The Royal euphoria surrounding the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations could well spill over to the DVLA Personalised Registrations auction which gets underway at City Hall, London, on Thursday (June 7).
Yesterday Pirelli inaugurated its new factory in Mexico, the company’s first facility in the country and 22nd worldwide. The plant will mainly focus on producing performance tyres for the premium passenger car and 4×4 segment, and capacity by the end of 2012 is expected to be 400,000 units, rising to 3.5 million by the time the plant’s first development phase ends in 2015. When fully operational in 2017, production is expected to reach 5.5 million units. Phase one work involves an investment of approximately US$300 million, and a further $100 million will be spent between 2015 and 2017. The plant’s workforce will reach the 1,000 mark next year and rise to 1,800 when full operational status is reached.
Continental’s top class football sponsorship includes the official sponsorship of UEFA Euro 2012. In its role as exclusive tyre partner the company will equip coaches transporting the players with its HSR2 premium tyre, while a specially configured HSU1 tyre will be fitted to forty fan buses in the four Polish host cities of Warsaw, Poznan, Gdansk and Wroclaw. The German tyre manufacturer will also supply service technicians through its Conti360° network to carry out daily tyre checks for the increased safety of players and supporters.
Maxxis Tyres has agreed to sponsor Liverpool FC for a further three years, extending its partnership with the club until 2015. Maxxis Tyres first worked with Liverpool FC in 2009 and has enjoyed successful campaigns with LFC fans, and increased brand awareness through online inventory and LED advertising on match days which is shown to millions of fans around the world.
Vauxhall has confirmed that production of its new Astra model will take place at its Ellesmere Port, Cheshire manufacturing plant – the lead plant of two in Europe building the model. The decision was made after Vauxhall’s workforce signed a new labour agreement, commencing in 2013, on Wednesday 16 May. The facility agreed to implement a number of creative operating solutions to improve flexibility and reduce fixed costs, making it one of the most competitive in the Vauxhall/Opel manufacturing network. The agreement will run into early next decade, through the projected lifespan of the next-generation Astra.
Tyre manufacturer, Maxxis has announced three exclusive competitions in conjunction with the Premier League football team Liverpool to win official signed memorabilia. Maxxis is asking visitors to its website to identify past and present Liverpool stars whose faces have been disguised with its tyre patterns, with a signed shirt or ball up for grabs for one winner. Maxxis has a sponsorship deal with the Anfield club, which the company has called “one of our biggest successes”. The Taiwanese Maxxis brand has stepped up its sponsorship of major sporting events recently, with Major League Baseball, NBA and Australian Open tennis sponsorships joining existing Premier League football deals.
It’s now been about four decades since alloy wheels began winning ground from steel passenger car wheels, and these products really came into their own in the 80s and 90s. Alloy wheels were seen as ‘the best thing since sliced bread’ and sold accordingly. This trend, which started off in the replacement sector, progressed into original equipment; initially only prestige and sport models were equipped with alloys, yet within a few years their use spread to small cars and some entry-level models. The alloy wheel industry boomed and made good money – until a number of thresholds were crossed: Suppliers found themselves with more products than demand justified; fierce competition drove prices down until aftermarket rims were cheaper than their original equipment equivalents. Exquisite accessories became commodities, interchangeable products. Everyday products.
Nine months after a fatal crash in Germany ended Goodyear Dunlop’s 2011 European blimp-centred promotional campaign, the tyre maker reports the Goodyear Blimp has returned to our skies. The Spirit of Safety is taking to the air from mid-March until July to embark on a nationwide tour in support of the tyre brand’s planned road safety initiatives. Throughout its three or so months of service, the airship will deliver road safety messages as it underlines the importance of The Highway Code, with particular emphasis placed on young driver education. A renewed media partnership with Sky Sports will also reach out to a worldwide sporting audience as the Goodyear Blimp flies over major Premier League football matches as well as international cricket, golf and rugby games.
A three-year agreement covering Northern Italy has been signed between Hankook Tire Italy and CEVA Logistics. Under the terms of the deal, CEVA manage the storage, distribution and reverse logistics for Hankook’s tyres at its facility in Somaglia, near Lodi in Italy. A dedicated 6,000 square metre area will be reserved for the tyre maker within the Somaglia site, and from there CEVA will use to incoming and several outgoing vehicles each day to distribute car, light commercial vehicle and truck tyres across northern Italy and will also manage a shuttle service to Hankook Tire’s main warehouse in Rome, which serves the central and southern areas of Italy. Over the course of a year CEVA estimates it will handle 500,000 tyres across 400 product lines.
Hankook Tyre Australia says the relocation of its New South Wales warehouse will improve distribution to dealers in that state. YCH Logistics, located at Sydney's Eastern Creek, will be the new central depot for Hankook tyres in the state; the facility replaces the warehouse currently located at TOLL Logistics in Yennora. The Yennora warehouse will continue to operate until the end of March.
Tyre manufacturer Maxxis was among the first to offer congratulations to Liverpool FC after it won the Carling Cup yesterday (26 February), to establish a record eight victories in the League Cup competition.
Maxxis has announced that it will sponsor the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals baseball franchises in 2012. During the regular season, beginning in early April, Maxxis signage will be visible behind home plate for many Yankees, Dodgers and Nationals home games, increasing the brand’s visibility and extending its policy of major sports teams such as Liverpool Football Club in the UK, giving the brand important exposure to legions of baseball fans around the world.
Maxxis is sponsoring the Australian Open tennis tournament, the finals of which are this weekend in Melbourne. It is the second time that the company has sponsored the grand slam event, and adds to the company’s marketing strategy of top-level sport sponsorship; the brand has put itself alongside the New York Yankees, Liverpool Football Club and a number of high profile motorsport series.
In addition to its sponsorship of the Super Bowl halftime show – this year featuring performances by Madonna, Cirque du Soleil and others – Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations is investing in a new brand campaign that will air during the football final and other major sporting events. The first in a series of five television commercials debuted 2 January, and two of the sports-themed advertisements will be screened during the Super Bowl XLVI on 5 February.
Tyre companies are no strangers to sport sponsorship. Motorsport deals have become almost de rigueur in some circles of late, and football has provided other manufacturers with a respectable alternative to on-track involvement. Yet the sporting world offers a plethora of opportunities; tapping one of the more unexpected of these is Carlisle Tire & Wheel, whose Radial Trail RH trailer tyre has been named official tyre of the 2012 American Bass Anglers Tour.
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