When Tyres & Accessories spoke with Bertus Heuver earlier this year, he shared that Heuver Tyrewholesale was adopting a more geographic-based strategy in regards to its marketing, and was in the process of appointing new team members to enable the wholesaler’s national teams to cover all areas of Europe where it regularly does business. Four members have been added to the Heuver team in recent months.
Once again, Trelleborg will partner with the Tractor of the Year awards. The latest round of this agricultural sector honour kicked off with an event in France on 6 and 7 May; at the “Tractor of the Year 2015: Let the challenge begin” function in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, the Swedish tyre maker also launched a new advertising campaign to promote the qualities of its TM1000 High Power agricultural tyre.
Taiwanese tyre maker Kenda intends to strengthen its passenger car tyre business in Europe, and has named the German market as a particular focus. To support its efforts, the company has opened a European headquarters in northern Germany and as of 1 September 2013 employed former GITI Tire passenger car tyre marketing director Michael Andre as its marketing and sales manager for automotive tyres.
Continental has announced its intention to purchase the outstanding shares in the 50/50 Emitec Gesellschaft für Emissionstechnologie mbH joint venture it operates with partner, Worcestershire-based GKN plc. Once the acquisition of the 50 per cent share currently held by GKN is complete, the business will be integrated into Continental’s Powertrain division. With the acquisition of Emitec and the deal’s approval, Continental will emerge as a supplier of exhaust aftertreatment systems. Continental has not stated the price it will pay for the remaining share in Emitec.
Pirates aren’t lovable rogues with eye patches and parrots perched on the shoulder. Piracy, specifically brand piracy, has become a major issue for manufacturers of well-known products. One such firm, German alloy wheel manufacturer BBS, says counterfeiters who sell online and offer everything from fake centre caps to complete wheels cause the firm significant damage, and now it is taking “appropriate measures” against these pirates.
Pneu Expo has been postponed to a later, to be announced date.
Last week, five members of the CGT union, employed at Goodyear’s Amiens Nord factory in France, were briefly taken into custody for incidents dating as far back as 2008. Head of CGT representation at the plant, Mickael Wamen, plus Sébastien Lupo, Christian Hareux, Reynald Jurek and Franck Jurek were imprisoned on 26 March and released 38 hours later. Their time in custody was linked to a complaint filed by one of France’s trade union confederations, the CFE-CGC, six years ago. The complaint was dismissed at the time but later reopened. The five men are accused of acts of violence, vandalism and making death threats.
After three million kilometres of testing with some of the leading European fleets, Pirelli has launched a new range aimed at van operators. The tyre maker says its Carrier line guarantees a long tyre life, reduction in rolling resistance, better performance in the wet and increased comfort compared to previous generation tyres. Pirelli claims technology it developed for the UHP segment has been utilised in the Carrier; the tyre is said to have been created using state-of-the-art design criteria already successfully applied to the P Zero and Cinturato P7, albeit with an increased emphasis on two key factors for the van market – safety and total life cost.
Football sponsorship has been a favoured means of brand promotion at Continental since it became a Champions League partner in 1995, and in addition to its numerous global, regional and national commitments it has now signed up as an official sponsor of the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015. At the centre of this deal with the Asian Football Confederation is a championship taking place in Australia between 9 and 31 January 2015; teams from 46 countries will be involved and match coverage will reach up to 2.5 billion spectators.
Speedline Truck has reported a further advance in its OE sales drive alongside developments in its aftermarket marketing strategy.
In mid-March Speedline truck announced that it has been chosen by its ongoing industrial partner Daimler as exclusive partner for equipping the weight-optimised Arocs Loader cement mixer with its lightweight forged wheels.
Last September, German chemical company Lehmann & Voss and its ‘Luvomaxx’ business unit signed an exclusive sales agreement with China’s Jiangxi Black Cat Carbon Black, giving it exclusive distribution rights in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Luvomaxx business unit head Karl-Heinz Teschke recently returned from China, and has reported on the entry into service of JiangXi Black Cat’s eight carbon black facility.
Mitas is celebrating a decade of manufacturing Continental agricultural tyres under licence. Following the signing of the the licence agreement in 2004, Mitas has produced more than 300,000 tonnes of Continental tyres. Currently, Mitas offers more than 200 variations of agricultural Continental tyres. Mitas recently extended its Trademark License Agreement with Continental Tyres through to 2019.
The organiser of French tyre show Pneu Expo has announced it will not take place as planned on 9 and 10 April 2014. In a statement, Editions VB shared that this decision was taken due to a lack of exhibitor sign-ups received by the application cutoff date on 28 February.
France’s Groupe Massa (MPSA) has been appointed the sole national importer for the Aeolus consumer tyre range, which was first introduced into Europe last year. The company began supplying Aeolus products to the French market at the start of February and has accompanied its new distribution with an advertising campaign.
The cars on our roads are getting older, and there are more of them as well. According to the findings of the largest-ever census of UK car ownership carried out by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the country’s car parc rose by around 436,000 units, or 1.4 per cent, to reach a precise total of 31,917,885 cars in 2013. The ‘Motorparc’ study also identified that the average age of cars in the UK has risen by a year over the past decade; average car age is now 7.7 years old, and in 2013 there were 2.06 million cars over 12 years old on the road, 11.3 per cent more than in 2012.
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