Tyre distributors from across the country have come together to support the restarting of the tyre trade. Large and small retailers from St Helens to the South East worked together to produce the inaugural Tyrepress webinar entitled “Kick-starting your tyre business’.
At last count, around 600 companies and brands were signed up as exhibitors at the inaugural The Tire Cologne, with many poised to unveil their latest products and innovations at the show. This meeting of the tyre world’s ‘Who’s Who’ is of course too good an opportunity for Tyres & Accessories/Tyrepress.com to miss, and our team will be present and reporting the latest news from the fair. We’ll also be there as an exhibitor in our own right together with our international partner titles, and we welcome visitors to pay us a visit.
There will be a period of planned maintenance on Tyrepress.com starting this evening and concluding in the afternoon of Wednesday 5 August 2015, during which time the website will not be accessible. We will send the regular Wednesday newsletters – Tyrepress Jobs and Tyrepress News Daily – as well as the usual social media updates later in the day to ensure that you can read full articles on the website. Thank you for your patience.
More than 270 Bridgestone Corporation employees from around the world have attended the company’s fifth annual Bridgestone Group & Global Total Quality Management (TQM) Conference in Tokyo. Bridgestone reports that as has been the case since 2010, this year’s conference was held with the goal of encouraging ongoing and further improvement throughout the global Bridgestone Group. Examples were shared from various Bridgestone Group companies of activities that have led to improvements, with the aim of allowing attendees from around the world to learn from the efforts and accomplishments of their fellow employees.
An all-new Mini entered the market this year, and it’s longer and wider than the previous model – 107 mm longer and 44 mm wider in hatchback form, to be precise. But not everything has changed; Hankook remains original equipment supplier for the Mini, and is providing four tyre lines for the new-generation car. All original equipment tyres for the Mini are produced at Hankook’s factory in Hungary.
The IAM is calling for a national strategy of driving health checks and better information for elderly drivers and their families following a Vision Critical poll of 1,297 people. Vision Critical extrapolates that 42 per cent of the population is worried about an elderly relative driving, yet they are unlikely to do anything about it: […]
German specialty chemicals company Lanxess AG reports that its sales decreased 8.7 per cent year-on-year in 2013, to €9.1 billion, and it says this decline is primarily attributable to lower selling prices in its Performance Polymers business segment due to lower raw material prices, and to the “challenging competitive situation.” On the back of increasing production-related costs and negative currency effects, EBITDA pre-exceptionals decreased 39.9 per cent year on year to €735 million, which was within Lanxess’ guidance range of €710 million to €760 million. Lanxess says a slight increase in volumes was unable to compensate for the decline in earnings. The Group’s EBITDA margin pre exceptionals fell to 8.9 per cent from 13.4 per cent in 2012.
In August, tyrepress.com brought news of the world’s largest ice cream van. This very vehicle will be pressed into service at January’s LAMMA show, dispensing chilly treats for visitors at the Mitas stand (B57). The 5.5 tonne, ŠKODA Octavia vRS-based van is fitted with Mitas tyres sourced from Farmers Tyre in Leamington Spa.
Continental has opened its new ContiLifeCycle Plant at its Hanover-Stöcken facility alongside the launch of its Technology Center Campus. With various other retreading and technology centres around the world, the facilities are characterised as nuclei for Conti’s global technological operations; Conti both sends “out into the world” its technological innovations from the Campus, in the words of Tire Division head and Executive Board member, Nikolai Setzer, and brings in specialists and their expertise from global markets to help develop technology for different markets. The LifeCycle Plant is thought to be the most technologically advanced retreading facility in the world, integrating into the manufacturing processes improved rubber recycling capabilities.
Maurice Taylor may take some of those ‘so-called workers’ after all. A text published by Agence France Presse yesterday says Titan International has made an offer regarding Goodyear’s Amiens Nord site.
The Vehicle Operator Services Agency’s (VOSA) revelation that the number of MOT tests peak in March and September should be no surprise to many Tyrepress readers. These months coincide with the introduction of new vehicle registration letters. The agency has also taken the opportunity to note the parts of a car most likely to attract MOT failures, while advising on how the new 2013 regulations, introduced on 20 March, are affecting test results six months on.
Uniroyal has launched the latest generation of its wet weather-orientated RainSport line. However as much as this launch is a definite upgrade and refresh of its classic wet product after more than a decade in service, the move also represents a renewal of attention on the very well established brand. As well as bringing the RainSport range into the labelling age (every single fitment in the wide 185/55 R14 to 305/30 R19 range has scored an A in wet grip), the RainSport 3 seeks to extend its “best in wet” reputation further with a few percentage points of improvements in virtually every other respect as well. The exceptions are wear and noise, which remain relatively static compared with the predecessor product.
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.
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.
A new feature coming to Tyrepress in the relaunched version of the site is a database of European tyre test results. The feature has been a part of German sister site Reifenpresse.de’s service for some time, and as a result the database offers more than 3,500 tyre test results. Tyrepress editor Chris Anthony says that the feature forms “a key part of our newly updated website.”
