Dr. Nikolin, responsible for both Continental AG’s passenger tyre and commercial vehicle tyre divisions since the departure of Alan Hippe, is in the bad books with a sizeable chunk of the company’s workforce. He is, of course, the man who recently simultaneously announced the closure of two facilities – the first in Clairoix, France and the second in the company’s home city of Hanover, Germany. Since this time the road along which he’s travelled has been, to put it nicely, a little bumpy. High-level politicians both in France and Germany, with the saving of jobs in mind, have grabbed hold of the issue.

The blame for the planned closure of the Clairoix facility can’t really be pinned on Nikolin; this was already in the pipeline at the end of last year. But regardless of whose decision it was, the response from Paris is that the French President, a popular target for demonstrations during his two years in office, really can do without further news like Conti’s in the Paris region. Sarkozy’s economic policy is geared towards enhancing the country’s competitiveness, and amongst other measures this includes a future extension of weekly working hours. Such increased demands on the French workforce have also come from management at Continental, and have to a large extent already been implemented – around two years ago workers agreed to a longer working week to boost production when demand was high. Yet the very clear signals coming from “French politics” in recent times appear to have been enough to make Hippe hesitant and relegate the matter to the backburner for the time being. Vehement protests now seem to be inevitable. It looks like Continental will at any rate have to weather serious damage to its image in France, and perhaps there is nothing it can do about it.