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Tuning in Germany – History, Market Volume, Industry Trends

During the last three decades the tuning sector has become a sizeable branch of the German economy. A survey of the Verband Deutscher Automobil Tuner (VDAT) in 1994 recorded about four hundred businesses directly connected with the tuning sector. From 1994 to 1998 total turnover in the tuning industry showed an annual growth rate of just under three per cent. Compared with a 1994 turnover of 7.0 billion marks, latest estimates of the 1998 figure showed a total industry turnover of 7.7 billion marks. More recent figures are not yet available. A positive trend was also forecast for the year 1999 and estimated to be between two and three per cent to reach a figure of approximately 7.9 billion marks. This positive balance, however, is not exclusively generated by the tuning businesses, part of it is contributed by the manufacturing industry. Low-profile tyres (aspect ratio < 60) sold by the tyre manufacturing industry, for instance, are incorporated in the figures. Until the seventies the dominating theme in the industry was optimisation of engine performance, but during the last 20 years the tuners have more and more concentrated on a complete personalisation and harmonisation of the vehicle. In this context tyres and wheels take a decisive role, since this product group with its 27 p.c. turnover share in all VDAT member companies can claim the largest slice of the lucrative tuning cake.

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More Orders For Tyre Pressure Control Systems

Beru AG (Ludwigsburg/Germany) has announced growing demand for its tyre pressure control system. As well as the BMW 3, 5 and 7 series, Mercedes S- and AMG E-class and SLK and Audi A8, the tyre safety device is now also available as an option for Mercedes CL Coupe and Audi allroad Quattro, and from autumn for the BMW X5.

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Pneumant Production Base Fürstenwalde in Danger

The Fürstenwalde production base of Pneumant Reifen GmbH is under threat in the long term, Dr. Rainer Schieben, Commercial Managing Director, announced at the Pneumant head office in Fürstenwalde at the beginning of September. As early as this autumn the company will draw winter tyres from the Japanese production for cost reasons, and part of the summer tyre production will also be transferred to Japan. And, according to Schieben, the new owner, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, has already cut the production planning for the year 2000 by 200,000 tyres, which cannot be without repercussions on investment and employment. Schieben gave too high energy costs at Fürstenwalde as the reason for the problems. The current price per megawatt hour for the process temperature is roughly three times higher than in similar factories of the Dunlop parent company in Germany. By international comparison within the Goodyear group the high energy price has become even less justifiable. Pneumant employs a workforce of 550 plus 40 apprentices at the Fürstenwalde production base. 325 people are employed at the company’s second factory in Riesa. The tyre manufacturer is one of the few former GDR companies to have survived successfully. Thanks to an investment volume of 250 million marks since 1996 by the Dunlop parent company Pneumant possesses the most modern production facilities in Europe. In the car tyre replacement market the company is the clear market leader in the new federal states.

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Pirelli Reifenwerke: A Denial Denied

In its August issue NEUE REIFENZEITUNG reported that Pirelli had fallen behind with its plans for Germany, in parts by 20 p.c., and that the attraction of the Pirelli brand was on the wane, with price erosion as the consequence. Dr. Wentz, the Pirelli Reifenwerke boss, it was said, had to postpone his intended retirement, because G. Sala, his successor-designate, was unable to take up his post for health reasons. We also mentioned the possible return to Höchst of Dr. P. Masera as Pirelli Reifenwerke boss. Pirelli declared that Dr. Wentz would stay in office for several more years, and that there was no question of the Pirelli brand becoming less popular, rather the contrary. Results were good, we were told, Pirelli was doing very well in Germany and no redundancies were planned. One month later the head of the group, Tronchetti Provera, announced 2,800 job cuts for this year, 800 of them on the tyre side. In this context Milan made special mention of the significant price reduction in the winter tyre segment and in super-high-performance tyres, especially in the German market. In the meantime Dr. Masera has taken over as Chairman of the management. Dr. Wentz will leave Pirelli Reifenwerke by the end of the year but retain his seat on the board of Pirelli Deutschland AG and is also in line for a seat on the supervisory board.

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Krupp Elastomertechnik: One-Stop Shop

Krupp Elastomertechnik was created in 1996 by the merger of the company Werner & Pfleiderer Gummitechnik in Freudenberg and the rubber technology division of Krupp Kunststofftechnik. Thus two companies were united which, by their own admission, had cooperated in technology for a long time. This offers the rubber processing industry the opportunity of a “one-stop shop”, as it claims to a large extent to cover all essential preparation and process stages. According to Krupp, all machines, facilities and systems are the product of computer-aided development and construction on modern machine tools and manufacturing facilities and are installed and thoroughly checked before being handed over. In the recent past various new and advanced developments at Krupp Elastomer GmbH were particularly aimed at consolidating and improving the market position of the company. Largest market shares overall are held in Europe, but that does not mean that other regions of the world are less important to the company. For example Asia, which has so far produced 40 p.c. of the total turnover. At present this market is not too prosperous although there are a few positive signs, but that deficiency was almost made up by comparatively good sales in Europe, since the boom in the motor manufacturing industry and therefore in tyre production also benefits machine manufacturers. For the current year further growth in tyre sales figures is generally expected, at least in Germany. That should herald a bright future for machine manufacturers in the tyre industry, shouldn’t it?

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Record Figures for Car Winter Tyres

Approximately 29 million winter tyres will be sold in Central Europe (i.e. without Scandinavia) this winter. In Germany alone the figure will be well in excess of 16 million units (55 p.c.). Germany’s motorists will spend about three billion marks this year on tyres and services when refitting their vehicles with winter tyres.

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BFGoodrich Sends New “All Terrain T/A” into the Race

Recently BFGoodrich had chosen Dubai (United Arab Emirates) as the venue for the introduction of the latest 4×4 BFGoodrich tyre. The new tyre is the “All Terrain T/A” for mixed application on and off the road, a new/further development of its predecessor, “Radial All Terrain T/A” which will now be completely replaced by the new model in all sizes, with some more sizes added. This demonstrates the importance BFGoodrich attaches to the “All Terrain” tyres, a regularly updated line, which has sold well for more than 20 years. “The ‚All Terrain T/A‘, along with ‚Mud Terrain T/A‘ and ‚Long Trail T/A‘ are some of our most popular 4×4 models”, explained Matthias Utzinger, Kléber’s off-road product manager. The new “T/A” will be the most generally useful tyre in the product range, conceived for mixed applications, i.e. for light off-road work but also for the road and for drivers keen on sporty driving, without ever losing sight of its use as a “work-horse”. The forecast for Germany is approximately 100,000 new registrations for off-road cars in 1999, meaning more than 750,000 vehicles of that kind on the road in 2000, according to the tyre manufacturer’s market data, with 4×4 tyre replacement sales amounting to about 700,000. Thus the revised/new “All Terrain T/A” may well lead to BFGoodrich getting a larger slice of the cake.

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Scrap Tyre Recyclers Meet in Schwerin to Find Feasible Solutions

Under the headline “Recycling von Altreifen in Deutschland – Aktuelle Lage und Möglichkeiten für die Zukunft” (“Scrap Tyre Recycling in Germany – The Current Situation and Future Possibilities”) a two-day conference was held in the banqueting hall of Schwerin Castle in mid-October. Joint hosts of the first meeting of this kind on German soil were the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Ministry of the Environment and the European Tyre Recycling Association “ETRA”. The conference in Schwerin is part of a series of European meetings organised as Regional Information Briefings by ETRA for the airing and discussion of current questions and problems in the tyre recycling industry with the object of eventually finding common solutions. The programme was opened with a presentation covering the current situation of the scrap tyre recycling industry in Germany. This was followed by reports/discussions on the current state of the recycling technology as well as the opportunities for opening new markets for recycled scrap tyre products, in which almost 100 experts from the areas of tyre trade and disposal, retreading, material extraction, construction industry/road building, technology, equipment industry, waste disposal took part together with representatives of the civil authorities. In the course of the conference it became clear, however, that there was still a widespread lack of technological know-how and a considerable ignorance about how to market the recycled products. One reason is a limited demand for such products, another a lack of innovative and worthwhile product ideas and of adequate marketing concepts.

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Gummi-Mayer Goes to Viborg

Assuming the approval of the Competition Commission, the Danish tyre dealer and retreading company Viborg Gruppen together with the British Legal & General Ventures Limited (LGV) will take over all the tyre distribution activities (150 service centres) of Gummi-Mayer retrospectively from 30th September 1999. The integration of Gummi-Mayer into the existing companies of Viborg Gruppen will create the largest independent distribution and service company in the European tyre business. At the beginning of the year Viborg/LGV took over the tyre distribution activities of Stinnes AG in Germany, Holland, France, Austria and Switzerland and now has a close-knit Europe-wide service net. The sale includes all domestic tyre distribution and service activities trading in Germany under the names Gummi-Mayer and Autechna. All employees will be retained by Viborg, which has the right to the use of the Gummi-Mayer name initially for a period of ten years. Pending the approval of the Competition Commission, Gummi-Mayer will continue to be run by Hans and Franz Mayer. After the incorporation of Gummi-Mayer Viborg Gruppen will have a turnover of nearly 1.4 billion marks with more than 3,000 employees.

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Goodyear: Berckholtz Takes Over Original Equipment Germany

Günter Sommer (63), Manager Original Equipment Germany, will retire at the end of the year. Jan Berckholtz (55), Director in the European management for Sales and Marketing Original Equipment Consumer Tires Europe since 1992, will take over his responsibilities and move to Cologne.

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