Kumho Adopts Corner at Zandvoort
Continental Supports BEN at Motorshow
Bridgestone Announces Measures for Fortifying European Operations
FTM To Cease Trading
Goodyear and Christian Salvesen Secure Award
Auto1 and InterTyre Bow to Industry Pressure
Responsible Recycler Scheme Gets Legal
BMW Z4 to Feature Bridgestone Runflat Tyres
Kumho Suspend Acquisition Talks
Bridgestone Unveils BIRD Production System
$35 Million Loan For Apollo Tyres
Visteon and SmarTire Announce TPMS Partnership
Bridgestone Revises Financial Projections
Ecolabel Award for Kumho Winter Tyre
Illegal Tyres Down in Latest Surveys

Kumho Adopts Corner at Zandvoort

Kumho Tyres has signed an agreement with Circuit Park Zandvoort to adopt a corner at the famous Dutch circuit. The five-year deal further strengthens Kumho's close ties with the circuit established through its role as Official Tyre Supplier to the annual Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 event.

'Kumho Corner' will carry three large signs sited to give the brand name maximum exposure from the regular TV coverage of races at the circuit. In addition, a giant sign beneath the scoreboard at the end of the pit straight will now be Kumho branded. It is estimated that TV coverage of this year's Marlboro Masters race reached an audience of up to 800 million viewers worldwide.

Present at the official naming of Kumho Corner at Zandvoort were Hans Ernst, Managing Director of Circuit Park Zandvoort (pictured left) and J M Kim, Managing Director of Kumho UK. Commenting on the agreement, Mr Kim said: "Kumho is proud to be associated with Zandvoort and its long tradition of motor sport. We see this sponsorship as another step towards our goal of building a truly global presence for the Kumho brand."

Continental Supports BEN at Motorshow

Pictured is Fiona Pinkney of Continental with Vicky Warrington of BEN on the BEN stand at the Motor Show. Uniroyal supported the Motor Industry charity during the motor show by arranging the presence of the Uniroyal Team Challenge car on the BEN stand.

Bridgestone Announces Measures for Fortifying European Operations

Bridgestone Corporation has announced a sweeping programme for strengthening its European subsidiary, Bridgestone/Firestone Europe S. A. The program centres on measures for upgrading and expanding production capabilities and for reinforcing the subsidiary's financial position.

Firstly, production capacity will more than double at Bridgestone/Firestone Europe's Poznan Plant, in Poland, which manufactures high- performance tyres. The company will increase the daily production capacity at that plant to 23,000 tyres by the end of 2006, from 10,000 presently. Meanwhile, the company will shift production toward high-performance products at its other passenger tyre plants. Upgrading development capabilities in high-performance tyres is the primary purpose of a proving ground that Bridgestone/Firestone Europe is building near Rome.

Bridgestone also will expand its production capacity in truck and bus tyres, increasing daily production capacity at its Bilbao (Spain) Plant to 4,600 tyres by the end of 2005, from 3,500 presently. To fund the new capital spending and a planned wave of investment in expanded marketing channels, Bridgestone Corporation is to provide its European subsidiary with a capital infusion of 400 million euros.

In another move, Bridgestone/Firestone Europe will change its name to Bridgestone Europe S. A. as of January 1, 2003. This coincides with a similar change in the Americas, where Bridgestone/Firestone Americas Holding, Inc. will change its name to Bridgestone Americas Holding Inc. Both changes are in conjunction with efforts by the Bridgestone Group to project a focused identity worldwide.

FTM To Cease Trading

Following a review of its business operations, CVC, the new owners of Kwik-Fit, has announced that FTM Tyrefit will cease trading on 28th February. FTM's call centre activities will be integrated into Kwik-Fit Fleet, which will also take over responsibility for FTM's outsourced business.

Goodyear and Christian Salvesen Secure Award

Goodyear Dunlop UK and Christian Salvesen International have scooped a prestigious national award for retail and distribution management, in recognition of the new design and re-engineering of the company's supply chain operations in the UK. The logistics partnership secured the Retail and Distribution Supply Chain of the Year title at this year's European Supply Chain Excellence Awards.

Following a joint venture between the two companies in September 1999, Goodyear Dunlop's operations have been consolidated within a single national distribution centre managed by Christian Salvesen at Tyrefort in Birmingham. The two companies have been commended for the extent to which the two organisations have worked together to rationalise the supply chain, taking service levels to 99.6%, as well as recognising the level of IT investment including a new route planning system and bespoke web-based "track and trace" performance monitoring.

Auto1 and InterTyre Bow to Industry Pressure

In the face of declining industry profits and reduced marketing budgets, which have had an adverse effect on space bookings in many exhibition sectors, the auto1 and InterTyre management committee have decided to postpone next year's event. This course of action was preferred by the committee, rather than producing a show which neither lived up to previous years' exhibitions nor fully represented the scale of the industry.

Said Gavin Masterton, Chairman of the organising committee, 'Previous shows have been successful events at which substantial business was done but, without the full support of the industry, those forward thinking exhibitors, including many members of the Garage Equipment Association (GEA), who had committed to auto1 and InterTyre, will now be denied a great sales and marketing opportunity next year.'

Commenting on the decision, SMMT Chief Executive, Christopher Macgowan, said, 'Unfortunately, in the current tough business climate many companies, particularly in the components sector, have been unable to commit the resources necessary to ensure that the shows would be of sufficient benefit to both visitors and exhibitors . This is extremely disappointing for all involved. However, we now have to look constructively at a number of possible futures for auto1 and InterTyre.'

Responsible Recycler Scheme Gets Legal

The Tyre Industry Council has successfully registered the Responsible Recycler Scheme with the UK Trademarks Registry, joining the TIC name and logo in having this status. Launched three years ago, the Responsible Recycler Scheme now embraces 15 of the country's foremost collectors and processors of used tyres and who together account for the great majority of used tyre collection, responsibly recycled or disposed of in the UK.

BMW Z4 to Feature Bridgestone Runflat Tyres

Bridgestone have announced that their runflat tyres appear as original equipment on BMW's Z4 roadster, which went on sale in North America in October. The vehicle, which will be available with a choice of 2.5 and 3.0 litre engines and in standard and sports configurations for each engine size, will also be marketed in Europe, Australia and Japan.

Bridgestone is supplying Potenza RE050 RFT tyres for the Z4 in four sizes to accommodate the different engine sizes and vehicle configurations, these being 225/50 R 16 92V, 225/45 R 17 91W, 225/40 R 18 88W and 255/35 R 18 90W.

Bridgestone began supplying runflat tyres for factory installation on vehicles in 199. The BMW Z4 is the sixth model overall and the second BMW model to feature Bridgestone run flat tyres as factory equipment. Bridgestone also supplies runflat tyres for the BMW Z8.

Kumho Suspend Acquisition Talks

Kumho Industrial Co have suspended talks to sell The Group's tyre interests to a group of investors led by JP Morgan Chase and the Carlyle Group due to a disagreement on the price. A Kumho spokesman is quoted as saying that talks may resume if Carlyle raises its offer. According to analysts in the financial press, Carlyle's offer valued in February at $2.2 billion, may have been considered to be too low after Kumho and other tyre manufacturers raised their prices twice during the year. Kumho is selling its tyre unit as part of a plan to reduce $9 billion of debt.

Bridgestone Unveils BIRD Production System

Bridgestone Corporation has unveiled a new tyre production system, which automates the entire sequence of processes in tyre manufacturing, from the initial processing of materials to the final inspection of the finished tyres. The new system, dubbed Bridgestone Innovative and Rational Development (BIRD), is the world's first production system for tyres that extends automation to the inspection process.

According to Bridgestone, the system will be refined under mass production conditions at a pilot installation in Japan and will then be deployed at new and existing plants worldwide. Management at the company will position the new system as a mainstay of Bridgestone Group manufacturing.

The new production system, centres on three key elements. The first of these is Bridgestone's Automated Tyre Manufacturing Synchronised System (ATMSS) technology for automating and integrating the processes from materials processing to vulcanisation. A second element is the company's Automated Inspection Modular System (AIMS) technology for inspecting finished tyres automatically. The third element is Bridgestone's Flow Oriented Approach (FOA) implementation of highly distributed autonomous information processing for managing the entire system and for making necessary information available across the information network.

According to Bridgestone BIRD offers a number of key benefits. Firstly, BIRD offers unprecedented flexibility in accommodating new kinds of tyre structure and new kinds of tyre materials. BIRD is adaptable to a vast range of tyres, including ultra-high-performance tyres. The system also includes several technologies for achieving extremely high precision in tyre manufacturing and supports big gains in tyre uniformity and balance.

The BIRD system also integrates the flow from the initial processing of materials to the inspection of finished tyres reducing production lead times greatly. The integrated production flow in BIRD also synchronises and links all the component processes and eliminates the need for handling items and maintaining inventories between processes. Overall productivity is more than twice as high as in the newest of Bridgestone's conventional production systems.

BIRD's compact configuration also reduces energy consumption. The system uses about 40% less energy than the newest of Bridgestone's conventional production systems, helping reduce output of carbon dioxide. Also, all of the main advances in BIRD are applicable separately to existing production lines. Bridgestone already has incorporated individual BIRD technologies at its tyre plants.

Finally, and perhaps most significantly, a single BIRD unit can also produce between 200,000 and 350,000 passenger car tyres annually, occupying only between one-fourth and one-third as much space as a conventional production layout. Meanwhile, advances in change-overs between materials allow for changing tyre sizes continuously. That eliminates the need for producing individual sizes in large lots and reduces the need for large inventories.

$35 Million Loan For Apollo Tyres

Indian tyre manufacturer Apollo Tyres has negotiated a $35 million loan as part of a two-year, $51 million investment plan to set up a new truck radial tyre facility in Gujarat and to increase capacity in Apollo's two existing plants in Kerala.

Visteon and SmarTire Announce TPMS Partnership

Visteon Corporation and SmarTire Systems Inc. have announced a partnership agreement in the area of tyre pressure monitoring systems. The partnership allows for the two companies to market SmarTire systems to automotive manufacturers on a global basis. The agreement also allows Visteon manufacturing rights for certain SmarTire products and establishes provisions that will enable SmarTire and Visteon to jointly explore other opportunities such as the commercial vehicle market.

Bridgestone Revises Financial Projections

Bridgestone Corporation has announced revised projections for its business and financial performance in the fiscal year to December 31, 2002. The new projections show an increase in projected consolidated net sales from 2.22 billion Yen to 2.24 billion Yen. Consolidated net income, however, is projected to be 43% lower than previously thought at 40 million Yen, as opposed to 70 million Yen. Non-consolidated sales, meanwhile are projected at 735,000 million Yen compared to the previous projections of 720,000 million Yen. Net income, again, is expected to be over 50% lower than previously thought at 30 million Yen.

The sales increase is due to stronger than expected sales of OE tyres in Japan and buoyant tyre sales to export markets as well as to favourable exchange rates. The reduction in projected net income is in connection with a one-off special charge for the restructuring of the company's European operations.

Ecolabel Award for Kumho Winter Tyre

Kumho has become the first tyre manufacturer to be awarded the 'Green Swan' ecolabel for a new product. Both the Kumho KWN7401 I'Zen tyre and the company's manufacturing process passed the tests set by the Nordic Ecolabelling Board. Kumho was presented with the award at a special ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden on 12th November 2002.

To achieve the Green Swan ecolabel, Kumho was required to demonstrate that the tyre is manufactured from raw materials with the lowest possible impact on the environment. Representatives of the Nordic Ecolabelling Board also verified that the operation of Kumho's manufacturing process in Korea met their stringent environmental criteria.

Kumho also had to show that the Kumho KWN7401 I'Zen tyre is able to operate in an environmentally friendly way during service. The tyre was proven to generate a noise level below the tight limit set by the test criteria and to have low rolling resistance together with good durability to enable it to be reused after its first life.

Pictured receiving the Green Swan ecolabel award from Olle Abrahamsson (left), official of the Swedish Ministry of Justice, is SM Kim (right), representing Kumho Tyres.

Illegal Tyres Down in Latest Surveys

The latest series of roadside checks carried out by regional police forces in co-operation with the TIC have revealed improvements in the number of defective tyres on the road. In Blackburn the figure fell from 14% in 2001 to 11.6% this year whilst a similar survey in Devon and Cornwall revealed an even greater fall from 14% to 9%. Despite these figures, the number of vehicles on the road in these areas with badly worn tyres below 2mm is still high at 23% in Blackburn and 13% in Devon and Cornwall.