Cooper Tire Europe has launched a new all-terrain, all-season SUV tyre – the Cooper Discoverer A/T3 Sport 2. The tyre balances on-road stability and off-road capability. It carries the Three Peak Mountain Snow Flake and M+S ratings for harsh winter conditions and slippery surfaces.
New car registration figures for April 2020 reflect COVID-19’s impact upon the automotive industry here in the UK, and our neighbours across the Channel are facing similar problems. Four automotive industry associations have now stepped forward with a plan to ensure a strong restart of the sector and the economy at large.
Bridgestone has acquired German specialist tyre trade group, Reiff Reifen und Autotechnik GmbH. The company, part of the collapsed Fintyre Germany group, includes the Reiff, Netto and ABS brands. Reiff runs a network of 42 retail stores in the south of Germany, as well as a tyre retreading plant, all of which are part of the acquisition deal. It has more than 500 employees.
Saracens Tyres has put any plans to celebrate its 50th anniversary on hold to focus its efforts on helping its customers stay fully operational throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The Michelin Quality Centre-approved dealer is keeping its doors open during the UK’s lockdown period to support key workers in the transport and agricultural industries who are working around the clock to help keep essential supplies, including food, moving.
Analysts have warned that the dire effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on car production are not fully reflected in the March figures, released today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Andrew Burn, partner and head of automotive at KPMG UK said that while the March data shows that conditions were difficult, April’s numbers will show the full extent of the effects of the UK lockdown on the sector.
UK car manufacturing fell -37.6 per cent in March, according to figures released today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). 78,767 vehicles left factory gates in the month, some 47,428 fewer than the previous year, as the coronavirus crisis caused UK car plants to close. 140 days-worth of lost production have been lost as a result.
Things are changing so quickly at the moment that most analyses end up little more than speculation two weeks later. That’s why Tyrepress contains both the latest news and seeks to set such developments into their medium- and long-term contexts. Take our Tyre Retail coverage for example (see “2020 UK tyre retail ranking” and “Which garages are open during lockdown“) where we list both the current proportions of open tyre retailers and analyse the overall UK tyre retail landscape in its seven-year context.
Giti Tire’s GitiVanHD1 tyre has been selected as original equipment for the award-winning VW Crafter. Named Parkers’ 2020 Best Large Van of the Year, the Crafter will roll off the Wreszenia, Poland production line on the size 205/70R17 C115/113R tyre on the front and rear axles. The rear axle is a twin fitment, distributing the load across four tyres. The deal marks Giti Tire’s first European light commercial vehicle OE fitment.
Chinese celebrations of Lunar New Year (25 January) were muted this year by the emerging coronavirus crisis, with the huge amount of personal travel associated with the holiday period down around 45 per cent. Yet global business’s reliance on China’s manufacturing meant that large orders were, as usual, preplanned to take into account the two to three weeks of manufacturing slowdown at this time of year. In the UK tyre sector, the result is that a large number of tyres that will likely exceed some distributors’ warehousing capacity are now arriving at UK ports. Freight forwarder, Maritime Cargo Services is offering one solution to companies experiencing this problem.
Bridgestone has launched the Weather Control A005 EVO tyre, the second generation of its all-season touring tyre. The tyre is designed to meet the needs and expectations of European drivers, built using Bridgestone’s advanced, high silica NanoPro-tech compound technology. Its new mixing technology that improves silica dispersion. This allows the A005 EVO to offer enhanced fuel efficiency alongside improved winter performance. Like its predecessor, the Weather Control A005, Bridgestone’s new EVO edition has been designed to deliver year-round control, safety, and convenience, reengineered to offer additional performance benefits.
Michelin UK Plc is restarting operation at its retread manufacturing plant in Stoke-on-Trent, UK following as part of a pre-planned stoppage that coincided with other coronavirus-related closures around the country on 26 March 2020. In practice this means the company is planning to start receiving materials from 27 April 2020, with phased tyre production restarting from 29 April 2020.
The UK vehicle parc passed 40 million for the first time, according to new Motorparc data released today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The UK’s largest automotive analysis reveals that more than 35 million cars and five million commercial vehicles were in use in the UK in 2019, representing a 1.0% increase on the previous year.
At the moment it is easy to get side-tracked by all the talk of the coronavirus. But, while it is clearly an important subject, the tyre business has a century or more of pre-history, has a present and has a future. With this in mind, May’s edition of Tyres & Accessories continues in line with the last eight years of research by counting and ranking the nation’s largest tyre retail chains.
The methodology is simple, we contact companies, consult publicly available sources and use third-party data where necessary in order to triangulate our tyre retail landscape. Of course, the present circumstances may look significantly different due to the nations’ current lockdown status (see “Which Garages are Open During Lockdown“). However, the shape of the tyre retail business before the lockdown will surely help the retail trade strategize for its ongoing future after lockdown, making this data as actionable as ever.
Preliminary results for the first quarter of The Goodyear Tire Rubber Company’s 2020 financial year were published today, with the company confirming its fiscal performance during the three months to 31 March was “greatly affected by the economic disruption associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.” Tyre unit volumes declined 18 per cent year-on-year to approximately 31 million units and sales dropped 16.7 per cent to around US$3.0 billion.
When Zenises Group chairman Harjeev Kandhari bought Lincolnshire-based retreader Vaculug in July 2018, some questioned the logic of buying a British manufacturing business while the country was on the brink of Brexit. However, shortly afterwards he told Tyres & Accessories that the circumstances only added to the opportunity and that he had plans to invest in the business via its staff, products and production lines. 18 months on, before the Coronavirus outbreak, T&A asked Kandhari how the transition has progressed and what the company is doing to celebrate its 10th anniversary. In short, the Vaculug transition is said to be going “absolutely wonderfully”, with a new MD appointed from within the ranks of Zenises, a number of other new personnel as well as new products and a developing van tyre business.
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SMMT
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