Michelin devises 4-part growth strategy

CLERMONT-FERRAND, France (May 18, 2016) — Group Michelin is banking on a four-part innovation-driven strategy to help it maintain above-market global growth in the short and long term, Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard told shareholders May 13 at the company's annual meeting.

The strategy aligns with the group's corporate mission of giving “everyone a better way forward,” Michelin said.

The strategy is built on the four pillars of tires, tire-related services, “experiences” and high-tech materials, Mr. Senard said.

He outlined the strategy's elements thusly:

• Tires, where the group's capacity for innovation and understanding of usage practices enables it to bring to market products seamlessly aligned with customer needs;

• Tire-related services and solutions to make mobility more efficient, a promising market where Michelin wants to step up its presence;

• “Experiences,” the full array of businesses that offers customers an outstanding mobility experience and supports them before, during and after their travel; and

• High-tech materials, notably elastomer-based, where the group leverages its expertise to deliver product differentiation and which can be marketed to other manufacturers in the mobility industry.

To drive deployment of this strategy, Mr. Senard said, the group is redesigning its operating procedures to be more customer-focused, capitalize on the digital revolution, simplify organizational structures and processes and empower employees further.

Also during the meeting, shareholders re-elected Anne-Sophie de La Bigne and Jean-Pierre Duprieu to the supervisory board for four-year terms expiring at the close of the fiscal 2019 annual shareholders meeting, and ratified the appointment of Monique Leroux to the supervisory board for a term expiring at the close of the fiscal 2017 shareholders meeting.