The following is the first in a quarterly series offering advice on personnel and business matters as they pertain to tyre entrepreneurs today. This month the emphasis is on the whys and wherefores of hiring and firing, but equally there are other areas likely to be addressed in association with the consultants at Peninsula over the months to come.
Blackcircles.com has opened its fourth tyre fitting Tesco PitStop, and first in Scotland, at Tesco Extra in Silverburn, Glasgow. The PitStop is operational and opened for bookings on Saturday 28 June, with the first tyres being fitted on Monday 30 June. The first PitStop Click&Fit tyre bay was opened in Milton Keynes in July 2013. Since then, additional PitStops have been opened at Tesco Extra stores in Bar Hill, Cambridge and Handforth, Cheshire.
A fire at the Bridgestone Americas plant in Wilson, North Carolina, USA. According to news reports emanating from US trade magazine Tire Review, the fire forced the evacuation of hundreds of employees on Saturday 28 June 2014.
The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. has made the following changes in senior management responsibilities and the appointment of corporate officers, as decided at the 25 June 2014, meeting of the board of directors. The changes will be effective as of 1 July 2014. Yasushi Kikuchi becomes managing corporate officer, Head of Tire Materials Development Div., Head of R&D Center having previously been managing corporate officer, Head of Tire Technical Development Div., Head of R&D Center.
The Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) has announced that Paul Williams is retiring from his position as chairman of Remit (Retail Motor Industry Training) on 30 June 2014 after six years of service.
At the end of May, Goodyear Tire & Rubber shared details of its plans to increase its consumer tyre capacity in the Americas by 12 million units a year between 2013 and 2019 by erecting a new factory and upgrading existing plants. Further details on these projects have been published by “agência latinapress”; on 27 June, it reported Goodyear’s Latin American region president Jamie Szulc as saying the tyre maker is looking at sites in Brazil, Columbia, Mexico and the US for its greenfield facility, which will have an annual capacity of 6 million tyres. Szulc is also quoted as saying that investments in Goodyear plants in Venezuela, Peru and Columbia are on the cards.
A survey of 400 used car buyers by vehicle remarketing company, British Car Auctions (BCA) illustrates how cash-strapped motorists have been coping as the UK slowly climbs out of recession. The research revealed that motorists have been rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty with basic car maintenance jobs, rather than going to a garage or mechanic.
Nexen Tire has officially confirmed that it is building a new plant in Zatec, Czech Republic with the stated aims of developing its European foothold and expanding its global production base. The company also confirmed that the project will cost 1.2 trillion Korean won, approximately 829 million euros, bringing some clarity to reports that have also suggested a US$1.17 billion pricetag.
Randstad Ltd has launched a new TerraCoolant Exchange Machine into the UK automotive aftermarket, which quickly flushes and refills a vehicle’s cooling system.
As coolant becomes contaminated, it deteriorates and its additive package depletes. Scale and rust can form in the cooling system, which dramatically decreases the system’s ability to draw heat away from the engine. Old coolant also loses its ability to prevent corrosion.
At this coming weekend’s British Grand Prix, Pirelli will deploy its two hardest tyre compounds in order to deal with the vagaries of English weather and the high energy loads experienced on the fast Silverstone track. The P Zero orange hard and P Zero White medium will thus be used at Pirelli’s “second home race”, which takes place less than an hour away from the company’s logistics hub in Didcot.
OTR and industrial tyre specialist Magna Tyres Group reports that its debut as a TOC Europe exhibitor was a positive experience for the Netherlands-based company. Magna Tyres was present at the port handling trade show, held at ExCel London between 24 and 26 June, and shares that the amount of visitors exceeded its expectations. The company decided to exhibit at TOC Europe 2014 in order to further expand awareness of the Magna brand in the port handling segment and to reach a specific audience of port authorities, terminal operators and port equipment fleet managers. Based on the success enjoyed at this year’s show, Magna Tyres says it has already signed up for TOC Europe 2015 in Rotterdam.
As of 1 July, former Bridgestone UK consumer sales director Brett Emerson will join Hankook Tyre UK as sales director. In his new role, Emerson will oversee all business development for Hankook’s commercial and car tyre businesses within the UK.
After a sojourn in Europe lasting almost four years, on 1 July Mitsuhira Shimazaki will return to Japan and take over responsibility for Bridgestone’s International Tire Business Operations. His successor has yet to be named.
Automotive Apprenticeship starts in England have seen their first increase since the end of 2010. The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) found a 4.2 per cent increase, up to 10,940 starters, in 2012/13 in their yearly benchmarking report. Apprenticeship start figures have been falling since 2009/10 in the face of economic recession, with a 14.8 per cent decrease recorded in 2011/12 according to figures from the Skill Funding Agency.
Brian Spratt, the IAAF’s chief executive is finally retiring today (27 June) after 14 years in the post. In 1992 he joined the ADF, as it was known then, as Trade secretary and went on to become Chief Executive in 1999. Since then he has overseen a number of changes and developments within the automotive aftermarket and played an instrumental role in ensuring the trade association continues to focus on strengthening, securing and promoting the future of the independent aftermarket.