Starting with the European Grand Prix, Bridgestone has introduced new recyclable tin weights into its Formula One and GP2 Series wheel and tyre balancing process. The use of tin as balance weights, comments Bridgestone, is believed to have a lower environmental impact than the previously utilised lead weights. Over the course of a season the company uses almost a tonne of wheel balance weights.
Despite an increase in revenues during the first half of 2009, Delticom CFO Frank Schuhardt retains a cautious outlook towards the company’s full-year performance. "Consumers across Europe are going to feel the effects of the crisis over the coming months,” he commented. “This is bound to have an impact on the tyre trade. Consequently, we should not assume that Delticom will be as profitable in the second half of the year as it was in the first half."
Falken Tire Corp. has promoted Ron Papcun to vice president of operations. Papcun joined Falken Tire in October 2002 as director of operations, and will now be responsible for managing the company’s distribution centers, logistics, facilities management, customer service and supply chain functions. (Tire Review/Akron)
Goodyear Dunlop’s Truck Business Unit this week announced a new strategic partnership with McConechy’s Tyre and Exhaust Centres. Under the partnership agreement, McConechy’s will become the group’s truck tyre logistics provider for independent dealers throughout Scotland. The partnership is, comments Goodyear Dunlop, the final piece of the jigsaw in its tyre delivery system. McConechy’s will join truck tyre specialists Bandvulc, who cover England and Wales, and Goodyear Dunlop’s factory direct delivery system to service the whole of the UK.
On 1 July Bandvulc won the Low Carbon and Efficiency Award at the Motor Transport Awards in London. Bandvulc was up against stiff competition from companies such as Tesco, United Biscuits, John Lewis, DPD and A F Blakemores, but was judged to be winner by an independent panel of experts drawn from the industry. According to the company, these annual awards are the ‘Oscars’ of the Motor Transport Industry and recognise companies demonstrating innovation, outstanding service, efficiency and quality.
Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) has named Kwik-Fit as the winner of the 2009 Responsible Recycler Award. The award is presented each year to a tyre retailer who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to innovation and best practice in the field of tyre recycling. In choosing Kwik-Fit for this year’s accolade the association wished to acknowledge the company’s ground-breaking reverse logistics programme whereby the delivery of new tyres to Kwik-Fit centres and the recovery of waste casings are integrated into a simple activity. This combined delivery and collection function saves on delivery and transport costs with the added security of caged delivery.
The award was presented by newly-elected TRA president, Barry Stocker. Speaking after the presentation of the award David White, Kwik-Fit’s customer services director expressed his delight at being this year’s recipient. He said: “This was truly a ‘first’ in the industry and whilst I was delighted to collect the award on Kwik-Fit’s behalf the accolade should really go to Ann Macreadie and Neil Arnott, the people at Kwik-Fit who despite many challenges stuck diligently to the plan and of course I must mention Ceva logistics and Murfitts, for without their tireless efforts it would never have been possible.”
The Delivery Company has confirmed its credentials as an environmentally-friendly company by scooping the Green Fleet Award presented by the Retread Manufacturers Association (RMA). The Award was presented to Douglas Wright of the Delivery Company by RMA Director David Wilson at the Rubber Industry Dinner held Chesford Grange in Kenilworth on 15 May. The Green Fleet of the Year Award is presented by the RMA to recognise fleets who have been particularly supportive to the retreading industry.
The Delivery Company is a trading division of PaperlinX Services (Europe) Ltd) and has a fleet of 350 vehicles operating throughout the UK delivering paper, board and plastics. As part of an initiative to reduce their carbon footprint, the Delivery Company not only adopted a managed, new and remould, tyre policy, they also introduced a number of other actions aimed at reducing emissions.
Following several weeks’ consultation with transport sector suppliers, the Commercial Vehicle Show Partnership has announced dates for the next “Commercial Vehicle Operator Show”. The exhibition will be held between April 13 and 15, 2010 at the Birmingham NEC.
The event, reports the organiser, will enable exhibitors to present the widest possible range of products and services used in the day to day running of commercial vehicles of all sizes and types, with a particular accent on environmental impact, improved efficiency and profitability. The following year (2011) will see the first of a new Commercial Vehicle Show series.
Goodyear Dunlop is to distribute new Goodyear Max Technology and Dunlop tyres through Bandvulc Group in a move designed to increase efficient and improve delivery service to UK truck tyre dealers. According to the tyre manufacturer, the agreement means that Bandvulc Group, which specializes in truck tyre service solutions, will now be able to supply Goodyear and Dunlop truck tyres to independent dealers across the UK.
The partnership is intended to complement Goodyear Dunlop’s existing direct delivery logistics system, which is designed to supply large tyre dealers and the growing network of TruckForce partners across the UK by shipping volume orders of tyres directly from plants (such as Wittlich in Germany, Luxembourg and Wolverhampton) to customers.
The latest addition to Continental’s industrial tyre portfolio is the radial ContiRV20, a product designed for what the company calls the toughest of environments – airport ground support. Three key qualities serve as important selling points for the new tyre; Conti reports the ContiRV20 delivers longer lifespan, low rolling resistance and comfortable handling at higher speeds. The manufacturer adds that this is the first time these three benefits have been combined within a single radial pneumatic industrial tyre.
Amongst those recognised at the 2009 Van Fleet World Honours, announced in London on May 20, was Kwik-Fit Fleet, who walked away with the Environment Award. This accolade, which the company states is the first fleet recognition of its environmental strategy, follows activities in this area that include the opening of its Northamptonshire based National Distribution Centre in summer 2008.
The £10 million, 245,000 square foot complex stocks up to 300,000 tyres across up to 650 different sizes with the guarantee of next day delivery to Kwik-Fit’s 670 centres and more than 200 mobile fitting units. According to Kwik-Fit Fleet, the benefits delivered by the new centre are varied and include a number of environmental pluses. One example is the ‘reverse logistics’ process that has been introduced: Kwik-Fit’s 69-vehicle truck fleet – after delivering tyres to its centres or its five distribution hubs across the UK –returns with removed tyre casings and scrap catalytic converters.
Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., has executed an internal reorganization process that will take effect as of 26 June 2009. According to the manufacturer, the company’s Tire Group aims to improve its business efficiency and speed by shaping itself around six functional organizations: sales & marketing, production, technical, quality assurance, product planning, and logistics. The group says it also aims to form “an organization capable of developing and executing a global business strategy with the establishment of an integrated sales setup to cover both domestic and overseas markets and the enhancement of global functions in technical and production divisions.”
“In these hard times we are very happy that…” – So begins the organiser’s summary of Tyrexpo Asia, which during its seventh running attracted 2,985 visitors (a decrease of 5 per cent on the last time) and 135 exhibitors (an increase of 8 per cent) within an exhibition space unchanged from 2007. While these figures highlight how the exhibition developed, they only show a single snapshot. The sense of increased hesitation to spend money on travelling to and exhibiting at a show was in line with what one would expect in the current market situation. But what bare numbers do not depict is ‘visitor quality’, something that both the organiser and exhibitors noted to be “superior to very good.” Furthermore, Tyrexpo Asia also provided an ideal platform for tyre wholesalers and their suppliers.
Alliance Tire Group has announced that the Company appointed Jean-Paul Spijker as vice president sales global OEM, B.S. Rama Murthy as group vice president commercial and D. Suresh as vice president of Technology function at the end of February.
ATS Euromaster has appointed Chris Hufflett, 45, to the position of group operations director, completing an internal restructuring programme which has seen the country divided into four divisions, each with its own dedicated divisional operations director and divisional sales manager. He takes over from Vince McGurk, 48, who is joining parent company Euromaster Group to take on the new position of European operations progress director at Euromaster Group’s head office in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Hufflett brings extensive industry experience to the role, having been employed for the last three years as one of ATS Euromaster’s divisional operations directors, looking after South West England and Wales. Before joining the company in 2006, he spent more than 10 years at vehicle distribution and logistics specialist Walon, most recently as operations director.
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