Apollo Tyres has announced a deal with Kwik-Fit to sell its tyres throughout the fast-fitter’s 180 car service centres across The Netherlands. Apollo’s entire summer and winter range of passenger car and 4×4 tyres will be available from Kwik-Fit. Martin Post, general director at Kwik-Fit, said, “Apollo is a trendy brand that suits the character of Kwik-Fit. We very much look forward to offering our customers quality tyres from Apollo.”
Since its establishment in 1999, Treadsetters' turnover has grown from £6 million to over £27.5 million. Having successfully operated a wholesale model based largely on selling exclusive tyre brands for a decade, the company is now developing its own brand of tyres under the name Torque with a view to expanding this success into a truly international scale. Tyres & Accessories met with Treadsetters managing director Tim Davies in mid November at the company's new, larger warehousing site in Telford to find out more about the strategy that is behind both the company's recent HSBC business thinking award nomination and its recent growth.
To say that Treadsetter's recent growth has been strong is something of an understatement. If the company hits its 2010 targets – and so far there is every indication that it will – the business will have experienced 750 per cent turnover growth and 1000 per cent enhancement in our profitability in the last 5 years. Bearing in mind the wider market conditions of recent years and the fact that the company has not only maintained but increased profits amidst rapid growing sales total, this really is something of an achievement.
South Africa’s Tyre Dealer and Fitment Association (TDAFA) recently named Apollo Tyres South Africa its ‘Tyre Manufacturer of the Year’ at its annual gala dinner. The South African manufacturer of the Dunlop tyre brand received this distinction based upon its performance in a tri-annual TDAFA members’ survey in which manufacturers are nominated in five key criteria; product quality, customer service, stock rotation, availability and warranties.
A field of nominees that featured four of the top six tyre manufacturers and new entrant to the top ten, Maxxis, was always going to be competitive. In the end Continental won out over Bridgetone, Goodyear, Maxxis and Michelin claiming the prize for the second year on the trot. The tyre manufacturer won the honour for its World Cup campaign, ‘Don’t Miss the Big Game.’ The successful campaign promoted Continental’s ongoing sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup with a distinctly South African theme to match the host country of the 2010 tournament. With striking visuals of South Africa’s big game, Continental gave consumers the chance to win a once in a lifetime trip to the World Cup finals including a Safari tour – so that they wouldn’t miss any of the big game.
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The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company today posted its highest third quarter 2010 sales and tyre unit volumes since the third quarter of 2008. Yet under pressure from spiralling raw materials cuts, alongside charges for refinancing debt, the manufacturer ended up with a $20 million loss largely due to consistently high costs throughout the quarter, especially in raw materials. The company made a net profit of $72 million in the same period in 2009.
There is a long tradition of mining in South Africa and the country is the world's leading producer of platinum, manganese and chrome, the second-largest producer of gold and the fourth-largest diamond producer. With such a history, it is fitting that South Africa plays host to the biennial Electra Mining Africa exhibition which, since its inception over 40 years ago, has grown to become South Africa's largest trade exhibition and the second largest mining show in the world.
Apollo Tyres reports that its south African Dunlop brand has emerged as the country’s number one tyre brand in an independent survey. The iconic brands survey, conducted by TGI South Africa and commissioned by the Afrikaans language newspaper Rapport and English language paper City Press, measured the usage of more than 8,000 brands within 19 different product categories.
An eight-month mystery has come to a grisly close, yet the discovery of Uwe Gemballa’s body in South Africa opens the door to a number of fresh questions. The 51-year old owner of the German company Gemballa, best known for its Porsche tuning parts, disappeared shortly after arriving in South Africa in February. Late that month media reports indicated Gemballa had telephoned his wife, instructing her to transfer a million euros into his bank account. It was suggested he had been involved in an accident of some sort.
Strike action at Apollo, Continental and Goodyear’s factories in South Africa has ended and workers are scheduled to resume work on September 30. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa says the month-long strike, which arose following stalled negotiations with New Tyre Manufacturing Industry Employers' Association, has been resolved following the decision to revise pay structures for tyre industry workers.
Strife within the South African tyre industry continues with an estimated 4,000 workers expected to attend a protest march on September 20. NUMSA, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, has planned for the disgruntled employees to assemble at Jarhaman Hall in Korsten, Port Elizabeth to, as spokesman Mphumzi Maqungo explains, “hand over a memorandum of demands to tyre manufacturers' ruling oligarchy." According to Maqungo, the “throng” of workers anticipated to take part in the protest include those working for “imperialist owned Firestone, Continental and Goodyear.”
Germany’s World Cup aspirations may have crumbled in a one-nil defeat at the deft and athletic hands of Spain in July, but the country has nevertheless gone on to achieve its own global football victory. On September 19, some two months after the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa drew to a close, the men’s team from Continental’s Korbach factory in the German province of Hesse emerged victorious in the ContiTeamCup 2010 after defeating Brazil by three goals to nil. In the women’s league Germany had to settle for second place, however, following a one-nil loss to Mexico.
Apollo Tyres has notified the Bombay Stock Exchange that employees at its factories in Africa have joined a nationwide industry strike organised by National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA). Apollo states that “consequent upon declaration of a general strike in tyre industry in South Africa, the workers of both the plants at Durban and Ladysmith of ATSA (Apollo Tyres South Africa) have also gone on strike.”
A spokesman for the South African trade union representing tyre industry workers has called for direct penalties against senior personnel at the tyre manufacturers and organisations accused of participating in cartel activities. In a statement, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) national spokesperson Castro Ngobese articulated the union’s demand for “individual company directors and their CEOs to be dismissed and face prosecution for colluding and price-fixing.” This measure, he explained, will send a “strong message” that South Africa’s government will not tolerate corruption.
South Africa’s Competition Commission reports it has referred a complaint of collusive tendering, price fixing, information exchange and market allocation against the South African Tyre Manufacturers Conference (Pty) Ltd (SATMC) and the four tyre manufacturers and suppliers it represents to the Competition Tribunal for adjudication.
Strike action based on the demands for a minimum wage of 20 rand per hour for motor industry workers have begun today in South Africa, affecting plants belonging to Dunlop, Bridgestone and Continental, news sources have reported. Strikers are also demanding double-digit wage increases in the sector, with garage and component workers joining the action on Wednesday, 1 September.
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