Jobs
Cooper-Avon has announced that it will be making 80 staff employees redundant in Europe. Locations affected are the Melksham (UK) HQ and offices in Switzerland, France and Germany. The cuts are blamed on the high level of the Pound and large numbers of imported tyres from the Far East and have been made, says Cooper-Avon, to reduce costs and increase job security for the remaining 900+ employees.
Former apprentice engineer with Michelin, now multi-millionaire businessman, John Caldwell, has pledged to try to find work within his mobile phone empire for the 950 Michelin workers facing the axe. Caldwell already employs 2,000 people in North Staffordshire and Crewe. He runs some 110 Phones 4U shops throughout the UK and has plans to take on 1,000 more people within the next year. The bulk of the new posts would be in communications positions.
Michelin and its local joint-venture partner Siam Cement has announced an investment of THB 3,82 billion in their Laem Chabang production plant near Bangkok. The development will double the capacity to 6.12 million passenger and light truck tyres a year. Michelin Siam also operate an additional two plants in Thailand providing production of truck, earthmover and motorcycle tyres.
On Tuesday 17th October, Goodyear Great Britain submitted an HR1 notice to the Dept. of Trade & Industry. This document contained a number of options for improving productivity and lowering costs, one of which was for 540 jobs to be lost at the company’s Wolverhampton plant. The notice effectively gives 90 days’ notice for management and unions to find agreement. If no agreement is forthcoming at the end of 90 days, a solution can be imposed by management. The total labour force at Goodyear Wolverhampton numbers more than 2,000. This news comes the day after Michelin announced the loss of 950 jobs at its factory in Stoke-on-Trent.
The news that BMW was going to sell its loss-making (1999 losses alone were 1 billion Euros) subsidiary Rover provoked an understandably strong reaction in Britain. Some estimated that 50,000 jobs (including those of suppliers) could be lost and BMW’s name was mud with workers, unions and the British Government, which accused BMW of lying. Undeterred, BMW began breaking up the Rover group, selling Land Rover to Ford for 3 billion Euros and the Longbridge car factory to venture capitalists Alchemy Partners, with BMW writing off debts of £2 million. BMW is retaining the factory at Cowley, where the new Mini will be made. Alchemy plans to re-name Rover as MG Cars and to move away from volume production to make sports cars and sports saloons. This would keep the Longbridge factory open, but with a much reduced workforce. Amid the thousands of paragraphs criticising BMW, some industry pundits have questioned the vulnerability of the German group and there are rumours of larger companies (VW and Ford are two who have been mentioned) sniffing around BMW. The major shareholder in BMW is the Quandt family, whose members insist that the company will remain independent. More details in the April issue of TYRES & ACCESSORIES.
Michelin has announced that car tyre, van tyre and rubber mixing production will cease at its Stoke-on-Trent factory in the second half of 2001. Production of truck retreads, mould and steel cord production will continue. In total, 950 jobs of the 2,350 currently on site will be lost. The move is part of Michelin’s European rationalisation programme.
The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung has announced that Michelin intends to shed 1,800 jobs out of a total of 28,700 at its four plants in France according to the company’s restructuring plan. Most of them will be achieved by early retirements but approximately 100 employees will have to leave the company involuntarily.
The foundation stone for a MIRS-factory was laid in the presence of Ministerpräsident Koch from the area of Hessen/Germany. Pirelli is investing 100 million Euro to produce about 1.5 million ultra-high-performance tyres by the year 2005. MIRS will create 200 more jobs. In addition to its own investment, Pirelli will receive an additional government grant of about 15 million Euro for meeting special environmental requirements.
Alloy Wheels International (AWI), a subsidiary of South African company Murray & Roberts, has closed its Cardiff plant because of an expected fall in demand from oe customers Rover Cars and Land-Rover and reduced competitiveness because of currency problems. 250 jobs are lost.
From the 1st till the 10th of December the 33rd “Essen-Motor-Show-International” opened its gates. For ten days, more than 550 exhibitors in 18 exhibition halls were showing the whole range of individual vehicle models for the world market and the broad palette of vehicle accessories. The Essen-Motor-Show enjoys the international reputation of being the biggest and most comprehensive show for automobile tuners. The tuning business is booming in Europe. Whereas the German passenger car market has decline by more than ten per cent this year, the tuning companies are reporting increasing turnovers. After 7.8 billion DM in the previous year it is expected that the eight billion DM benchmark is going to to be reached this year. But the tuning business guarantees not only high net earnings, it guarantees jobs as well. In 1999 the sector employed 18.000 people. For the car tuners the Essen-Motor-Show is traditionally the most important platform for presenting their products. The exhibitors have shown numerous world premieres in Essen. A review on this event is features in the December edition of NEUE REIFENZEITUNG.
Earlier in the year we reported that truck tyre production was to stop at the Fort Dunlop factory in Birmingham, UK. There was another devastating blow for the ageing plant when it was announced that car and van tyre production will be phased out by the end of the year. This will lead to 600 job losses, on top of the 650 redundancies earlier in the year. When all the losses have been implemented, the workforce at Fort Dunlop will have fallen from 1,700 to 500 inside twelve months. The latest move is as a result of Goodyear’s review of operations, following the joint venture with Sumitomo and has been blamed on over-production, the strength of Sterling and a reduction in domestic car production. Dunlop brand car and van tyres will continue to be manufactured at the company’s more modern factory in Washington in the North East of England as well as other European factories in the Goodyear group. Production at Washington will increase from six days a week to seven. Around 12,600 car tyres are manufactured daily at the plant. With truck, car and van tyre production gone from the Fort, that only leaves motorsports tyres, of which a mere 250,000 are made a year. The article in TYRES & ACCESSORIES 6/2000 outlines local reaction to the news and ends with the possibility of further bad news, as Goodyear is reported as saying that “substantial” further restructuring is still needed.
The Viborg-Group, which bought first Stinnes Reifendienst and later Gummi Meyer and now has more than 400 depots in Germany, is facing more departures by Managers. The relatively young managers Scharwenka, Rudolph, Roth and Lemle do not see their future within the group any longer and are leaving. As far as business in general for the Viborg-group in Germany is concerned we hear very different opinions. Viborg is asking for the deepest price and in addition to that for an overhead of 10 %, giving them a real advantage over all competitors. Strategic partners at the moment are Michelin, Pirelli and Dunlop. It is not clear whether all of them are paying the extra price of 10 %. Other tyre manufacturers can see how difficult it is for the Viborg Group to fulfil their promises despite the fact that all the warehouses are completely full. There will be a long article in a future issue of NEUE REIFENZEITUNG. Furthermore, Viborg’s management is not willing to talk to the press and is urging employees not to talk to the press otherwise their jobs will be in jeopardy.
Dunlop Tyres UK announced today that it will cease truck tyre manufacturing at its Birmingham factory. 650 jobs from a total workforce of 1,700 will be affected. Car, light truck, motor sport and racing tyres will still be made at the plant. Dunlop says the move is part of a Europe-wide rationalisation process as a result of excess capacity in the European tyre industry and the current market situation.
Ford predicts that it will once again reach a 10 p.c. market share in Europe within three years, according to the Wall Street Journal. Luxury car sales will play a large part in reaching the target. Renault and Nissan are moving closer together in Europe, merging their sales organisations. Around 9% of the 5,600 jobs are expected to be lost, saving some 1 billion Euro. By 2002, DaimlerChrysler intends to create 15,000 jobs. 5,000 of these will be in Germany in the service field of leasing, fleet management and fast fit services, according to the Financial Times Deutschland.
Bridgestone/Firestone will cut production capacity in two of its US plants as a result of the tyre recall and decline in demand for Firestone tyres. Approximately another 1,100 employees will lose their jobs.
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