize of VIP tickets to the Reading Festival itself.
Three amateur golfers are hoping to reduce their handicaps and transform their games after a round to remember with an emerging star of the European Tour. Si Monckton of Eastbourne, Greg Robinson from Stockport and Andrew Law from Sheffield won a social networking competition with Bridgestone to tee off with their sponsored star for 2015, Ollie Farr. A video of the event is available in the full article.
Bridgestone has boosted its North region senior management team with the addition of a new business development role. Guy Jones, formerly of Land Rover and Kia, brings a wealth of automotive experience to the new Bridgestone management team, which has been revamped considerably in the last few months.
Bridgestone has announced its sponsorship of one of golf’s most exciting young talents in his breakthrough professional season. Oliver Farr is embarking on his debut year on the European Tour, competing with the likes of Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia and Ernie Els. He will sport Bridgestone’s tyre logo on his golf shirts and jumpers and feature on Bridgestone’s social networking channels, reporting from the Tour.
Former HiQ retail director, Farrell Dolan has been appointed Bridgestone’s new north Europe consumer sales and marketing director. Having spent a month with Bridgestone already, Dolan is optimistic about the coming year, expressing his excitement about the company’s potential. He said that he had been impressed by the sales team’s knowledge and professionalism, as well as the Firestone brand’s mid-range proposition. Dolan joins new managing director Robin Shaw at the helm of Bridgestone’s activities in the north Europe region during a period of reorganisation following a number of retirements and departures, including former MD John McNaught.
HiQ has hired property agent CPBigwood to identify new sites as it seeks to increase its number of branches. HiQ retail director Farrell Dolan told Tyrepress: “Our growth plans for our network are ambitious, but we are in the process of developing a new retail model that will make it easier for prospective franchisees to join the HiQ network.”
The extremely wet British winter has had a devastating impact on the state of roads across the UK, a report by the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) has revealed. As a knock-on effect of the potholes, fast fit and garage network HiQ says that more motorists have been forced to repair their cars, increasing the number of such jobs by 14 per cent in November 2013 – February 2014 compared to the same period in 2012-2013.
The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship 2014 has launched at Donington Park, with a 31-car grid, running entirely to NGTC (Next Generation Touring Car) specifications for the first time. The Goodyear Dunlop Group has extended its partnership with the BTCC, continuing its title sponsorship and exclusive tyre supply. The latest multi-year deal continues Dunlop’s association with the series, started at its inception in 1958. Fast fit network HiQ will continue as Team Championship sponsor.
The HiQ fast fit network reports more than 500 bespoke training courses at its HiQ Training Academy were booked in the first half of the year, a volume it believes bucks an industry trend that shows training to have decreased 12 per cent over the past two years. The training offered supports HiQ's partnership-led franchise model and also operates independently as a separate NVQ training programme for tyre technicians.
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