Conti looks back on ‘overwhelmingly positive’ year on the DAX
It’s been a year since Continental returned to what it calls the “stock exchange premier league”, and the German firm considers its DAX comeback to have been an “overwhelmingly positive” one. Over the last twelve months the company’s shares have risen more than 54 per cent to €125.55 and even recorded an all-time high of €127.45. And after joining in 22nd position for market capitalisation, the company moved up to 19th place thanks to strong share performance.
Continue ReadingBridgestone goes into bat for the kiwi
Bridgestone New Zealand has entered into sponsorship partnerships with two organisations looking after the country’s native flora and fauna, and its best-known bird in particular – the Rainbow Springs Kiwi Wildlife Park and the Motuora Restoration Society.
Continue ReadingFifty years old and still looking good
Pirelli may be Italian, but its world-famous calendar began life here in the UK, the baby of the company’s British marketing team, which was given the task of producing a calendar for Pirelli’s most valued clients and associates. This year, the British-born ‘Cal’ celebrates its half-century, and Tyres & Accessories spoke with Pirelli Calendar project coordinator Julie Naylor about the origins of the Cal’s success, how it has developed over the course of five decades and what meaning it maintains in Pirelli’s marketing mix alongside the Italian firm’s Formula One involvement.
Continue ReadingNokian to form Commercial Tyres unit from truck and heavy tyre businesses
As of 1 January 2014, Nokian Tyres’ Heavy Tyres and Truck Tyres business units will be integrated into a single entity, Commercial Tyres. The Finnish tyre maker says the integration of both operations into a combined business unit will not have any immediate impact on the 280 or so people currently employed in Heavy Tyres and Truck Tyres, and it states the decision to form the Commercial Tyres business unit was taken in order to provide a “better chance to develop operations and improve sales.” Nokian president and CEO Kim Gran also pointed out that the synergies of integration should clearly improve profitability.
Continue ReadingGiti Tire sets up technical centres in Germany, the US
Giti Tire has announced the establishment of new technical centres in Germany and the US. The two sites will work in collaboration with the company’s MIRA-based UK facility as well as its centres located in Indonesia and China. Giti now employs more than 600 R&D personnel and describes the creation of a European and North American technical centre as marking a “significant development in the research and development capabilities of the company.”
Continue ReadingTitan withdraws 2013 guidance
Titan International announced on 19 September that it has withdrawn the elements of its 2013 guidance related to revenue and EBITDA. In a statement, the company said it “does not anticipate issuing any further updated guidance until its 2014 guidance is issued by January 2014.”
Continue ReadingMarangoni Retreading Systems expands Central Europe presence
Marangoni Retreading Systems reports that it has consolidated the presence of the Ringtread system in the Baltic region and the Ukraine by strengthening its partnerships with two important operators in the truck tyre distribution and service sector.
Continue ReadingGoodyear reintroduces shareholder dividends
At an investor meeting on 20 September, Goodyear Tire & Rubber announced the return of shareholder dividends after an absence of 11 years. The company’s new capital allocation plan calls for the reinstatement of a quarterly cash dividend on its common stock and a $100 million share repurchase programme.
Continue ReadingTyre24 goes live in Italy
Germany’s Tyre24Group has opened a new B2B online platform in Italy. The new tyre24.it site went live on 16 September and brings the company one step closer to gaining a presence in the major European tyre markets. Tyre24 is already active in Germany, Poland, France and Austria.
Continue ReadingBranding expert a football sponsorship sceptic
Edward Freedman, the football branding guru who headed up merchandising at Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur FC in the late 1980s and 1990s, has questioned the effectiveness of sponsorship from companies such as tyre manufacturers.
Continue ReadingImproved jobs listings on relaunched Tyrepress
Tyrepress launched a new newsletter product in February 2013 aiming to improve the targeted job advertisement opportunities offered by Europe’s leading English language magazine and website for tyre and wheel professionals. The weekly newsletter, which also collates the most recent Career Tracks news every Wednesday, will continue to link to greatly improved listings on the relaunched Tyrepress website, putting advertisers’ job vacancies in front of the widest possible range of European tyre and wheel professionals.
Continue ReadingBridgestone contemplates second Turkish plant
Brisa Bridgestone Sabancı Lastik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. (Brisa), the joint venture company run by Bridgestone Corporation and Turkey’s Sabancı Holding, is evaluating potential sites within the country for a second factory. Brisa intends to construct a passenger car radial factory to complement the company’s existing passenger car, bus and truck radial plant in İzmit, which entered volume production in 1990.
Continue ReadingMichelin discusses mid-term targets
At the Autumn Conference organised by Luxembourg-based broker Kepler Cheuvreux and held in Paris on 18 September, Michelin chief executive officer Jean-Dominique Senard confirmed the tyre maker’s 2015 operating profit target of €2.9 billion, some 20 per cent higher then 2013 estimates. He also said that capital expenditure is expected to peak between €1.8 billion and €2.2 billion in 2014 and 2015 before declining to between €1.6 billion and €1.9 billion in 2016 and €1.5 billion and €1.8 billion in 2017.
Continue ReadingSeparate Cooper contracts required before Apollo deal proceeds
As well as needing to sort out issues at the Cooper Chengshan plant, Cooper Tire & Rubber and Apollo Tyres now face an additional barrier to acquisition. Last Friday an arbitrator ruled that Cooper cannot sell its Findlay and Texarkana plants in the US until Apollo secures new collective bargaining agreements with the United Steelworkers union and the 2,500 or so unionised workers at the two factories. This agreement is separate from the existing contract the union has with Cooper Tire.
Continue ReadingBetter integrated Business Directory on relaunched Tyrepress
The relaunch of Tyrepress will also mark the relaunch of the Business Directory service. This feature, which has been available in two incarnations before this vastly improved third generation, enables tyre and wheel related businesses to direct the website’s 240,000 monthly visitors towards their own websites with a range of listings options available for an annual fee; web URLs are also listed in the back of Tyres & Accessories magazine each month, increasing exposure to print readers too. The Tyrepress Business Directory 3.0 is better connected to the rest of the website, with entries searchable alongside articles.
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