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50 Years of Eibach

In Mid-September, the Spring-, Suspension- and Chassis-specialist celebrated its 50th anniversary in Finnentrop, with the slogan: “50 years of experience – Ready for the future.” More than 400 guests accepted the invitation for the central celebration event, approximately 50 percent of them being customers, coming from 40 countries. The terror attacks in the USA had their effect on this event too: is it possible to celebrate an anniversary thinking about thousands of victims in the States and the pain of their families? “The main impact has come from our colleagues in the United States, who wanted us to continue with the programme. We also want to give a example of multinational understanding and positive relations”, declared a visibly-moved Wilfried Eibach, head of the family owned company. The success story started in 1951 with the production of industry springs. In the Seventies the department for automotive springs was founded. Nowadays the name Eibach is known world-wide as a synonym for leading chassis technology. For some years the programme has gone far beyond the pure spring. The construction process has been supported by “CAD”-applications and it has carried out pioneer work in the field of new methods of corrosion-protection. Also the chassis system harmonisation is a huge field of activities in the year 2001. Today Eibach AG stands as a family holding on top of the German company group, consisting of four daughter companies. Abroad, Eibach is represented with production, engineering and/or distribution facilities in Irvine (California, USA), Broughton Astley (Leicestershire, GB), Tokyo (Japan) and Warriewood (New South Wales, Australia) and through more than 50 exclusive distributors. In Germany the 250 employees have achieved a turnover of 25.2 million Euro. The world-wide turnover in 2000 of the 400 employees amounted to 48 million Euro. During the celebration guests had practical experience of the secret of Eibach’s success: the fact that – beyond the many technological qualifications – the family owners have never neglected the human dimension, and they have always been aware of their social responsibilities.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

ETRA-Conference In Leipzig

A year ago, the conference of the European Tyre Recycling Association (ETRA) was held in Schwerin, dealing with the present situation and future perspectives of scrap tyre disposal in Germany. Many questions and problems that were left unanswered in 1999 were also discussed at the following conference in Leipzig, which took place at the beginning of last December. Also this time there were few new answers to be found concerning the well-known problems in this area. Why is it so difficult to solve these problems connected with the recycling business? Some answers: the participants in this market are very diverse – and so are the individual aims. In addition, the market situation for recycled scrap tyres is still not the best, and new ideas for sensible and economical applications are few and far between at the moment. Even if they exist, they may still be blocked in many cases, e.g. the use of rubber in road surfaces. On the other hand there is a requirement for European quality standards for products which are already distributed. Furthermore, the knowledge of some companies in this sector is quite limited: it is either the tyre-, disposal- or the marketing-know how that is missing. In many cases the financial backing for new projects is insufficient. Not to mention a number of scandals concerning illegal landfills, which has negatively influenced public opinion about this business sector. Finally the serious market participants, as well as their association ETRA, have run up against a wall of disinterest on the part of the state and the tyre manufacturers.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Award for BBS

Aluminium wheel producer BBS has been selected as an innovative medium-size company, by DG Bank, Frankfurt, and weekly newspaper Die Woche, for the second time. The award for the medium-size company went to BBS, ahead of 281 competitors, due to its innovative approach, especially in the field of painting wheels. Patron of this award initiative is Germany’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Werner Müller.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Racing fever in Germany now – Michelin Goes Formula One

Members of the German buying association of free tyre dealers “EFR” met for their annual meeting at the former Expo exhibition centre. Doors were closed when they reviewed the past year and analysed the weak points, as well as when they tried to set the agenda for the year 2001. No doubt EFR is known on the market as a “Michelin buying association”, which, regarded from the opposite side, is as wrong as if FRI were to be called a “Goodyear buying association”. But this is the wrong place to discuss both sides’ differences. In fact, EFR is representing a group with a very friendly relationship towards Michelin and therefore selling their products as a priority. And of course Michelin itself is doing everything to satisfy the EFR dealers’ demands, as with more than 300 specialised tyre dealers they form a solid distribution basis for their products. After being in low gear for several years, Michelin has had a brilliant start to the new millennium, while profiting from the seeds they have been sowing for the past two or three years. However, until recently, with their first brand the French have steadily been losing market shares all over Europe and most of all in Germany – although no loss of quantity and admittedly from a high ranking – now they are ready for the battle with the competition in their home market Europe, more than ever. As Michelin wants to win the race, Patrice Kéfalas could not miss a favourable opportunity: “Michelin goes Formula One” was the message that he announced in front of the EFR tyre dealers. Hence, the race is on at all levels. With Michelin tyres Patrice Kéfalas does not only want to win for merely for the sake of being the winner, he also wants to realise an image profit, which should end up in either greater quantities or better selling prices too between industry and trade or trade and consumer, or even both.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

TyreCheck 2001 In Germany

In the course of this year’s TyreCheck in Germany during May, 1.3 million cars were checked (previous year 200,000). 4 per cent of tyres had a tread depth below the 1.6 mm minimum, while another 15% had tread depths “near to” 1.6 mm. The TyreCheck, which was also carried out in other European countries, is designed to increase awareness of tyre safety. The German tyre dealers association (BRV, Bundesverband Reifenhandel und Vulkaniseur-Handwerk) described the participation of its members as “disappointing”, but the car testing organisations (TUV, Dekra, GTU) demonstrated a very high level of involvement.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Decline Forecast In European Truck/Bus Market

MAN Nutzfahrzeuge, the commercial vehicle unit if MAN AG, expects to see a flat 2001 and is cutting 1,200 jobs in Germany and Austria. The vehicle manufacturer expects to see a 5-8% cut in the European truck and bus market in 2001 but intends combating this by increasing its own market share.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Premio Tyre Dealers Annual Meeting

This year’s meeting of the German co-operation of independent tyre dealers under the umbrella of the retail brand “premio” had as its motto “time for take off”. Round about 125 outlets are members, with only a few having more than one service station. The downside of the premio network is that the “brand premio” is not well-known among end users. One reason for this is the fact that the chain is relatively young, about five years old. Of course a brand would be more popular if it were spread all over the country or – as service provider Goodyear would say – if more stations are on the net. But the premio managers are realistic, and it is not possible to grow by leaps and bounds. The competitors among the other groups of tyre dealers have restricted the market. And of course sometimes a member leaves the group after selling his business. Premio is part of the controlled distribution network of Goodyear in Germany which today covers round about 600 outlets. Premio wants one day to be what the group managers call the “lighthouse of the market”. Because the quantity targets have to be limited, Premio wants to be the best in terms of quality. In all criteria of an independent customer satisfaction analysis Premio performed better and even much better than the competitors – in all but two aspects, that is and these two were brand awareness and prices for endusers. It is hard to become the best in the market, but it is also hard to stay the best. How does it work? The best way is to continue to improve and optimise the modules of the system which the Premio Centre in the Goodyear headquarters makes available for the members. They not only try to develop new modules but also have to decide whether some of the older modules are no longer relevant. With more than 50 (!) modules the Premio offer is a leading player; taking just one of the modules available, the new software solution for the tyre trade called “tiresoft II” may well be the most modern in the market.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Winter-Workshop 2000 With Michelin

At the end of November Michelin invited motor journalists to a so-called “Winter Workshop” at the “Arctic Driving Centre” near Rovaniemi (Finland). The main topic of the event was of course the capabilities of winter tyres. Despite the very mild climate at the end of last year the tyre industry expects that with 18.4 million winter tyres, sales will reach a new record this season in Germany: Based on this Michelin says that customers will spend some three million DM for new tyres and service. As well as such basic market data, the Winter Workshop gave those present the chance to check out the advantages of modern winter tyres. To illustrate this the tyre manufacturer had prepared four different sections, focusing on influences on winter performance such as the tread depth, the age of the tyre and the tyre speed index and dimension. All in all, 24 combinations were tested and more than 50 journalists driving the test cars led to a great number of – sometimes astonishing – results, and the data allowed the establishment of average values for each section. Michelin says that the results of the workshop will have a bearing on future developments and the criteria for choosing the right tyre. Learn more about this in the January edition of NEUE REIFENZEITUNG.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

New Danish point S Members

Danish group Dek Ringen, with 31 members and 35 outlets, has joined the European point S network. The cooperation already had 700 outlets in France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and The Netherlands. The European Tyre Coordination Committee (ETC) coordinates all activities of point S members across Europe.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Second Plant For Ringtread System

There are a lot of patents, some first registered in the 60s, concerning retreading using a ring system. Most of the patents belong to Marangoni, the majority shareholder of Ellerbrock. But the new tyre manufacturers were also thinking about the idea of a ring. There were also developments by Goodyear very similar to the Marangoni system, so that it came to a legal settlement. But this was long ago and ancient history – now Goodyear offers its own ring called “Uni-Circle”. Until now only one plant has existed in Europe where these rings are produced: in the Marangoni factory in Frosinone (Italy) so you don’t need to be a detective to understand that the Goodyear source of Uni-Circle is the Marangoni plant. Now Ellerbrock has also begun production of the tread in form of a ring, also called Ringtread system. Ellerbrock will be responsible for the markets of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. Other countries may be added later, because Ellerbrock will produce the modern tread patterns popular in central Europe. Capacity of the new facility will be 300 rings per day. One benefit of the rings in comparison with traditional flat tread patterns for retreading is the higher flexibility in production: charges of twenty rings are no problems in the new plant. But there are also benefits for the retreaders: they can save material, time, and because the process is totally automated, mistakes in production caused by human error – which might lead to splice separations – are nearly impossible. And the ring looks exactly like a new tyre. The target of Ellerbrock with the Ringtread system is not to change from traditional truck tyre retreading but to find new customers.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Price Increases In German Market For Continental Tyres

Continental has announced that the prices of its passenger, van and 4×4 tyres sold in Germany will go up by four per cent from 1st August. Higher costs of raw materials are being blamed for the increase, particularly the price of synthetic rubber and carbon black. The price hike does not apply to markets outside Germany.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Sale Rumours Denied By National

TYRES & ACCESSORIES, on hearing stories of a Continental sale of National Tyres and Autocare decided to put the question to National. In response to enquiries about the possible sale by Continental, Roger Hawkins, Managing Director of National’s Retail division told TYRES & ACCESSORIES, “Continental has no immediate plans to sell National Tyres, rather it has invested a considerable amount into the fast-fit chain in the past 18 months on branch refurbishment and acquisition of “High Street” locations and will soon be unveiling an ambitious new fleet programme.” National Tyres and Autocare is a wholly owned subsidiary of Continental AG and reports to Continental AG in Germany. If the Equity were to be sold off it would send shock-waves through the UK retail and wholesale trade.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

EMT Runflat Tyres By Goodyear Are #1 Worldwide

Goodyear, supplying nearly 50 original equipment runflat tyre fitments to eight manufacturers, is the world leader in runflat tyres. The latest EMT (Extended Mobility Technology) fitment is on the Mini, a new product from the BMW Group which will have the Goodyear Eagle NCT5 EMT runflat tyres as an option. The company has runflat manufacturing capability in Fulda, Germany, and at plants in the USA.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

New Boss For Pirelli Germany

After only one year, Dr. Paolo Masera (59), boss of Pirelli Germany, has left the company to take over responsibility for Pirelli in Brazil. His successor is Dr. Klaus Betka, up till now production chief. Betka should only be regarded as a short-term solution for two or three years, as it is said that he has already signed a contract for early retirement.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Grand Prix Planned For Moscow

At a press conference, Formula one boss Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that Moscow will host a Formula One Grand Prix event, probably in 2003. A new circuit is being built on a site south of the city, at an estimated cost of 112.7 m Euro. No new race will be added to the F1 calendar, so Moscow will replace an existing event. Both Italy and Germany currently stage two races, so one of these is favourite to be dropped, although a possible ban on tobacco advertising at the race in Belgium may make that event unattractive to sponsors, and thus vulnerable.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors