Awards
In December 2020 Dicastal’s forged and flow-formed magnesium wheel programme was honoured at the IMA Annual Award Ceremony. The wheel programme, jointly developed by CITIC Dicastal Co. Ltd. and General Motors, was awarded the 2020 Award of Excellence Process Category.
Continental Tyres has been awarded Superbrands status for 2020/21, recognised for “establishing an exceptional reputation in its field”. The Superbrands organisation identifies and pays tribute to exceptional brands throughout the world in over 85 countries. This year’s survey evaluated a shortlist of 1,600 consumer facing business brands across 74 categories from Automotive Products to Watches.
Ford honoured tyre manufacturers Goodyear and Maxxis as part of its 22nd annual World Excellence Awards. The wards span multiple categories, including sustainability, winning portfolio, propulsion choices, autonomous technology, fitness, special recognition and diversity.
The Micheldever Group recorded its tenth TyreSafe Award in 2020, as Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS) and Protyre recorded their respective third and seventh consecutive victories in their categories. MTS won Wholesaler of the Year, while Protyre retained the Large Retailer of the Year accolade. Micheldever also paid tribute to MTS customer Stone Tyres, which swept the board at this year’s event with a hat-trick of awards.
National garage chain Servicesure has crowned Harrogate garage Simon Graeme Auto Service Centre the Autocentre of the Year in its 2020 annual awards. The North Yorkshire business beat stiff competition from a Servicesure network comprising 554 independent garages across England, Scotland and Wales in the third annual Servicesure Autocentre of the Year Awards. The awards celebrate best practice, success and outstanding customer service shown across the Servicesure network. An event would ordinarily be held in person, but awards were delivered individually to this year’s winners in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
TyreSafe usually presents its awards at a Gala ceremony, but the Coronavirus Crisis has made such an event unviable. TyreSafe has instead announced its award winners via social media and video presentation by its chair and chair of judges, Stuart Jackson. Tyrepress previously revealed the winners of the Tyre Manufacturer of the Year Award and the Innovation & Use of Technology Award, but the full list of the winners joining Hankook and Bridgestone is reproduced below. Additionally, you can view the judges’ review of submissions for several of the awards on Tyrepress below, or on TyreSafe’s YouTube channel.
Hankook Tyre UK is TyreSafe’s Tyre Manufacturer of the Year for 2020. It is the second consecutive year that Hankook has won the award, recognising Hankook’s significant contribution to raising driver awareness of tyre safety-related issues. Over the past twelve months Hankook UK launched three tyre safety campaigns across social channels including Facebook and YouTube. TyreSafe chair and chair of awards judging, Stuart Jackson said: “Hankook’s commitment to raise awareness on tyre safety resulted in a well targeted campaign, which highlighted specific messages relevant to their core age group. A good library of resources was created to support it resulting in a programme of clear and engaging content.”
Falken Tyre and digital marketing specialist Pixelgenau have won a German Design Award 2021 for its “Falken says tanks” sales campaign. Also known in German as “Falken sagt Tanke”, the long-running sales campaign rewards customers buying a set of Falken tyres from participating dealers with fuel vouchers worth 20 euros, along with the chance to win other prizes. The campaign takes place in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia.
Bridgestone’s range of technologically advanced products and services has helped the company win national road safety charity TyreSafe’s Innovation & Use of Technology Award 2020. The new award represents further recognition of Bridgestone’s contribution to road safety by TyreSafe. The manufacturer collected the Tyre Manufacturer of the Year title in 2018, an Outstanding Achievement Award in 2017 and an Innovation & Use of Technology trophy for its DriveGuard runflat technology, also in 2017.
26 journalists with expertise in agricultural mechanisation are currently judging contenders for the European Tractor of the Year (TotY) award. Sponsor of the award, off-highway and agricultural tyre specialist BKT, says the details on innovations presented by entrants forms “the identikit of the perfect tractor.” The futuristic developments now available from many equipment manufacturers represent in their totality a vision for what will be possible in a single machine, BKT says. These innovations include data connectivity and digitalisation, high-tech safety features, increased sustainability, and autonomous driving, as well as tyres that assist in delivering such improvements in the field. The TotY sponsor calls its role “certainly the richest experience of 2020.”
As Tyres & Accessories annual global social media ranking enters its seventh edition, this year there is a new winner. Last year’s champion, Pirelli, has fallen two places to third position. At the same time, in a reflection of what has taken place in the UK-only ranking, the top 10 has a new entry, with previously 10th-ranked MRF being overtaken by another large Indian tyremaker.
Kumho’s next generation e-NIMF and e-TOPS tyres have been honoured with 2020 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA). Having already received iF and Red Dot accolades in February and March respectively, has now won three of the world’s top design awards in the same year.
The Tyre Collective – winners of the James Dyson Awards 2020 – have designed a device to capture tyre particulate at source. According to the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ “Air Quality: Brake, Tyre and Road Surface Wear” report, tyre-wear accounts for nearly half of road transport particulate emissions. Furthermore, a reported half a million tonnes of tyre particles are produced annually in Europe alone, from vehicles accelerating, braking and cornering. As we move towards electric vehicles in the future, exhaust emissions will reduce but tyre particles will continue. The Tyre Collective estimate that tyre emissions may even increase, as electric vehicles become heavier due to the added battery weight. For both reasons, this year’s UK national James Dyson Award winners attempt to address this issue.
On 12 September 2020, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published its fourth batch of green manufacturing lists. The list includes 602 green factories, 371 green design products, 39 green parks and 50 green supply chain management demonstration enterprises.
The NTDA has cancelled the 2020 Tyre Industry Conference, Annual Dinner and Tyre Industry Awards. The event was scheduled for Thursday 5 November at the VOX Conference Centre Birmingham. It is the first time the annual dinner has been cancelled since its first edition in 1930. NTDA chief executive Stefan Hay said that the decision had not been taken lightly. It was initially hoped that the event would go ahead as per the government’s scheduled restart date for business events of 1 October, and is a reminder that the Covid-19 situation continues to overshadow UK business planning. The 2021 Tyre Industry Conference and Annual Dinner and Awards is scheduled to take place on 7 October in Birmingham.
Dicastal
Superbrands
TyreSafe
Falken
Bridgestone
Gerd Altman; Pixabay
Kumho
The Tyre Collective
NTDA