Phoenix Long-Term Ambitious
Phoenix, supplier to the vehicle industry, itself a tyre manufacturer many years ago and still specialising, though not exclusively, in rubber parts for the automobile industry, is not reaching its turnover and profit targets as quickly as planned. Air springs, an area in which Continental is also involved, however, promises to develop into a jewel for the group from 2001 and gives ground for hope of steep rises in turnover and earnings in the long term.
Continue ReadingMelber back again
Italian brand Melber had to leave the German aftermarket for alloy wheels last year. In co-operation with Euro Consulting and sales manager Josef Holder the company is now planning a relaunch of the brand in the German market.
Continue ReadingPacific Dunlop Announces Drop In Net Income
The Australian Conglomerate, Pacific Dunlop Ltd., cannot reach its income figure from 1998 of A$ 188m. In the first half of 1999 the company reached a net income of A$74.5m compared with A$ 101.7 million for the first six half of 1998.
Continue ReadingMorgan with SmarTire
The Morgan Motor Company has decided to fit the new Morgan Aero 8 with the tyre pressure control system SmarTire. The 260 km/h top speed Aero 8 will have no spare tyre fitted.
Continue ReadingMichelin Acquires Land In India
Michelin India Private Limited has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Maharashtra to acquire a block of land at Talegon in the Pune district. No time scale for the start of construction has been decided.
Continue ReadingSurgery For The English Patient
The news that BMW was going to sell its loss-making (1999 losses alone were 1 billion Euros) subsidiary Rover provoked an understandably strong reaction in Britain. Some estimated that 50,000 jobs (including those of suppliers) could be lost and BMW’s name was mud with workers, unions and the British Government, which accused BMW of lying. Undeterred, BMW began breaking up the Rover group, selling Land Rover to Ford for 3 billion Euros and the Longbridge car factory to venture capitalists Alchemy Partners, with BMW writing off debts of £2 million. BMW is retaining the factory at Cowley, where the new Mini will be made. Alchemy plans to re-name Rover as MG Cars and to move away from volume production to make sports cars and sports saloons. This would keep the Longbridge factory open, but with a much reduced workforce. Amid the thousands of paragraphs criticising BMW, some industry pundits have questioned the vulnerability of the German group and there are rumours of larger companies (VW and Ford are two who have been mentioned) sniffing around BMW. The major shareholder in BMW is the Quandt family, whose members insist that the company will remain independent. More details in the April issue of TYRES & ACCESSORIES.
Continue ReadingKumho To Compete In OE Business
Kumho Tire is seeking OE business in Europe and North America. The company has announced expansion of production in Asia, for example in the Nanjing factory.
Continue ReadingJuan Carlos Visits BS/FS Plant In Burgos
King Juan Carlos recently visited Bridgestone/Firestone plant in Burgos, one of the groups three tyre plants in Spain. The reason for the visit was the 100th birthday of Firestone this year. In 1990 Burgos was the groups first European tyre factory to start producing Bridgestone-branded tyres, at that time Firestones new parent company.
Continue ReadingNew Head Of BMW GB
Jim ODonnell (50) has been appointed Managing Director of BMW (GB), effective June 1. He succeeds Kevin Gaskell, who left the company in February. ODonnells former roles include Sales & Marketing Director for BMW South Africa and, most recently, Sales Director of BMW (GB).
Continue ReadingRapid-Fit To Join NTDA
At the recent conference of the UK National Tyre Dealers Association (NTDA), Chairman of Council Ashley Croft announced that the Rapid-Fit chain of retailers had applied for membership. Rapid-Fit consists of 300+ fast-fit depots, owned by individual Ford car dealers. This will bring the number of centres in NTDA membership to more than 2,000.
Continue ReadingExpansion At ContiTech Fluid
ContiTech Fluid – part of ContiTech Holding, a business unit of Continental AG – announced a 50:50 joint venture in China and expansion of the production bases at Wackersdorf and Salzgitter, plus an extension of its Berlin centre of competence.
Continue ReadingHalf Year Loss Reported By Nokian Tyres
Following Goodyear and Michelin, Nokian Tyres has released its half year figures. Sales rose 25% over the same period last year to reach 152.2 m Euro but operating profit fell from 5 m Euro to a loss of 1.5 m Euro. Net profit was also negative at -4.1 m Euro. One cause was increased raw material prices (rubber, oil, carbon black) up 8% over last year. Despite the loss, Nokian is broadly on track because, as a Scandinavian company, it generally makes huge profits in the second half of the year.
Continue ReadingMerger Of Arvin And Meritor Completed
Arvin Industries and Meritor Automotive, among other things an important steel wheel manufacturer, have now merged to form ArvinMeritor, thus creating a $ 7.5-billion automotive supplier. ArvinMeritor has formed a corner module assembly group to integrate its complete line of undercarriage components.
Continue ReadingTougher Tyre Safety Rules First Proposed Two Decades Ago
The current Firestone recall has led to many in the USA calling for tougher standards in tyre testing. It has been revealed that, following the Firestone recall in 1978, new regulations were drawn up, incorporating more stringent safety criteria. However, the suggested changes were scrapped when Ronald Reagan became President as it was considered that their implementation would adversely affect the car manufacturing industry.
Continue ReadingTyreCheck 2000 Results From NTDA
The National Tyre Distributors Association held a press conference to reveal the results of its TyreCheck 2000 campaign. This was part of a wider European initiative to increase tyre awareness and collect data in support of a campaign to increase the legal minimum tread depth. The UK campaign lasted a week and over 37,500 tyres were checked. A depressing 10% were below the 1.6mm legal minimum and a further 17% had tread depths below 2mm, which is the level being proposed as the new legal minimum. 26% were damaged in some way and 46% incorrectly inflated. Spare tyres were also checked and 33% of these had a tread depth below 2mm. 66% were wrongly inflated. In a telephone survey of people who had recently bought tyres, 75% did not know the legal tread depth and 43% said they check their pressures regularly; a figure not borne out by the above statistics. It is planned to repeat the exercise next year, hopefully on a larger scale, and the results will be used to lobby individual governments and European authorities through Bipaver for a change in the tyre laws in Europe.
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