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Ahead of a company conference call scheduled for December 9, Titan International chairman and CEO Maurice M. Taylor Jr. declared “2010 has been a great building year for Titan and I believe that 2011 will be our best year ever from what I see today.”
At this year’s Autosport Awards, held in London on December 5, Bridgestone became the recipient of a John Bolster Award in recognition of the company’s technical achievements in Formula One. The accolade, named after the original technical editor of Autosport magazine, was presented by Formula One World Championship winning team principal Christian Horner to Bridgestone’s director of Motorsport, Hiroshi Yasukawa.
The first tyre technicians to graduate from a Kumho Tyres supported NVQ training programme were honoured at a special ceremony held at Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium in October.
For the last 18 months Kumho has been promoting a range of government-backed apprenticeships in vehicle fitting operations to selected members of its ECSTA Performance Centre (EPC) network of retailers. In recognition of their achievement, the first seven to complete their courses were invited to receive commemorative glass trophies, which were presented during Kumho’s recent 50th Anniversary celebrations at Old Trafford.
Vellco Tyre Control recent took delivery of two brand new “60-registered” MAN 6×2 Tractor Units utilising unique EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) technology designed for Euro 5 engines. But for the company that began trading in 1950 the purchase was more than just a infrastructure investment, it was also something of a celebration of the fact that during 2010 the company has been celebrating 60 years of trading.
14th December 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole, just ahead of Captain Robert Falcon Scott. To mark the occasion, Extreme World Races is staging the EWR Centenary Race to the South Pole, in what it describes as "the ultimate off-road test", with winds up to 80 mph and temperatures as low as -56ºC in the coldest, driest and highest desert on earth.
The manufacturing practices employed by Apollo Tyres have been recognised at The Economic Times India Manufacturing Excellence Awards 2010. These awards, instituted by The Economic Times, the largest read financial daily in India, and global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, are intended to identify the best manufacturing facilities in India and map manufacturing capability, highlighting areas for improvement, through an objective and well-structured assessment process. The key considerations for a good score include global benchmarking, performance as compared to competition, supply and service to customers, quality focus, manufacturing discipline and excellence, and areas of improvement across functions.
At its second 2010 national conference, HiQ announced what it calls a number of historic milestones in the development of the UK’s only hard franchise fast fit network. Franchisees at the two-day workshop and business forum event were welcomed by recently appointed HiQ retail director Peter Tye, who shared news of developments within the network on the second anniversary of it becoming a fully franchised operation.
Some two weeks after it acquired Watts Tyre Group – a purchase that Maurizio Vischi, president of the company’s Trelleborg Wheel Systems business area, described as a “further step in our strategy to continuously strengthen our positions in selected segments,” the Swedish firm has taken a further step towards focusing on its core business areas by entering into an agreement to divest its roofing operations. This part of the Trelleborg Engineered Systems business area will be taken over by Axcel, a Nordic private equity fund with offices in both Copenhagen and Stockholm. The acquisition requires approval of the appropriate authorities, and is expected to be finalised in the first quarter of 2011.
Yokohama Rubber’s car, truck and bus tyre factory in Thailand has become the company’s fifth plant outside of Japan to achieve “complete zero emissions” – in other words, no waste generated in the factory is subject to direct landfill disposal. This achievement was reached in November, eleven months after the factory became the first Yokohama factory outside of Japan to reach “zero emission” – less than one per cent – landfill status.
As of March 1, 2011 prices of Bridgestone’s Japanese market truck and bus tyres will increase by an average of seven per cent. This increase applies to both summer and winter tyre lines.
It has been a clear two months since my last rant about the state of the MOT test and with road safety minister Mike Penning having recently confirmed that a wholesale review of the test will be carried out, it is about time for an update. While almost everybody in the UK industry agrees that moving to two year testing intervals – whether it is in line with the rest of Europe or not – some would argue that a review of the system is overdue. In addition technological advances such as the mandatory fitment of tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS – scheduled for 2012) and the widespread use of ESP have moved quicker than legislation or testing rules that examine if these safety critical systems continue to work correctly throughout the life of a car.
Two days ago Germany’s recently amended winter tyre regulations came into force, and the first driver (that Tyres & Accessories knows of) has been caught out – in circumstances he won’t forget in a hurry. The 32-year old driver of a car fitted with summer tyres (which in Germany are now illegal when used on hard-packed snow, slush, black ice and frost covered roads) lost control of his vehicle on an icy road in the city of Düsseldorf. He possibly would have avoided a fine and demerit points taken from his license had the incorrectly-equipped car not gone into a skid and rammed a parked police car.
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.
Between 27 and 27 November 2010, Interstate Tire & Rubber Co. hosted its augural Chinese Interstate distributor meeting at Nantong, China. Tyres & Accessories met up with vice president Theo de Vries and learnt that the company’s products, which are well-known in Europe, are gaining increased distribution in the Chinese domestic market.
Interstate’s first dealer meeting saw the company bring together more than 120 local Interstate distributors at the Grand International Hotel, Nantong. Distributors reportedly came from all over China and flew in from all several provinces across China -from the nearby Jiangsu to the remote Yunnan province. With Wholesale operations across all China and retail operations in the provinces of Jiangsu, Shanghai and Shandong, there is every indication that Interstate China is continuing to grow rapidly. For 2011 the company’s ambitious goal is to open 12 more retails outlets and increase sales by more than 40 per cent.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is highlighting the European Chemical Agency’s (ECHA) campaign to remind companies that new rules on classification, labelling, packaging and notification of chemical substances came into force on 1 December 2010. From December, within one-month of placing a chemical substance on the market, all companies involved in their manufacturer or import will need to notify the ECHA for their inclusion in the new Classification and Labelling Inventory.
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