In October, Yokohama announced that the company had appointed ex-Pirelli and ex-Prometeon executive Gregorio Borgo as its European president. Roughly nine months later, there are a number of indications that the European business is entering a new chapter, which includes plans to invest in the construction of a factory “in the heart of Europe”.
Michelin remains the world’s leading tyre company by sales turnover, but Bridgestone is close behind in one of three close battles distributed across the table. For the first time, our research ranking market-leading global tyre manufacturers in terms of sales turnover converted into euros, illustrates the impact of recent high-profile acquisitions as well as the ongoing disruption of pandemic on the wider market landscape.
Yokohama Rubber has refreshed its dedicated motorsports website. Both the English and Japanese language versions of the Yokohama Motorsports sites have been given the treatment and now feature full-screen designs. Yokohama says this format “enhances user convenience.”
Although the sales revenue of 185.6 billion yen (£1.2 billion) earned by the Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. in Q1 2022 was the highest figure it ever achieved in the January-to-March quarter and a 28.4 per cent improvement on the result attained a year earlier, the company nonetheless had little cause for celebration by the time rising costs and other complications were factored in. Profit attributable to owners of parent declined 63.5 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022 to 10.2 billion yen (£64.9 million). Operating profit was, at 13.7 billion yen (£87.1 million), down 62.7 per cent.
The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. has been selected as a constituent stock in the FTSE Blossom Japan Sector Relative Index, an equity index designed to reflect the performance of Japanese companies that demonstrate strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices.
Yokohama Rubber views motorsport engagement as “crucial” to the development of new tyre technologies for its Advan and Geolandar brands, and this focus is reflected in its motorsports activity plan for 2022. Not only will the company participate in a wide variety of motorsport events in its home market Japan and around the world, from top-level championships to grassroots racing, the tyre maker also intends to begin using its presence in motorsport to further its development of tyres that use renewable and recyclable materials.
The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. has decided to promote one of its senior technical executives, Koji Watanabe, and increase his area of responsibility. According to a statement issued by the company on 29 March, the decision took effect from 30 March 2022.
Now Yokohama has confirmed its acquisition of Trelleborg Wheel Systems (TWS), we can talk more definitively about the rationale behind the purchase. There are several drivers behind the acquisition, but they all boil down to Yokohama’s desire to increase global leadership and rebalances its product mix.
Three months after we published the news, The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., has confirmed that it has entered into a share purchase agreement with Swedish-based Trelleborg AB to acquire all outstanding shares of Trelleborg Wheel Systems Holding AB (TWS). According to Yokohama, TWS’s enterprise value is €2,040 million (about ¥265.2 billion). But the acquisition agreement includes a performance-linked earn-out clause, which could increase the acquisition price by up to €60 million depending on TWS’s 2022 financial results. And therefore Trelleborg refers to the sale as a 2.1 billion euro deal.
Yokohama Off-Highway Tires (YOHT) aims to be a top-three player in the global off-highway’ tyre segment and the company hopes that the recent expansion of the Alliance Agri Star II range as well as the performance of its other products will help it reach that goal. Highlighting the 4,000 plus SKUs it already offers, YOHT used the occasion of a virtual briefing to launch the Alliance Agri Star II range in 70, 85, 90 and 95-series fitments. In short, the company launched an additional 12 sizes and shared on-the-ground experiences of farmers as well as the results of recent research.
Japanese tyre manufacturer Yokohama is stopping production at its L.L.C. Yokohama R.P.Z. passenger car tyre factory in Lipetsk, Russia. Yokohama said it will “gradually stop production” in Russia “due to the current problem of raw material procurement”. The company will also donate more than $400,000 to humanitarian relief efforts.
Yokohama HPT
Trelleborg
YOHT
Trelleborg
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CNES/Airbus; Maxar Technologies