France Archives - Page 66 of 69 - Tyrepress

Posts

Shell buys Kwik-Fit’s Polish service chain

Shell has bought the chain of 11 Kwik-Fit car service centres in Poland for an undisclosed sum. The workshops will operate under the Shell autoserv brand name – currently there are over 150 Shell autoserv centres operating in Australia, South Africa, Mexico and Singapore. The purchase of the Kwik-Fit centres marks Shell’s first steps into the Polish car servicing market; a market that the company says is worth $855 million and which is growing at an annual rate of 4.6 per cent. Graeme Robinson, MD of Shell autoserv in Poland, says that the company plans to have a network of 70 service centres operating in Poland by 2008.

9th October 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

EU Appeals Court To Rule On Michelin Case

The EU Appeals Court is set to rule on whether Michelin breached EU anti-monopoly rules in the early 1990s. At that time, Michelin offered rebates for retreading and replacing tyres on trucks and buses in France; something that “illegally tied dealers and foreclosed the French market”, the European Commission originally ruled in 2001.

30th September 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin Agricultural Developments

In the summer of 2002 Michelin launched the Kleber KAPS promotional campaign. This was a points-based incentive scheme for the agricultural sector. Dealers received points based on the number of Kleber tyres purchased. These points could be traded as they were accumulated, for a range of services and products. The points could gain dealer overalls, training sessions, or tickets for Formula One, as they desired.

KAPS is one of several similar projects across Europe and the success with which these incentive programmes have met has led to a development of the programme to be launched in 2004.

Dave Crinson, head of agricultural tyres at Michelin’s UK office, told T&A that dealers had responded positively to the scheme and the uptake on training sessions was particularly strong along with the alignment equipment and overalls. “This is an excellent outcome especially if we can get more dealers on-board with our training schemes,” he added.

Stephane Bonnard, head of marketing for agricultural tyres, pointed out that although the KAPS programme was continuing to run and had been successful to a degree, like any of these projects it was open to restructuring. “One of the areas where we believe dealers will be interested in is if we broaden the range of products covered by the scheme. This is something reflected in other European markets too. From the outset Michelin in France had been watching the KAPS scheme very closely and they have now taken it on board and whilst we will continue to run KAPS and offer the benefits, the scheme will be relaunched in 2004 with coverage to include the three key brands. Michelin of course will be the premium brand, with Kleber as the premium/value brand and BFGoodrich as the value brand. All three brands will be offered through our direct sales team to end users and dealers. Taurus and Kormoran will continue to be sold as a value and budget brand through wholesalers and will not be included in the new scheme.

4th September 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Recycling Ireland

Ireland, the Emerald Isle, the land that has made green its own colour, yet there is nothing much green about the waste management infrastructure North or South of the border. Waste has not been a priority problem until recently. The local authorities, certainly in the North were at one time expecting a further delay in the implementation of the Landfill Ban on whole tyres. Their reasoning was that there quite simply were no suitable alternatives available. There were no tyre shredding facilities in Ireland.

However, the UK government has in its now traditional style not only adopted the latest legislation to arise as a result of an EU directive, but is intent on implementing the new law. That is creating a peculiar scenario in Northern Ireland where, as the deadline approaches, there is still no route to disposal, save shipping them to the UK, or perhaps to the Republic. The former is costly, and the latter may not be sustainable in the long term. With nowhere to take these tyres the gate fees are bound to increase in the run up to the ban, and as the cost of disposal rises, the attraction of players to the market will also increase. However, unlike the mainland UK, there is no widespread network of retreaders or collectors seeking to expand their business into shredding. That makes the Northern Ireland situation one of interest and we spoke to Lynn Kerr, the managing director of ADCO retreading and power behind R4 Tyre Recycling in Portadown to get the lowdown on the Northern Ireland situation.

The situation in the South is similar to that in the North in that there is no widespread tyre collection service. We are advised that what competition exists does so courtesy of a loose application of the law. As in the UK, waste carriers need to be licensed, but rather than a single license giving rights to operate nationally, the licences are issued on a county basis, so to collect in County Cork and shred in Louth, one needs to hold licenses for every county between. However, Ireland has a hidden competitor in tyre collection, something it has in common with France, the agriculture sector in the republic has some 140,000 individual farmers, of whom we are informed some 80,000 might be involved in making silage. With some 40,000 tyres each year allegedly going to silage that averages out at 500 tyres per farmer. Farmers can collect without license, apparently, and there is no monitoring of their collections as of yet. This is obviously something that needs to be controlled if tyre disposal is to be legitimised and any environmentally effective recycling is to take place. The Irish government cannot expect retailers to pay the licensed tyre trader 2 Euro per tyre when they can have their local farmer take them for 50 cents a time.

Far be it from T&A to accuse Ireland’s farmers of collusion in avoiding the law, but if those figures are correct, either the agricultural sector is dumping tyres in some hidden corner of a forgotten field, or the whole of Ireland is gradually going to be covered in tyres used for silage. Ultimately, the only thing green about the Emerald Isle would be on the mould and algae growing on their rotting surfaces.

4th September 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Motorsports point the way for Kumho

While not one of the world’s giant tyre manufacturers, Kumho is in the top ten and the company realised some time ago that it needed to concentrate on its overseas activities if it were to grow, but this is easier said than done. There is no doubt that established brands have a terrific advantage – everybody knows their name and they have decades of history behind them. Of course, this has not been achieved overnight and is the result of many years of effort and considerable financial outlay and it is a daunting task for a comparative newcomer into a market to try to get its name known, especially when the target is a considerably shorter time frame than decades.

So the question is how to boost awareness in a number of diverse markets across the globe in a manner which makes economic sense? Different countries have differing cultures and tyre requirements, but Kumho realised that a common factor – and one popular in most countries – was that of motorsports. Thus it was that, in the 1990s, Kumho began to develop its involvement in international motorsports, in a strategy that was to become central to the worldwide marketing of the Kumho brand.

This strategy is by no means unique – after all, the Yokohama brand established a reputation for high performance in the UK after cars shod with its tyres won four consecutive British Touring Car championships from 1990 to 1993. However, the biggest pitfall in such a strategy is that, if you are going to go down the motorsports route, then you have to be sure that you are going to be good at it and you need implicit faith in the product. You also need to divert considerable resources towards R&D and to provide the technical back-up that so many motorsports events require nowadays – the tyre manufacturer has to do so much more than merely provide tyres.

This, then, was the route that Kumho decided to pursue and the quality of the racing product has been proved in competition over the years. Perhaps the highest-profile recognition came when Kumho ECSTA S700 tyres were adopted as the control tyre for the Formula 3 Euroseries, which is a series of 10 races, taking place in five different countries (Germany, France, Italy, Austria and The Netherlands).

Further recognition came in 2002, when Kumho signed a five year contract as the official tyre supplier to the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3, which brings together the best drivers from various European national championships. Last year Kumho was the control tyre for the first time and the lap record at Zandvoort in The Netherlands was broken – a dream start for the Korean company.

This year’s Marlboro Masters was contested by 49 drivers from 20 countries and for some of them (notably those from the British and Italian championships, which use another make of tyre) this was their first experience of racing on Kumho tyres. The race took place on a blisteringly-hot day at the Zandvoort track, attended by 55,000 spectators. Kumho branding was much in evidence and, indeed, the company has a very close association with the venue, having adopted a corner at the circuit in order to capitalise on the estimated TV audience of up to 800 million for last year’s event.

4th September 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Lassa European Sales & Marketing Director

Lassa has announced the appointment of John Westwood as the new senior director responsible for the running of its London-based European export sales operation. He joins the company after a long and distinguished career with Goodyear in a variety of senior sales and marketing positions. Mr. Westwood will replace Gunduz Akin as European Sales and Marketing Director, responsible for all Lassa brand sales in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and the UK. Mr Akin has returned to Turkey to work for Lassa’s parent company, Brisa.

18th August 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Retreading Legislation – Lack of direction from Brussels

“The European Truck Tyre retreading industry is healthy and provides the transport industry with high quality products which allows them to reduce tyre cost and transport cost. However, retread products are not legislatively treated equally to new tyres, and this is a growing threat to sustained growth for this industry”. The legislative problems faced by the retreading industry were outlined to T & A by Lennart Lindström – product manager at Bandag Europe – during Autopromotec 2003.The basis for the EU legislative framework is the Whole Vehicle Type Approval (WVTA) directive 70/156/EEC. This directive sets out the rules for the use and production of many vehicle parts, including tyres. Up until now, the WVTA has not taken into account the existence of retreaded tyres, nor have any of the quite numerous regulations and directives that exist for new tyres. All legislative work on tyres in the EU is solely focusing on new tyres. The WVTA does not yet exist for trucks, but work is underway to introduce this certification for trucks, and then new truck tyres must meet the same requirements.The certification principle for type approval implies that each authority grants authorisation for a vehicle, a system, a component (like tyres) and this authority remains solely responsible for the conformity of production of the certified product.For retreads ECE Regulations 108 (passenger tyres) and 109 (truck tyres) exists.Despite industry efforts to introduce ECE 108 and 109 into an EU mandatory directive, Brussels has not taken any visible initiative.In absence of the expected and desired EU directive, some member states have started to introduce ECE regulations 108 and 109 into national mandatory legislation. This is the case in France, Spain, Poland, Croatia and the Czech Republic. Other countries like the UK, Sweden and Denmark have begun the national legislative process to introduce them. This still leaves a great number of countries with no active plans to introduce these regulations. It is estimated that over 200 retread companies out of approximately 700 active companies in Western Europe have gained their ECE 109 certificate to date. Absence of equal rules creates an unfair competitive market.Bandag are suggesting that it is necessary to form a retread industry interest group, in order to proactively define potential future legislative content on matters like noise, wet traction and rolling resistance, and work in close co-operation with legislative bodies. BIPAVER and BLIC should, perhaps, take the joint initiative to the creation of such a group.The need to recruit new members to BIPAVER, including supplier members was emphasised by RMA secretariat, Sheila Ikin. This is especially relevant now that BIPAVER is focused on the interests of the retreading industry. One of the causes taken up is the unjustified ban on the importation of retreaded tyres, currently operative in 11 countries known to the RMA. There is a definite need to protect the retread industry against damaging legislation, hence the moves by BIPAVER to persuade Brussels to transpose ECE 108 and 109 from a recommendation to a directive.

8th July 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Christian Salvesen Wins Michelin Distribution Contract

Darfeuille, the French industrial division of logistics specialist Christian Salvesen, has won a multi-Euro contract to distribute tyres from Michelin’s St-Priest site near Lyon, destined for retail outlets and distributors in the Rhone-Alpes and Central region of France. Darfeuille has been operating Michelin’s Salon de Provence site since the beginning of 1998 and the company’s experience and performance was instrumental in the award of the new contract.

20th June 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Kwik-Fit “No Comment” On Rumours

Having recently sold a number of its Stop ‘n’ Steer centres in the UK, there are rumours that Kwik-Fit is set to rationalise its European operations. Our information, which comes from sources close to Kwik-Fit, but who did not want to be named, is that the company is looking at selling its operations in Poland, Belgium, Spain and Ireland in order to concentrate on the UK, Netherlands, France and Germany. We contacted Kwik-Fit in the UK to see if this was indeed the case and received the following reply from a company spokesperson: “Kwik-Fit is undertaking a review of all its operations. It would therefore be inappropriate to comment on future plans at present.”

27th February 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Montupet Starts New Investments

Automotive supplier Montupet SA has completed a 75 million Euro investment at its Chateauroux plant in France. Montupet is one of the biggest suppliers of aluminium motor parts and produces for many car makers, especially the Ford group. The investment has given the plant the ability to produce 2.5 million cast aluminium wheels each year, making it the second largest facility in Europe. The company’s next project will be to invest in its wheel plant near Belfast to increase capacity from 700,000 to about 2.5 million units annually within the next three years. Montupet is the biggest aluminium wheel supplier to the PSA group (Peugeot and Citroen), one of three dominating suppliers at Renault and has recently begun supplying Nissan UK and Seat.

12th February 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

“Michelin – The BMW Of The Tyre Industry”

Business newspapers in France and England are commenting on a paper from the french analysts Gaetan Toulemonde and Alexis Boyer both from DB Global Equities are recommending Michelin shares as a clear “buy”. The share price – at about 31 Euros at present – has, according to the analysts, the potential to rise to 50 Euros within 12 months. Michelin is seen by them as “the BMW in the tyre industry” with strong brands and an excellent brand strategy. It is expected that Michelin will announce in a press conference at the end of February a turnover for 2002 of about 15.7 bn Euro and an operating profit of 1.1 bn Euro. For this year the company is aiming for a turnover of more than 17 bn Euro and an operating profit of more than 1.2 bn Euro. The stock capitalisation at present is 4.6 bn Euro.Michelin’s strategy has been focused for years on a significantly improved product mix. 5 years ago 60% of all tyres produced were bread and butter tyres, but this proportion has been improved. Today, standard tyres account for about 45% and shortly this will come down to 40%. Under the leadership of Edouard Michelin, in recent years the Group has drafted its profit and loss expectations very precisely and has been able to achieve its goals. It is the declared target of the management to increase the operating profit from the current 7 to 7.5% to 10% from 2005. This is easier said than done and market conditions can change overnight; for example, a possible war with Iraq could lead to much higher oil prices and higher costs for all other raw materials. On the other hand the automotive suppliers are facing in North America extremely fierce competition and the automobile companies General Motors, Ford, and especially Chrysler, are trying to get their suppliers to subsidise them again by forcing them to reduce prices. In this climate it will become very difficult to increase prices, or even to ensure that recent price increases will stick.

10th February 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

1200 To Go At Michelin Spain

In an attempt to maintain strong results in Spain and to meet future challenges Michelin Spain has announced plans to reduce its staff by 1200 employees over the next three years. The reduction will come from a number of measures which will include early retirement and redeployment. The plan will see the closure of Michelin’s steel wheel plant in Aranda in 2005. Work will be transferred to plants in France and Germany. 600 workers will be affected by this move. The rest of the losses will be at Valladolid and Lasarte. Once detail agreement with the unions has been arranged the plans will be submitted to the Spanish government for approval in compliance with Spanish law.

3rd February 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Feu Vert Buys 55 Centres From Carrefour

French fast fit auto chain, Feu Vert has purchased 55 auto centres which operate from Carrefour shopping centres in France. This brings the number of Feu Vert centres to 370. 300 in France and 62 in Spain, plus others in surrounding countries. Feu Vert turnover is now in excess of 700 million Euros. The company is 62 per cent owned by Monnoyeur and 38 per cent by Casino. The company is also the majority shareholder in Mondial Pare-Brise – the auto windscreen company.

30th December 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Martien de Louw New Board Member for Passenger Tires Continental

The Supervisory Board of Continental AG (Hanover) has appointed Martien de Louw (56) to the company’s Executive Board, with responsibility for the Passenger Tire division. Board chairman Manfred Wennemer (55) previously oversaw the division in addition to his other duties. De Louw will take up his new assignment on February 1, 2003.

16th December 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Western European Car Sales Fall In November

Ahead of the official figures, analysts are predicting a fall of 6 per cent in November for sales of cars in Western Europe. All of the five major markets showed a drop in sales. France was down 10 per cent, the UK down 6.8 per cent, German sales fell 6 per cent, Spain was down 8.7 per cent and Italy showed a small fall of 1.3 per cent. Among the car manufacturers, the only positive growth (+10 per cent) was for the Japanese companies, notably Mazda, Mitsubishi and Subaru. Ford was next best, showing a decline in sales of only 1.9 per cent. The worst performers were Fiat and BMW (both down around 20 per cent).

11th December 2002/by Tyrepress Editors