Wheels
ArvinMeritor’s expansion at its San Luis Potosi (Mexico) manufacturing facility includes the production facility and machinery to produce steel wheels up to 22.5 inches in diameter. The addition of steel truck wheels augments its wide range of steel wheels currently produced for passenger and light truck OEMs.
German e-commerce company Delticom AG (Hanover) is expanding to other European countries and is now starting to sell tyres and wheels via the Internet (www.mytyres.co.uk) in Great Britain. A subsidiary company, Delticom Ltd., has been founded in Oxford, with Lennart Pluim as Managing Director.
The New Beetle aroused great enthusiasm in the United States when introduced and now VW wants to repeat the success story with a concept car called “Microbus”. At the Detroit Motor Show the reincarnation of the “love bus” from the 50s and 60s, the symbol for the flower power generation, is fitted with modern 20 inch aluminium wheels and Goodyear tyres size P 245/45 R 20.
Alcoa Inc. of the U.S. and Dooray Air Metal Co. Ltd. of Korea have jointly announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding for Alcoa to acquire Dooray Air Metal’s extrusion business, located in Changwon, Korea. Dooray’s production of aluminium wheels is not affected.
New contracts for chrome-cladded steel wheels from General Motors and DaimlerChrysler have prompted ArvinMeritor to expand its San Luis Potosi (Mexico) facility. Staff numbers will increase from 300 to 450.
DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen-Masters), the popular German racing series, will be revitalised this year. Dunlop is supplying all participating teams (Audi, Opel and Mercedes have confirmed their participation) with tyres. AMG-Mercedes’ teams, eight expected, will have wheels fitted by ATS.
South African Diversified company Murray & Roberts has a new Chief Executive, Brian Bruce. In an interview Bruce announced that M & R is again in discussions with “some players” to sell subsidiary company Alloy Wheels International (AWI). The producer of oe aluminium wheels closed a factory in Cardiff (Wales) a few weeks ago.
During a racing series, changes from one tyre or wheel supplier to another one are very rare. In the very popular German Touring Cars Championship (DTM – Deutsche Tourenwagen-Masters) Dunlop is the exclusive tyre supplier. Now Opel-Phoenix has decided to change from BBS wheels to conventional cast alloy wheels from ATS, so that the Bad Durkheim-based wheel manufacturer is now the biggest supplier of racing wheels in this series. AMG-Mercedes has also used ATS wheels since the beginning of the series.
Smith’s Wheels U.K. have announced the acquisition of the assets, brand name and tooling of Wolfrace Wheels.
Hayes Lemmerz has combined its sales and marketing forces of fabricated and cast wheels in North America. President of the new unit is Ronald Kolakowski, Richard Miller has been appointed vice president and four sales directors are responsible for NA oe customers.
First Stop is a partnership program of Bridgestone/Firestone Europe in cooperation with independent tyre dealers. The chain started five years ago in Scandinavia and Great Britain and now numbers about 1.100 Outlets in sixteen European countries. All the First Stop dealers have the same corporate identity with a black, grey and red livery. In Germany, the First Stop concept started one and a half years ago with perhaps 30 Outlets, based on the experiences gained in the other European countries and successful marketing measures at Germany’s Bridgestone/Firestone own chain A3. Nowadays First Stop has 75 service stations all over Germany and plans for the end of 2000 to reach hundred – representing between 80 and 90 dealers. Marketing and advertisement support is part of the First Stop concept as well as training in technical, business administration and sales aspects. The efforts of the Bad Homburg headquarters also include car servicing (shock absorbers, brakes, exhausts and oil) which is not very strong at many German tyre stations. Also the cooperation guarantees benefits in the purchase of workshop equipment and other parts such as wheels. The dealers can also participate in a three phase tyre offer for cars (for trucks Bridgestone/Firestone developed the Truck Point system): the premium brand Bridgestone, the well known brand Firestone in medium segments, and FST 2000 tyres. FST 2000 is a car summer tyre in nearly 30 sizes from 135/80 R13T up to 195/50 R15V, produced only in Europe and exclusively distributed through its First Stop partners who need an offer for the end user who is more price-conscious. And of course the world’s leading rubber company guarantees best quality. Now Bridgestone/Firestone has added First Stop Winter to complete the program for the dealers. Details can be found in issue 10/2000 of NEUE REIFENZEITUNG.
NEUE REIFENZEITUNG, having focused in its wheel industry report on original equipment and vehicle manufacturers in its March issue, will in April concentrate on the pricing of wheels (manufacturer to customer), on technical features, the takeover merry-go-round and on the replacement market. It came as no surprise that motor manufacturers were not too keen on our trade magazine investigating the pricing procedure – which only serves to make this exercise that much more interesting. We are still a very long way away from completing the consolidation of the industry, as can be gathered from the takeover rumours that spring up afresh every week and from the commitment of large market players to use their strong growth potential. As our last issue went to press, we reported the sale of the Norwegian manufacturer Fundo, for instance. Who will be next? In the April issue we also take a closer look at some companies operating in the replacement market, which have influenced the most important European market, i.e. Germany, in 1999, e.g. Alcar, Artec/RH Alurad, Brock/Rad Center Derkum and many others.
The BTE wheel, made from synthetic material, is no longer available from distributors F&F Hybrid-Rad but can be obtained direct from the manufacturer in the small German village of Grube (Schlewig-Holstein).
During the last three decades the tuning sector has become a sizeable branch of the German economy. A survey of the Verband Deutscher Automobil Tuner (VDAT) in 1994 recorded about four hundred businesses directly connected with the tuning sector. From 1994 to 1998 total turnover in the tuning industry showed an annual growth rate of just under three per cent. Compared with a 1994 turnover of 7.0 billion marks, latest estimates of the 1998 figure showed a total industry turnover of 7.7 billion marks. More recent figures are not yet available. A positive trend was also forecast for the year 1999 and estimated to be between two and three per cent to reach a figure of approximately 7.9 billion marks. This positive balance, however, is not exclusively generated by the tuning businesses, part of it is contributed by the manufacturing industry. Low-profile tyres (aspect ratio < 60) sold by the tyre manufacturing industry, for instance, are incorporated in the figures. Until the seventies the dominating theme in the industry was optimisation of engine performance, but during the last 20 years the tuners have more and more concentrated on a complete personalisation and harmonisation of the vehicle. In this context tyres and wheels take a decisive role, since this product group with its 27 p.c. turnover share in all VDAT member companies can claim the largest slice of the lucrative tuning cake.
This year alloy wheel producer BBS celebrates its 30th birthday. BBS is not one of the biggest producers of aluminium wheels but intends to grow significantly: from 2003 BBS plans to build up capacities of more than 4 million pieces a year at its headquarters in Germany’s Black Forest town Schiltach, at Italy’s Ruina factory near Ferrara and at a new plant in Herbolzheim near Freiburg. BBS is an oe supplier for car brands like BMW, Mercedes (AMG), Porsche, Ferrari, Jaguar, Saab, Volvo, Peugeot and Volkswagen and specialises in highly sophisticated wheels which means that the wheels are in extreme sizes or modular or have additional other special features. The history of BBS includes a lot of success in motorsport. BBS has been producing wheels for motorsport since 1974, and in 1991 the cooperation with Ferrari began. High-end products are the forged magnesium wheels for Formula 1 which are also flow-formed. Not only Ferrari with top driver Michael Schumacher, but also Benetton, Jaguar, Arrows, Prost, and hundreds of racing teams in other series all over the world trust in racing wheels by BBS – one of the main reasons that BBS is also the image leader in the alloy wheel aftermarkets of the world. Learn more about BBS in NEUE REIFENZEITUNG’s October issue.
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