Roughly a year after its German operations collapsed, late in the evening of Friday 12 February, the Italian parent company Fintyre filed a settlement plan with local courts. According to the Italian members of our international publishing group, Pneusnews.it, it is a decisive step for the company from Seriate, in the province of Bergamo.
As part of a range of structural changes taking effect on 1 April, Toyo Tires will draw upon its experiences making tyres for the demanding European market in order to benefit its development programme for other regions. The tyre maker is integrating its Europe/Module Development department, which currently operates under the Technology Development division within its R&D Headquarters, into the R&D Headquarters’ Replacement Tire Development department.
Outlining Bridgestone Corporation’s Mid-Long Term Business Strategy on 22 December, chief executive officer Shu Ishibashi spoke of the company’s plans through to 2023. The immediate priority has been to implement crisis management measures to address the impact of COVID-19; Bridgestone began implementing these in 2020, and the measures extend into this year. Beyond this, Bridgestone will work to rebuild earning power within the core Tire & Rubber business.
Strong words from one of the unions representing workers at the Continental tyre factory in Aachen, Germany. Speaking with Munich-based newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, IG BCE trade union chairman Michael Vassiliadis stressed that the planned job cuts “will be expensive”. He also claimed that Continental has turned away potential investors.
Nynas has exited company reorganisation after Swedish courts confirmed the process is now complete following a creditors meeting. The court’s decision is effective 21 December 2020. After this, Nynas will no longer be limited by reorganisation regulations.
Financial analysts have reiterated their “buy” rating on Continental AG shares, while also raising price target from 150 euros from 123 euros previously. In short, Continental AG is expected to continue outperforming consensus estimates. Writing in an investors note dated 18 November, Jefferies equity research said: “Tyre margins will return to an industry leading greater than 15 per cent in full-year 2021. Conti remains among the least liked stocks in the sector which provides positive surprise potential.”
Online tyre and wheel retailer Delticom AG has appointed Dr Harald Blania to its Management Board. He became a board member on 14 August and will serve a fixed-term that expires at the end of 28 February 2021.
Continental is expanding the restructuring programme it initiated in 2019. The company is adding further measures to cut costs and increase efficiency to its Transformation 2019-2029 programme. The tyre manufacturer wants to achieve gross annual savings of more than 1 billion euros by 2023. This is significantly more than previous targets – in fact more than doubling the initially quoted figure. In total it expects the changes to affect more than 30,000 jobs worldwide. Its workers in Conti’s domestic market in Germany will be the largest part, with 13,000 affected jobs. A further major proportion will be in countries with high labour costs. Conti says these jobs will be modified, relocated, or made redundant. Conti says the programme aims to ensure its viability and strengthen global competitiveness in the long term.
On 15 June 2020 Italian tyre distributor Fintyre filed an application for admission into a debt restructuring arrangement with creditors to preserve “business continuity and better safeguard the interests of its creditors and of all the subjects who, for various reasons, have relationships with Fintyre”, according to our Italian group publication PneusNews.it. Related businesses Franco Gomme and Tire Retail (Pneusmarket) are not part of the arrangement.
The Fintyre Group has grown considerably since Bain Capital first acquired Italian tyre wholesaler Fintyre early in 2017, but what does the future hold? Tyrepress.com understands that the company has told its employees in Germany that a restructuring of the Fintyre Group is taking place, and that this measure is now being felt in a very tangible way.
Nynas AB (publ) filed for “company reorganisation” in Sweden at Södertörn’s District Court today (Monday 16 December 2019). According to a company statement, Nynas’s banks have refused to continue to extend loans to the company and therefore “Nynas cannot pay due debts forcing the company to apply for a reorganisation”.
Sweden’s Trelleborg Group is implementing organisational changes with the aim of improving profitability and focusing the company on selected segments. It says the intention is to “continue to develop and strengthen already well-performing and well-positioned business areas that have sizeable global businesses.” This will involve reducing the number of business areas from five to three, Trelleborg Wheel Systems is one of the three businesses under this structure.
Online tyre distributor Delticom AG has announced a number of measures aimed at returning the company to profitability. These measures already include discontinuing some businesses and may lead to an investor acquiring Delticom or a significant share of the firm.
More than eight per cent of Continental’s current global workforce may be affected by measures introduced over the coming decade to reduce its gross costs by 500 million euros a year from 2023. Continental says up to 20,000 jobs worldwide are expected to be affected by this restructuring programme over the coming ten years; around 15,000 of these by the end of 20
As of 1 July, Bridgestone Europe’s Central Europe region will grow to include the four countries currently grouped as the Nordic region. Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden will join Austria, Germany in Switzerland in the enlarged regional operation.
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