On 27 December, Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. entered into an agreement with UK-based sporting goods retailer Sports Direct International plc to acquire the international trademark rights for the Dunlop brand and the brand’s sporting goods and licencing businesses. The transaction carries a purchase price of US$137.5 million.
Since gaining a much greater degree of freedom to conduct business in North America and Europe with the dissolution of its global alliance with Goodyear in October 2015, the Sumitomo Rubber Group has striven to enhance its R&D, production and sales infrastructure to better serve these markets. As part of these efforts, the tyre maker has built a new, 3,500 square metre USA Technical Center on the grounds of its Tonawanda factory in New York State. Sumitomo Rubber Industries reports that this facility will become fully operational in January 2017. The company is also moving forward with the preparations for a Europe Technical Center, which it expects to be fully operational as of September 2017.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries has announced a name change for SRI Europe GmbH. As of 1 January 2017, this Germany-based subsidiary will be known as Sumitomo Rubber Europe GmbH. All contact details remain unchanged, and the wholly-owned subsidiary will continue to be located at Donaustraße 23, 63452 Hanau, Germany.
Open access scientific journal eLife has published the result of joint research into Hevea brasiliensis rubber particles conducted by Sumitomo Rubber Industries and the Graduate School of Engineering at Japan’s Tohoku University. In addition to their publication in eLife, the results were also presented at the International Rubber Conference (IRC 2016 Kitakyushu) in Japan on 26 October.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. has begun supplying its Falken Sincera SN250 A/S to Volkswagen AG for use as a factory standard tyre on its Golf Alltrack, which goes on sale in North America this autumn.
On 5 October, Sumitomo Rubber (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (SRT), the Sumitomo Rubber Group’s tyre manufacturing and sales subsidiary in Thailand, celebrated the tenth anniversary of operations at its passenger car and agricultural/industrial tyre plant in Rayong Province. The festivities were attended by around 300 guests, including the Governor of Rayong Province, representatives from various government agencies, business partners, customers and factory staff, as well as Ikuji Ikeda, president of Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd (SRI).
Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) has signed up as a participant in the International Rubber Study Group’s Sustainable Natural Rubber Initiative (SNR-i). As a result, the tyre maker says it has “now committed itself to enacting measures in conformity with the initiative’s guidelines.”
Production capacity for passenger car and light truck tyres at Sumitomo Rubber Industries’ (SRI) Tonawanda factory in the US will double by the end of 2019 as part of a US$87 million investment the company will make over the coming four years. The Tonawanda site came under SRI ownership following the dissolution of the Japanese manufacturer’s global alliance with Goodyear Tire and Rubber last October, and the capacity increase will facilitate the tyre maker’s growing reliance upon the plant for meeting North American market demand.
As reported yesterday, Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. is investing 312 million real (£73.0 million) to add a truck and bus tyre manufacturing capability to its site in Fazenda Rio Grande, Paraná state, in order to furnish the Brazilian market with a steady supply of locally-made products. The investment will cover the cost of erecting a new 13,400 square metre premises adjacent to the existing passenger car and truck tyre manufacturing facility, which entered operation in October 2013, as well as the purchase and installation of new production equipment at a cost of 208 million real.
In order to furnish the Brazilian market with a steady supply of locally-made products, Japan’s Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. is investing 312 million real (£73.0 million) to add a truck and bus tyre manufacturing capability to its site in Fazenda Rio Grande, Paraná state. The investment will cover the cost of erecting a new premises adjacent to the existing passenger car and truck tyre manufacturing facility as well as new production equipment. A March 2019 start to truck and bus tyre manufacture is scheduled, and the initial capacity will be 500 tyres per day.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. is supplying its high-performance falken ziex CT50 tyres to FCAUS LLC on the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica, now on sale in North America.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries reports that its all-season Falken Ziex CT50 has been approved as an original equipment tyre on the latest model Mazda CX-9 crossover, which goes on sale this spring. The Ziex CT50 will be supplied in sizes P255/50R20 104V and 255/50R20 105V.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries has entered into a sponsorship agreement that makes its Falken brand the official tyre of all four 2015-16 season promotion/relegation playoff matches held by Germany’s Bundesliga football league. These matches take place between 19 and 24 May. The Falken brand will also be the official partner of the 2016 DFL-Supercup championship match between the Bundesliga league champion and the winner of the German Cup (DFB-Pokal) in August.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries’ Australian tyre sales subsidiary has signed up as an official sponsor of the country’s national rugby union team, the Wallabies. The agreement runs until the end of 2017 and will be used to promote the Falken tyre brand, which becomes the “Official Tyre of the Qantas Wallabies.”
On March 30, Sumitomo Rubber Industries will decentralise the day-to-day supervision and management of its overseas offices and subsidiaries, handing responsibility for this over to three newly-formed regional headquarters. The tyre maker and industrial/sporting products manufacturer believes that the establishment of headquarters for Europe and Africa, the Americas and the Asia Pacific regions will help the company gain a greater understanding of the business situation in each area, and by doing so accelerate its decision making process.
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