Update – Court Upholds Judgement Against Michelin
The European Court of First Instance has dismissed the appeal by Michelin and upheld the 19.76 million Euro fine imposed by the EC.
The European Court of First Instance has dismissed the appeal by Michelin and upheld the 19.76 million Euro fine imposed by the EC.
Murray & Roberts has sold 50% of the business of AWI South Africa to Borbet GmbH of Germany, with effect from 1 July 2003 and subject to approval by the competition authorities.
Yes, we know that times are hard for retreaders, with price pressure due to competition and raw material costs. Then there are the requirements of ECE 108 and 109 – more trouble and expense. To survive, today’s retreader has to produce a quality product that performs with the best of them and one of the keys to quality is the latest machinery. Whether it is buffing, extruding or non-destructive testing, the kit available to retreaders has become ever-more sophisticated.
Bridgestone Australia reported a drop in net profit of over 20 per cent for the first half of the year, to A$ 4.16 million (2.4 m Euro), while turnover was up 3 per cent to A$ 262.45 million (151.7 m Euro). Executive director of finance Andrew Moffatt blamed an increase of cheap, imported tyres for the fall in profits and Bridgestone is in negotiations with its workforce to increase productivity. No half-year dividend was declared, but the company expects to declare a “reasonable” year-end dividend.
The last assembly line in the world for the old-style Volkswagen Beetle, at Puebla, Mexico, is to close in the next few weeks. The Beetle was first produced in 1945 and 21 million have been made since. Sales have been hit by competition from imported subcompact cars; almost as cheap, but much more modern in design and technology.
Pirelli has picked up a prestigious advertising award in the USA for its “Fist” campaign, where four tyres are shown merging into a fist. The accolade is a gold “ADDY” award for international consumer press advertising and was given at the recent American Advertising Federation (AAF) awards presentation. With 60,000 entries, the competition claims to be the world’s largest and this year was opened up to international entries for the first time.
Marangoni – in the UK the name Marangoni means little to the man in the street. To people in the tyre trade Marangoni in the UK means a quality mid-range tyre product, either as Marangoni or as Stunner from Group Tyre. Some may also be aware that Marangoni produce car and light truck retreads through their retread division Marangoni Pneumatici, headquartered at Rovereto in the North of Italy. Marangoni’s car tyre retread plant at Feltre produces up to 1.25 million pieces per year that are sold throughout Europe. Brenno Benaglia, sales and marketing director for Marangoni Pneumatici is at pains to explain that there are no plans at all to enter the UK market with truck tyre retreads. “It is not part of our business plan, it would create problems for our other operations if we were to take on our own customers in head to head competition.” However, the company will be exhibiting at the Hillhead Quarrying Exhibition with a view to introduce earthmover retreads.
Market analysts UBS Warburg have reduced their ratings on both Ford and GM. Ford moves to “Reduce2” from “Neutral 2” and GM goes from “Buy 2” to “Neutral 2”. The move comes despite a good 1Q performance from Ford, but UBSW thinks that the company will still struggle versus the competition. On the other hand, a stronger Ford means the price war will last longer, adversely affecting GM, hence their downgrade.
Ohtsu Tire & Rubber is to merge with its parent company, Sumitomo Rubber Industries, from 1st July. Falken brand products will be marketed independently in competition with other SRI group brands. The company ex pects growth in Falken sales and improved product supply due to synergies in all areas from production planning through to logistics.
Michelin’s Motorsport Director, Pierre Dupasquier, has been reported in the British media saying that the tyre manufacturer developed new compounds and constructions for Formula 1 during the winter. Compared with 2002, the new tyres should be about one second quicker per lap and he hopes that the teams Michelin fits in 2003 can break the dominance of the Bridgestone/Ferrari package.
Four years ago: In an interview at the Geneva Autoshow, Goodyear CEO Sam Gibara put forward his views. Goodyear had, according to him, the best people, the best distribution, the most cost-effective plants, the best products and – with its innovative EMT tyres – a three-year lead over its competitors. Within three years, he predicted, 75% of Goodyear tyres produced would be EMT tyres (in 2002, the actual figure was one million tyres). The IMPACT production process (Integrated Manufacturing Precision Assembled Cellular Technology) was held up as a revolutionary advance, guaranteeing predominance over the competition and an example of Goodyear’s technical leadership.The reality is that there have been no significant profits for years and Goodyear is still in third place. It made a loss of $203 million in 2001 and might not have been able to avoid another loss last year. Goodyear needs a turnaround in its loss-making home market, costs are too high, selling prices are too low and the once-proud corporation is fighting for nothing less than its survival, however unpalatable this might sound to company managers.In the first two years under Gibara’s leadership, Goodyear enjoyed very good results, but these have since declined to today’s levels and the “Mission into the 21st century” has been a flop. The group is overloaded with a mountain of debt, has big problems with its underfunded pension fund and the credit rating was reduced to junk bond status.All this means no picnic for Gibara’s successor Keegan, who knows that his assignment is a difficult one but who believes that the problems are manageable. What he does not know for sure is whether he will have time enough to make the turnaround happen.
Related news: Michelin to Leave Formula One After 2006 Parker Hannifin Supplies Nitrogen to BMW Team Completely Different – Michelin MotoGP Tyre Michelin Enters FIM World Endurance Championship
For their 2003 racing programme, Michelin will become Bentley’s exclusive supplier in competition. This partnership involves the development and supply of tyres for preliminary testing at Sebring and the Le Mans 24 hour race. On the production car side, Michelin will become the supply partner for the new Bentley Continental GT.
Consolidated results from 2001 for China Enterprises Ltd. show a varied year for the group with as many ups as downs. The company states that Chinese tyre prices fell by 3-5 per cent during the year due to 2001 high inventories and high levels of competition. Although raw material costs remained low, warranty claims were higher than expected – a result, according to the company of end-users overloading their vehicles.The Company’s gross margin fell from 9.90 per cent for 2000 to 8.87 per cent for 2001. The decline was substantially due to Yinchuan CSI, whose margin was adversely affected by weak selling prices and provisions for warranty claims. On the other hand, Hangzhou Zhongce increased its margin to 11.8 per cent in 2001 compared to 10.1 per cent for the previous year.Revenues for 2001 were up by 20 per cent on 2000, mainly due to increases in sales of radial car tyres in the domestic market. Export sales though dropped by 3.7 per cent in value.China Enterprises sold 6.2 million vehicle tires, 34 million bicycle tires and 2.5 million wheelbarrow tires in 2001.
Under the slogan “This is Your Road To Success”, tyre producer Fulda invited 150 of its retailing partners to Berlin for a dealers’ conference. The audience heard a clear confession towards the tyre-retailing companies and a towards a marketing strategy which will in the future be mainly oriented on qualitative items. Sales trainer Joachim Bullermann added some sarcastic pieces of advice concerning the right methods of managing your personal shop.In times during which market growth is slow and is reduced to just a few segments (UHP, Off-Road) according to Bernd Joachim Hoffmann, CEO of Fulda, the two aspects of “brand values” and “customer loyalty/trust” fulfil an important function of distinguishing the brand from the competition. Today brands symbolise more than ever “light house” qualities in an ocean of products that are perceived as becoming increasingly similar.The value of a brand is determined by different qualitative and quantitative factors: product quality, brand trust/sympathy, brand identities, brand awareness, market share, pricing behaviour of the brand distribution quality and sales presence, the advertising and marketing spending, earnings and EBIT of the company, sales efficiency, organisation of international distribution and the age of the brand. Concerning this aspect Hoffmann could point to a positive summary for the Fulda brand, saying: “We are already doing things today, while others are just starting to think of tomorrow.”
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