Goodyear touts OTR Web site
LAS VEGAS—Goodyear's off-the-road Web site, www.goodyearotr. com, has been enthusiastically received by the company's customers, dealers and others involved with mining tires, the Akron-based tire maker said.
The site, launched in May, contains a tire catalog, dealer locator, publications and product brochures. The tire catalog contains sections on tires for articulated dump and rigid haul trucks, mobile cranes, scrapers, container-handling equipment, bulldozers and loaders, mine service vehicles and motor graders.
Publications available include engineering data and data sheets for Goodyear's complete OTR tire line.
New Saturn SUV shod with Michelin
MIAMI—Saturn Corp. appears to be flirting with a new tire supplier in the wake of Bridgestone/Firestone Inc.'s tire recall.
The 2002-model Saturn sport-utility vehicle on display at the South Florida Auto show in Miami during the week of Oct. 9 was equipped with 16-inch Michelin tires, according to Automotive News, a sister publication to Tire Business.
But some insiders believe the flirting is merely public relations posturing, since BFS has been the exclusive tire supplier to Saturn for a decade. Saturn retailers have reported very little concern among Saturn shoppers over the Firestone brand image.
Saturn Chairman Cynthia Trudell told Automotive News the tire-sourcing decision for the new car-based SUV has not been made.
She indicated the decision is a question of sourcing strategy, saying, "One manufacturer can't handle all of your needs throughout your product portfolio."
Ford recall ad No.1 on Internet
NEW YORK—Ford Motor Co.'s online banner ad, dealing with the Firestone tire recall, recorded more than 50 million impressions during the week of Sept. 18, according to a recently released report by AdRelevance, a Jupiter Media Metrix company.
The ad appeared on more than 200 different sites including popular portal and information sites such as iWon, Yahoo!, CNN and MSNBC. Ford spent approximately $3.5 million on the Internet recall ad campaign.
Bandag's sales, earnings slip
MUSCATINE, Iowa—Bandag Inc. said increased efficiency and price increases implemented earlier this year helped it maintain gross profit margins in the face of significantly higher costs for raw materials.
As a result, the company's net income for the third quarter slipped less than 1 percent to $17.9 million as sales slid 1.2 percent to $269.9 million. For the nine months, net earlings rose 3.4 percent to $45.6 million on a 0.8-percent decline in sales to $743.3 million.
Bandag Chairman and CEO Martin G. Carver said market pressures related to an oversupply of new truck tires have slowed sales of retreaded truck tires in North America, dropping tread volume in Bandag's traditional retread business 5 percent in the quarter.
"There are two key factors intensifying market pressure:" Mr, Carber said, "an influx of imported tires and reduced (original equipment manufacturer) demand for new tires, which are then diverted into the replacement market."
These market conditions should persist through at least the first quarter of 2001, Mr. Carver said.
TBC's earnings fall on record sales
MEMPHIS, Tenn.—The inclusion of a full quarter's results from Tire Kingdom, acquired in June, helped send TBC's third-quarter sales soaring 27.3 percent to a record $267.9 million.
Retail sales at Tire Kingdom were up 14 percent for the quarter and shipments through Big O Tires Inc. also increased "meaningfully," TBC said. but these increases were more than offset by results in the company's wholesale tire marketing operations, and net earnings for the quarter fell 19.1 percent to $5.3 million.
Industrywide competitive pressures negatively impacted wholesale margins, TBC said, and should continue influencing results through the rest of the year.
For the nine months, TBC posted a 12.5-percent increase in net earnings to $14.3 million on a 16.3-percent jump in sales to $651.7 million.