The bigger the tyre brand, the more important marketing becomes in order to communicate its values and its worth. With this in mind, the “marketing” tag collates all the latest marketing-related news and analysis into a single place. This reverse-chronological list of thousands of articles is your go-to source of tyre industry, marketing-related news and information.
The ContiTech Power Transmission Group has issued a new catalogue specifically for Asian vehicles. The range covers over 96 per cent of the Asian vehicle parc in Europe. The compilation helps workshops and dealers quickly locate the right belts as well as the range of deflection and tensioning pulleys and kits for Asian passenger cars.
Joint managing directors Simon Klapwijk and Henk van Dijk founded S&H Tyres in 2001. Between them they can register nearly 50 years of experience in the tyre trade. The knowledge gained in those years together with their individual charisma and undoubted negotiating skills has played in a big part in enabling the company to become an increasingly dynamic force in the wholesale tyre industry.
Sapphire Energy Recovery and Saltire Recovery Ltd recently worked in partnership to clean up an illegal dump of 16,000 tyres. The fly-tip was discovered in a lock-up in a disused railway arch in Ardwick, Manchester, by local property firm Maryland Securities, which was investigating apparent non-payment of rent by the premises’ tenant.
All 16,000 tyres were collected by Saltire and sent for chipping at Sapphire’s Manchester site within just three days of being notified by the landlord of the problem. The chips have since been sent to Lafarge Cement’s Cauldon and Hope Works for processing in cement kilns, leaving Maryland Securities investigating how to recoup the cost.
The current Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire (BFNT) vice president of Supply, Planning & Sourcing (SP&S), Steve W. Shelton, is to assume leadership of a newly established company department – Logistics Supply Chain Management. Shelton will begin in this role as of January 1, 2009. The new group will be a part of Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations (BATO), the newly announced integrated Americas tyre business.
To attract customers, a fast fit outlet can offer value for money, good service and a product range that suits varying motoring requirements – or they can place a wrecked car, complete with an authentic looking deceased driver, outside the premises. Shop managers tempted to opt for this second retailing approach, however, should learn from Frank Holcomb’s experience.
On September 18, dignitaries gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland for the opening of the latest section of the city’s Metro rail system. The 5.9 km long stretch of railway presented engineers with numerous obstacles to overcome – within the modest distance trains cover on the line, the track rises from 373 to 711 metres above sea level, with gradients of up to 12 per cent encountered along the way. What makes this particular railway line of particular interest to us, however, is that instead of the toothed metal wheels traditionally used by railways in mountainous areas, the new Lausanne m2 line runs on Michelin tyres.
Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., has announced that it will participate in the 25th International Automobile Trade Show in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The show, which is reputedly the largest motor show in Latin America, runs from 27 October through 9 November and offers the Japanese tyre manufacturer the opportunity to increase recognition of the “Yokohama” brand in Latin America, a key region in its global growth strategy. At the previous show in 2006 a total of 650,000 people visited, 100,000 more than in 2004. Yokohama established a local subsidiary called Yokohama Rubber Latin America Comercio Ltda. in Sao Paulo, Brazil in April 2008. The aim here is to for Yokohama to strengthen its marketing and increase sales in the largest market in Latin America.
The American Trucking Associations have awarded the second annual Mike Russell “Good stuff” Trucking Image Award to Bridgestone Bandag Tire Solutions (BBTS). The award was created to acknowledge companies that creatively implement the association’s “Good Stuff. Trucks Bring it” campaign, which is intended to generate positive awareness of the trucking industry.
The award is named after the late Mike Russell, the ATA’s former vice president of public affairs for ATA, who helped develop the campaign. “Mike Russell was a good friend and enthusiastic champion of the industry,” said Kurt Danielson, vice president of sales & marketing for BBTS. “BBTS Bridgestone made a tremendous commitment to support the American Trucking Associations beginning in 2005 by promoting the Good Stuff campaign to our owner-operator and fleet truck tyre customers. The Good Stuff campaign benefits us all.”
Following two demanding days of rally action, the European winners of the Pirelli Star Driver have been named. Challenges faced by the 18 candidates included a series of interviews with the judging panel and a demonstration of practical skills on six driving stages, and based on their performance Finland’s Jarkko Nikara and the Czech Republic’s Martin Semerad were selected to represent the region.
UK Batteries reports having fully embraced the new ‘REACH legislation’ that came in to effect on September 1, 2008 and requires battery producers and distributors at different levels in the supply chain to meet strict labelling criteria that ensures customers are not mislead. Specifically, the REACH legislation requires all battery products to display a specification label that generally relates to the CCA (starting power) and the Ampere Hour (durability) of the unit. All batteries sold after September 1 must display the correct label, and UK Batteries, said to be the UK’s fastest-growing independent distributor, says it is proud that all of its products are now fully REACH compliant.
The sales team at Manbat Batteries has been further strengthened with the appointment Martin McGreevy as the national sales manager for UK and Eire. Coming to Manbat after two years with Jiffy Packaging, where he was the national accounts manager for packaging and packaging systems, McGreevy brings with him 20 years of aftermarket experience – 15 years of which have been in senior sales management positions.
Heading up the entire sales team, the new national sales manager’s role will include guiding the team and helping Manbat customers increase battery sales, handling the key national accounts and developing the business into new markets, something Manbat views as an existing core strength.
Upon reporting Apollo Tyres’ second quarter 2008 results, a quarter in which consolidated net profit dropped 74 per cent on the previous year, company chairman Onkar S Kanwar stated that, despite difficult times, Apollo retains a positive outlook for the future. “It has been a testing quarter for the company and us as an industry, but I do believe that the worst might be behind us and it’s time to plan for the future,” he said. “The positive that I take from here is a consistent growth in sales, especially in South Africa, where we are able to now reap the benefits of our manufacturing and marketing excellence with a near 30 per cent sales growth this quarter.”
Manbat Batteries Ltd has announced a major restructuring of its Shrewsbury based senior management team. As a planned action during the second of Manbat’s five year rolling business planning, long-term managing director Roger Pemberton has moved to become the executive chairman, making way for Steve Sheppard to move from his position of sales director and take the reins as Manbat’s managing director.
Looking back on its year in motorsport, Marangoni reflects that racing has oftentimes given the company opportunities to push forward commercial and technological developments in a competitive forum. From the toughest of endurance racing, through specialist events and one-make championships, to the mountain hill climbs of Italy, Marangoni rubber has again taken a number of podiums.
However Derek Carruthers, global sales and marketing director believes that race victories are only one form of success: “Again this season, Marangoni has been performing in various motorsport disciplines and helping drivers to achieve impressive results. Motorsport remains our mobile laboratory, with tyre development opportunities through competitive use translating into tangible technical advances in our road tyres. Our communication strategy to the consumer is that your tyres have been developed and continue to be proven in some of the toughest motorsport disciplines, delivering total performance whatever the drive and whatever the conditions. This is a substantiated claim that our Team Marangoni colleagues can communicate with total confidence.”
Dunlop has appointed Sharon Antonaros sales and marketing director, Europe, Middle East and Africa for its Motorcycle Business Unit. He is based in the Goodyear Dunlop regional head office in Brussels and reports to Sanjay Khanna, managing director of the Dunlop Motorcycle Business Unit.
Born in Uccle, Belgium, Mr. Antonaros, 39, gained a Masters degree in European Studies from the Centre d’Etudes des Relations Européennes. Before joining Dunlop in August 2008, Antonaros was channel development director EMEA in the electronic navigation industry, where he had worked for three years. Prior to this he held senior sales and marketing positions in the computer hardware industry for Sony.
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