Bridgestone now operates a total of more than 900 First Stop, Speedy and Côté Route retail outlets in France now that the company’s acquisition of Group Ayme and its 104 points of sale has been completed. The deal was finalised yesterday, reports Bridgestone EMEA; the French competition authorities gave clearance and authorised the transaction without any restrictions.
Valeo has taken first place in France’s 2016 INPI industrial property institute rankings, with 994 patents published in 2016 against 668 in 2015 (third place). This achievement consolidates its technological leadership, the company states.
FactoLab is the name given to a new public-private laboratory that Michelin has jointly set up with three research laboratories from Université Clermont Auvergne in France. The tyre maker officially inaugurated FactoLab together with representatives from the Institut Pascal, Lapsco and Limos on 10 February.
With the acquisition of all outstanding shares in the publishing businesses of French travel guide specialist Mondéos, Michelin believes it has “reaffirmed its leadership and strengthened its presence” in the travel guide market. Michelin has not disclosed the price it paid for the shareholding in publisher of the Balado and Mondéos guides.
Japanese tyre manufacturer Bridgestone has agreed to buy Ayme Group, the owner of France’s largest independent tyre retail chain – Côté Route.
After a ten-month construction period and with surprisingly little fanfare, on 16 September Michelin opened ‘Urbalad’, its new RDI (Research, Development, Innovation) Campus in the presence of group employees, partners and French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls. Urbalad was built with an investment of €270 million and is expected to, the tyre maker states, “open up a new era for the company.”
The appeals process for eight former Goodyear employees accused of taking two company managers hostage in France began last week, some nine months after a first instance court sentenced each to 24 months’ imprisonment for their involvement in the incident. While the original sentence requires the eight to serve nine months in prison and the following 15 months of the two-year sentence on probation, the public prosecution is being called upon to retain the sentence yet allow for the entire 24 months to be served as a suspended custodial sentence.
Late last month it seemed the planned acquisition of A.T.U. by France’s Mobivia would deliver “synergies and interesting development opportunities” for the German tyre and car maintenance chain, however it now appears this appraisal was slightly optimistic. According to information appearing in German publication ‘Manager Magazin’, a major hurdle still stands in the way of the proposed deal’s completion.
Bridgestone’s Bethune, France; Burgos, Spain; and Poznań, Poland tyre manufacturing plants were honoured at the General Motors 2015 Supplier Quality Excellence Awards. The quality managers of the three plants accepted the awards at the ceremony held at GM Europe headquarters in Russelsheim, Germany on 16 September 2016.
Hot on the heels of the news that Michelin’s year-round summer tyre (the CrossClimate) has beaten all-season tyres at their own game in a magazine tyre test (see “Summer tyre wins all-season test”, which reports on the ADAC test originally published on 22 September), Michelin previewed the next generation of its category-defying product – the CrossClimate+ at the Paris Motor Show at the start of October. In addition to the original product’s unique summer-tyre-with-a-three-peaks-mountain-snowflake qualification, the latest version is said to improve winter performance and consistent whole tread life performance. This latter point picks up on what appears to be an increasingly important theme to Michelin – that tyres should performs consistently well through right up to the 1.6mm legal tread depth limit (see “Michelin reaffirms opposition to 3mm replacement” for more on this).
While some manufacturers lobby for tyres to be replaced at 3 or even 4 mm, Michelin maintains that the current legal limit of 1.6 mm is “perfectly suited” to modern motoring and has reaffirmed its opposition to a change in the legislation. Indeed, during the course of the Paris Motor Show, Michelin’s top executives will be making this argument with journalists, OEMs and of course the public.
The France-based Mobivia Groupe, Europe’s largest independent automotive maintenance and repair services group, based in France, has agreed to acquire leading German autocentre chain ATU. Combined annual sales are expected to be roughly 2.7 billion euros, while there will be close to 2,000 automotive workshops and retail stores and over 20,000 employees in the group.
Point S France and Siligom have joined forces in the creation of a new group which represents 650 retail outlets, 500 independent entrepreneurs, 4,000 employees and a consolidated turnover of roughly 580 million euros. The businesses offer tyres and maintenance for passenger cars as well as for trucks, agricultural and earthmover vehicles.
On Friday, Michelin will officially inaugurate its new research and development centre in Ladoux, France. The tyre maker laid the foundation stone for the facility in December 2013 and is investing approximately €280 million in erecting a state-of-the-art, 67,000 square metre building and, from 2018, employing 1,700 new engineers and technicians.
Bridgestone has taken a minority shareholding in French tyre retailer Pneus à bas prix. Details of the exact stake the tyre maker has acquired or how much it paid have not been released, however Bridgestone states that the new arrangement reinforces its presence in France and complements the company’s First Stop and Speedy retail operations.
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.