The introduction of Maxxis’ (Cheng Shin Rubber) manufacturing plant in Indonesia has been warmly welcomed by the country’s president-elect, and the local industry will have the chance to see the company’s plans up close. Maxxis will exhibit at Tyre & Rubber Indonesia 2015 between 18 and 22 March 2015 at JIExpo Kemayaran, Jakarta, with a 144sqm booth.
Trelleborg has launched its European Road Show 2015 at SIMA 2015, with one-day events planned in Italy, Sweden, Germany, Poland, France, Spain and the UK. The manufacturer says the roadshow will provide multiple field demonstrations of how farming professionals can enhance their operations and protect the future of their businesses. Trelleborg’s ‘Blue Box’ interactive mobile stand will also provide visitors with information about its range of digital tools.
Bridgestone has announced its sponsorship of one of golf’s most exciting young talents in his breakthrough professional season. Oliver Farr is embarking on his debut year on the European Tour, competing with the likes of Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia and Ernie Els. He will sport Bridgestone’s tyre logo on his golf shirts and jumpers and feature on Bridgestone’s social networking channels, reporting from the Tour.
The two winners of Firestone’s ‘Roll On Then Rock Out’ prize draw were able to witness Sam Smith’s continued rise, and Madonna’s latest fall as VIP guests at the Brit Awards. The promotion, for motorists purchasing two new Firestone tyres, gave away more than £100,000 in iTunes vouchers, and ran in November 2014.
Marangoni Industries Manutention, one of the Marangoni Group’s French subsidiaries, has inaugurated a new logistics and distribution site in Louvres, near Paris, France. The opening is designed to strengthen Marangoni’s presence in an area where, through its subsidiary, it says it has a leading position in sales and service for material handling equipment tyres. The new Louvres site has 2,500sqm of storage space. Marangoni adds that the site shows its ability to evolve with a market in which recent changes have occurred rapidly.
Some nine months after his government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nexen Tyre on the construction of a new factory, Czech Republic Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka visited Nexen Tyre’s Changnyeong plant during an official state visit to South Korea. “We are pleased to welcome Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka to Nexen Tyre,” stated Nexen Tyre chairman Kang Byung-Joong during today’s plant inspection. “We look forward to further cementing our partnership with the Czech government and to set up the best tyre manufacturing facility with advanced technology in Europe.”
Total volumes of car and van tyres fitted to company vehicles are expected to remain steady in 2015, however a subtle shift in consumption is taking place. This is the word from Kwik Fit, which says it is witnessing a rise in the ratio of van tyres being fitted. The company says there are several reasons why fleet van tyre consumption is going up while passenger car tyre fitments are declining. And it is seeing a second development within the growing fleet van tyre business – an increasing number of fitments are mid-range tyres, a trend driven by the high proportion of damaged tyres being replaced.
Bridgestone’s Australian subsidiary has presented its inaugural Career Establishment Grant to a Queensland researcher working on a cure for blood cancer. The Career Establishment Grant is part of the National Research Program operated by Australia’s peak body for blood cancer, the Leukaemia Foundation. The research grant was presented to Dr Colm Keane of the University of Queensland’s Diamantina Institute on 17 February.
Mitas a.s. reports that Milan Šindelář took over from Jaroslav Musil as sales director of Mitas International last month following Musil’s decision to retire after a 17-year tenure with Mitas. Šindelář joined the tyre maker in 2011 as an original equipment key account manager for Mitas Tires North America, and in his new role is responsible for business growth in all markets outside of Western Europe and North America.
Yesterday evening, Chelsea Football Club signed what is said to be the second most valuable shirt sponsorship deal ever in English football when it entered into an agreement with Yokohama Rubber. According to The Telegraph, the deal is worth almost £40 million a year, a figure that puts it second only behind Manchester United’s sponsorship agreement with Chevrolet. The tyre maker has signed up with Chelsea FC for a five-year period that gets under way in July 2015, and in addition to the Yokohama logo’s presence on the shirts worn by Chelsea FC teams at all levels, Yokohama Rubber will gain representation through stadium branding and various advertising and promotional materials.
CAM has scheduled the second UniSerV User Group (UUG) meeting for April, coinciding with The CV Show at the Birmingham NEC. Chaired by Anne Sherwood, group business support manager of Tructyre Fleet Management, CAM says UUG² will continue to discuss the benefits of e-jobsheet, CAM’s open-access mobile data platform for digital tablet technology in the truck, bus and van service arena.
Mitas has launched a “slick” agricultural tyre designed for use in the niche sport of tractor-pulling. The Powerpull 30.5L-32 is manufactured without a tread pattern, allowing the competitor to create the winning tread design. Its bias-ply construction and manufacture is based on a process similar to that of the Mitas’ high-horsepower tractor tyres, which the Czech company says will guarantee endurance and durability.
Details of a difficult 2014 have emerged in Titan International’s full-year financial report, which was published earlier today. The tyre maker’s CEO and chairman, Maurice Taylor, took the eye-watering US$80.4 million loss attributable to Titan on the chin, referring to 2014 as “a year of very real challenges for businesses in the agriculture, construction and mining sectors.” He also reported that Titan International shed at least 1,900 people from the payroll during the year due to lower production output, with the company’s global employee count sinking below 6,500. Other issues that arose during the 12 month period included currency impacts, impairment charges of approximately $76.5 million and a union slowdown.
Marcus Reedijk is both founder and managing director of European Tyre Distributors B.V. (ETD), a company specialising in the import of Chinese tyres for the European market. ETD is located in Strijen, near the port of Rotterdam, and anyone visiting its offices can’t help but notice when driving down the Strijener Industriestraat that the road is lined left and right by enormous warehouses belonging to various companies that all bear the name Reedijk. These companies are the product of an extraordinary “tyre family dynasty,” and each has a history that in some way involved Marcus Reedijk at some point in his 45-year tyre industry career, even if he’s no longer personally associated with them today.
It may be that taste is the sole inutile sense to a car salesman. The power of seeing, touching, hearing and smelling a new vehicle are well documented, and the latter’s popularity has been heralded once again by Yorkshire dealer, ColinAppleyard.com. The famous appeal of the “new car smell” has trumped bacon, cut grass and even baking bread in a new poll conducted by the site.
