Goodyear Retread Plant Gets Go-Ahead
Defective Tyres on the Rise in West Midlands
David Scobie honoured with Top Supplier Award
Hawleys Tyres Joins Forces with Bridgestone
Bridgestone and FIA Foundation Announce Global Road Safety Initiative
Michelin Begins Dundee Expansion
Goodyear Fourth Quarter 2004 Results Reflect Significant Improvement
Sumitomo Rubber Income Up
Avon Plays Vital Role in Developing New "Super Caterham"

Goodyear Retread Plant Gets Go-Ahead

Management at Goodyear Dunlop's Wolverhampton site in Bushbury have announced that planning permission for their new retread facility has been granted. This signals the move of the truck tyre Retread facility from its existing location to a newly refurbished building at the south end of the plant. The new building, which is being enlarged by one third, will include new offices, showers and a communications centre.

Following consultation with employees, the layout of the new facility has been designed to ensure the most effective process flow. It has also been agreed that all equipment would be moved in the summer shutdown to ensure no impact on the supply of retreaded tyres to Goodyear Dunlop customers.

Eugene Jonker, Production Director of Goodyear Dunlop's Wolverhampton site says: 'This week we begin the structural changes to our new Retread facility. This signals not only the start of the remodelling of our Wolverhampton plant but is the final go-ahead on work, which promises to provide an exciting new future to our oldest UK plant.'

Defective Tyres on the Rise in West Midlands

A series of roadside tyre checks arranged by West Midlands Police supported by the Tyre Industry Council has revealed a disappointing 7% rise to 17% in the number of cars and vans with defective tyres on the roads in West Midlands. In similar checks in 2003 only 10% of vehicles checked had at least one tyre at or below the 1.6mm legal minimum - the national average is 12%.

Another disappointing result of the survey was the number of vehicles with badly worn tyres measured at 2mm also rose dramatically from 18% in 2003 to 20.3% in the latest survey.

"We are shocked at this 7% increase in the number of defective tyres in the West Midlands," said TIC secretary Peter Taylor, "And if you add this figure to the number of cars with badly worn tyres, a figure of almost 40% of the cars on the roads of the West Midlands needs at least one tyre replaced for safety reasons".

Chief Inspector Steven Palmer, head of Force Traffic states, "These statistics are of obvious concern, and through a policy of education and enforcement, West Midlands Police will continue in their endeavours to target and remedy this situation".

David Scobie honoured with Top Supplier Award

All Fleet Services' operations director David Scobie's contribution to the business success of a leading customer has been recognised with the presentation of the Individual Recognition Award at the LeasePlan 2005 Supplier Awards recently.

"It's fantastic to know that an important client like LeasePlan recognises and values the work you are doing for them," said David. "They were our first major customer when we set up the business 18 months ago, so this award means a great deal to all of us in the company."

LeasePlan is one of All Fleet Services' largest clients and is among the UK's top fleet management companies, operating more than 136,000 cars and vans. The award is made to the individual from a supplier company judged to have made the most significant contribution to the company's business over the year. David's selection was a unanimous choice.

The significance of David's award is emphasised by the quality of senior managers from supplier companies he was competing with, which included household names like Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen, Ford, RAC and Kwik-Fit. All Fleet Services supplies call centre services to drivers of leasing and contract hire vehicles, looking after the servicing, repair and accident management needs of more than 180,000 cars and vans across the UK.

Hawleys Tyres Joins Forces with Bridgestone

Hawleys Tyres, in Sheffield, which claims to be the oldest independent tyre dealership in the UK, has joined forces with Bridgestone as a member of Bridgestone's First Stop network of independent tyre dealerships.

"We've checked as far as we can and we truly believe that we are the oldest independent tyre dealership in the country," said owner, Martin Hawley, whose grandfather started the business in 1910. "When my grandfather started the business, he was a taxi driver and an entrepreneur. In those days there weren't many cars on the roads, let alone tyre dealerships. He saw an opportunity to supply tyres to his colleagues, and Hawleys Tyres was born. "It has always been a family business, and when I hand it over to my son Simon and my nephew Tim they will be the fourth generation of our family to run the company," he added.

Bridgestone and FIA Foundation Announce Global Road Safety Initiative

Bridgestone Corporation and the FIA Foundation have announced a joint global road safety campaign. Collaboration on the 'Think Before You Drive' road safety campaign was announced at the 75th Geneva International Motor Show by Hiroshi Yamaguchi, a Bridgestone vice president and corporate officer responsible for brand management and product planning; David Ward, Director General of the FIA Foundation; and Max Mosley, President of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).

Designed to help reduce road deaths, globally estimated at 1.2 million a year, 'Think Before You Drive' will promote simple road safety messages to drivers and car users, focusing on activities, such as using a seat belt and regularly checking tyres, that can reduce the severity of injuries in a crash or even help to prevent a crash occurring. The campaign will also address many of the key road safety risk factors, including speeding and driving while under the influence of intoxicants.

The campaign symbol is a crash test dummy, who acts as the 'road safety expert' in communicating the campaign's messages. For Bridgestone Corporation, the campaign is an extension of the tyre safety educational activities that the Bridgestone Group companies globally conduct in Japan, North America, Europe and other regions.

For the FIA Foundation, the campaign builds on recent successful seat belt campaigning in Europe and Latin America. With an official global launch at the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix in Barcelona on May 6th 2005, the 'Think Before You Drive' campaign will be rolled out in Europe and then across the world.

Michelin Begins Dundee Expansion

It has been reported that work has begun on the £1.2 million project to expand Michelin's car tyre factory in Dundee. The project is the first phase in a £4 million investment programme aimed at increasing daily production at the plant by 20 per cent by 2007. The new facility is scheduled to become operational in October 2005.

Goodyear Fourth Quarter 2004 Results Reflect Significant Improvement

Goodyear has reported record sales and positive net income for the third consecutive quarter. The company also achieved stronger year-on-year segment operating income for the sixth consecutive quarter. For the full year of 2004, the company is also reporting positive net income and record annual sales.

Goodyear reported net income of $125 million for the fourth quarter of 2004, reflecting favourable selling prices and product mix, as well as strong volume growth in the company's North American tyre business. In the 2003 fourth quarter, the company reported a net loss of $427 million. The company also reported fourth quarter 2004 sales of $4.8 billion, a record for any quarter and an increase of 24 percent from $3.9 billion achieved in 2003. Sales benefited from the consolidation of two subsidiaries, which contributed approximately $335 million to sales. The company estimates the impact of currency translation contributed approximately $150 million to fourth quarter 2004 sales.

Tyre unit volume in 2004's fourth quarter was 55 million units, compared with 53 million units in the 2003 period. "The success of 2004's new product introductions, price increases, richer product and brand mix, and cost reductions are reflected in these fourth quarter results," said Robert J. Keegan, chairman and chief executive officer. "During the quarter, segment operating income increased more than 50 percent compared to the 2003 quarter, demonstrating our success in focusing on profitable growth and share gains in targeted markets."

Goodyear's net sales for the full year of 2004 were a record $18.4 billion, an increase of 21 percent over $15.1 billion in 2003. Tyre volume in 2004 was 223 million units, up 5 percent from 2003. Goodyear's net income in 2004 was $115 million compared to a net loss of $807 million in 2003.

"This was an important year for our company," Keegan said, "and we are pleased with the significant improvements our associates have made. In 2003, our goal was stabilizing our North American tyre business. In 2004, we were focused on building the momentum in all seven business units. In 2005, we are positioned to accelerate our operating progress. "We will face challenges including original equipment cutbacks in North America, a softer Chinese original equipment consumer market, tight commercial truck supply and higher raw material costs," Keegan added, "but we have positive momentum in our markets."

Sumitomo Rubber Income Up

Sumitomo Rubber Industries has reported operating income of 45,526 million yen for 2004 compared with 37,765 million yen in 2003 an increase of around 20%. The company's net sales for the period showed an increase of 4.5% to 470, 562 million yen. The company's tyre segment accounted for 76% of turnover.

Avon Plays Vital Role in Developing New "Super Caterham"

Avon Tyres Racing has announced that it has developed a number of ultra-high performance road and race tyres for the 155 mph Caterham Seven CSR Although retaining the classic Seven shape, the new CSR is substantially different to existing Caterham models, particularly its chassis and suspension and for that reason Avon was developed early on in the car's development programme.

Because the CSR will be available in both road and race specifications, Avon has produced tyres to suit each application. For road use there's a derivation of the CR500, a road-legal yet track-biased ultra-high performance tyre that is already used on many Caterham models. The race tyre, however, is modelled on a Formula 3 slick , Avon being the official control tyre supplier to Formula 3.