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Vianor Aims to Open 30 Russian Outlets

Nokian Tyres’ Vianor tyre chain has announced that it is aiming to open a total of 30, mainly franchised based outlets in Russia during 2005. The company says it will invest approximately 10 million euros in establishing the operation. The news follows the chain’s opening of outlets in Rostov and St Petersburg, and its acquisition of two tyre shops in Sweden. The company says the expansion of the Vianor chain will boost Nokian Tyres’ sales in Russia and give the company direct contacts with Russian consumers. “Tyre distribution is increasingly taken care of by the tyre shops and Nokian Tyres wants to be in the lead of this development,” said Kim Gran, president and CEO of Nokian Tyres.

In Sweden the chain has acquired two new shops Sjögrens Vulk AB and Degerfors Vulkcentral. All Vianor outlets share the same operational model and marketing concept. Vianor outlets sell mainly Nokian branded tyres, but also other well-known tyre brands. In addition, Vianor provides its customers with selected car related products and services, such as tyre hotels.

7th February 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Austrian Experts Test Off Road Tyres’ Winter Suitability

The Austrian Automotive Club, ÖAMTC, has tested five winter, two all-season and one conventional off road tyre for winter performance. All products were size 215/65 R16. According to the automobile club, snow braking performance really “separated the wheat from the chaff.” At a speed of 40 km/h the all-season tyres had a substantially longer braking distance than winter tyres.

4th February 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Sibur in Talks with Continental and Nokian

Sibur Russian Tyres is in talks with a Czech unit of German tyremaker Continental AG and with Finland’s Nokian Renkaat to cooperate in the tyre business, the Reuters news agency has reported. Sibur spokeswoman Anna Stepanova said Sibur’s possible partnership with the Continental unit might include production of tyres at a Sibur plant in Russia.

She also said Sibur was in talks with Nokian, which is already building a tyre plant of its own near St Petersburg. “There will be (partnership) with Nokian, but it’s unclear of what kind,” she said. Nokian declined to comment and Continental was not available for comment. A previous move by Nokian to cooperate with a Russian tyre manufacturer ended in a dispute with Russian partner Amtel over how to expand their cooperation. Production at the joint venture stopped last year, and it is now dissolved.

The Russian tyre company is part of petrochemical giant Sibur, which controls about half of Russia’s tyre industry. Sibur in turn is controlled by Russian gas monopoly Gazprom.

2nd February 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Further Expansion At Amtel

Amtel’s latest 5500 tyres per day production line has gone into operation. The $50 million “Kirov-II” line will produce approximately 2 million tyres per year, raising annual production at the complex to 7 million units.

28th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Nokian Increases Share Capital

Towards the end of last year, Nokian Tyres increased its share capital by a total of 45,340 euros. The new shares are being traded on the Helsinki Stock Exchange together with the old shares. Nokian Tyres plc’s share capital now stands at 21,705,762 euros.

7th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Nokian to Sell Car Retreading Business

Nokian Tyres Corp has announced that its tyre chain, Vianor AB, has signed a letter of intent to sell its car tyre retreading business to another Swedish company, Mac Ripper AB. The company has not disclosed any financial details pertaining to the deal. In a report published by the AFX news agency, Nokian suggested that Vianor sold the retreading business in order to concentrate on new car and truck tyre sales, tyres. Following the news of the sale, shares in Nokian tyres fell 1.63 per cent to 110.17.

13th December 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Nokian Sells Bicycle Tyre Business

Nokian Tyres has confirmed that it has sold its factory premises in the town of Lieksa for a total of 3.6 million euros. The Finnish company sold the bicycle tyre business to Suomen Rengastehdas Oy. According to Nokian, the new owners took over the management of the plant straight away and will provide contract-manufacturing services to Nokian. All personnel, a total of 59 employees, are to keep their jobs working at the Bicycle Tyres profit centre and in heavy inner tube manufacture.

Suomen Rengastehdas Oy is a subsidiary of Suomen Kumitehdas Oy. The companies are engaged in the manufacture of bicycle tyres, rubber boots, footwear and other rubber products, and in the reprocessing of rubber. The principal owners of the companies are Mr Arto Huhtinen and Mrs Tuire Erkkilä, both previously members of Nokian Jalkineet Oy’s (Nokian Footwear) management.

In 2003 the Lieksa plant manufactured 784,000 bicycle tyres and inner tubes.

1st December 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Nokian and Matador Expand Cooperation

Nokian and Matador are to expand their co-operation, the companies report. The two tyre manufacturers signed an agreement on 5 November, which will see Nokian increase the number of passenger car tyres that are produced at Matador’s plant in Slovakia. In conjunction with this, Nokian Tyres and Matador also signed an agreement on machinery acquisition. The Finnish company will purchase new equipment at a cost of around 3 million euros in order to secure the production capacity at Matador’s tyre plant.

The objective is to increase the present production of 300,000 tyres to 500,000 tyres in 2005 and to gradually increase the volume to 1 million tyres.

According to Nokian, the manufactured tyres will mainly be Nokian-branded passenger car tyres intended primarily for the Central European markets. The contract manufacturing agreement will be valid until the end of 2009 and after that renewed for one year at a time. The new agreement will replace the earlier agreement signed in January 2003.

8th November 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Nokian’s New Records

The Finnish tyre manufacturer, Nokian, is reporting new record figures. The company’s turnover increased by 15 per cent to 39.8 million euros in the first nine months of 2004. Operating profit was also on the up and increased by 57 per cent compared with the first nine months of last year to reach 6.2 million euros. Management confirmed that they had significantly outperformed last year’s record results.

1st November 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

‘The fastest clean summer tyre in the world’

Nokian is set to introduce a W speed rated summer car tyre, which it claims is “the fastest clean summer tyre in the world.”

The Nokian Z ultra high performance tyre will initially be launched in the Nordic countries, Central Europe and Russia in the spring of 2005. The company describes the tyre’s characteristics as combining “good wet grip, precise controllability and clean rubber compounds,” and says that it is manufactured without harmful high-aromatic oils.

Mr Teppo Huovila, product development manager, Nokian Tyres explains that the design of the new tyre is focused on two core points: “Safety under extreme conditions and environmental friendliness.” Which he believes calls for the company’s “special technical skills and solid experience.”

20th September 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Nokian Announces Record Figures Too

Finnish tyre manufacturer, Nokian, has announced that it increased its turnover to 250.8 million euros (£166 million) in the first half of 2004. Compared with the first half of 2003 this represents a 19 per cent improvement.

6th August 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Increase In Nokian Share Capital

More than 50,000 new Nokian shares have been subscribed, adding 104,070 Euro to the company’s share capital, which now totals 21,472,952 Euros. The shares, together with the old shares, will be traded on the Helsinki Exchange from 17 May.

17th May 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Analysts Upgrade Nokian

Analysts MorganStanley have upgraded Nokian shares from “Underweight-V” to “Equal Weight-V”. This follows good first quarter financial figures and the company’s reorganised strategy to pursue growth in the Russian tyre market, which involves investing 52 million Euro in building a new factory near St. Petersburg.

11th May 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Europe Director For Nokian Board

At its Annual General Meeting, Nokian Tyres elected Mitsuhira Shimazaki, Director, Sales Administration, Bridgestone Europe, to the Nokian Tyres board of directors. A year ago, Bridgestone announced that it would take a stake in Nokian (nearly 19 per cent) for 78.34 million Euro. Also at the AGM, Nokian agreed to pay a dividend of 1.56 Euro per share.

6th April 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

Amtel to list 40 per cent of shares

Amtel plans a foreign listing of up to 40 per cent of its shares in October next year. Amtel controls a third of the Russian tyre market. The company expects a capitalisation of around 500 million US dollars. Amtel is considering buying a plant in Iran and is looking at expanding in Malaysia. Meanwhile an agreement with Nokian is being dissolved, though the final arrangement between the two has not yet been confirmed.

19th March 2004/by Tyrepress Editors