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Continental Tyres make long haul commitment to Australia

One of Europe's biggest tyre manufacturers, Continental, is strengthening its position in the mainstream Australian truck and commercial vehicle tyre

One of Europe’s biggest tyre manufacturers, Continental, is strengthening its position in the mainstream Australian truck and commercial vehicle tyre market.

As the world’s fourth largest tyre manufacturer, Continental is part of the Continental AG group which employees in excess of 150,000 people.

Continental AG has operations in over 200 locations across 36 countries. The commercial tyre operation is spread across seven countries with 12 separate production facilities.

The Continental tyre group produced 7.2 million truck tyres in 2007, with a global sales value of $2.5 billion; this was an increase of over 3% on the 2006 sales.

This result was achieved in a global market that now has a record number of brands and manufacturers.

Continental AG, the parent company, recently acquired the global interests of the Siemens VDO group, a manufacturer of high technology automotive components.

As part of the amalgamation of the businesses in Australia, all the groups will soon reside in the new state of the art office complex in Melbourne’s northern suburb of Bundoora.

In the past 12 months Continental Tyres has significantly increased its commitment to the Australian market with the appointment of key marketing, sales and technical positions, all based locally.

With this locally based expertise and the strong distribution network of Tyres4U the Continental brand presence in the Australian market has improved significantly.

“By the establishment of local offices and appointment of an Australian team Continental has shown its high level of commitment to the Australian market” says General Manager Sales and Marketing, Peter Miglic.

“One thing that keeps Continental at the forefront of the global tyre industry is our significant commitment to research and development. Last year we spent the equivalent of $72 million on developing and making better tyres, this equates to around 3% of our total sales. Conti is at the fore front of global tyre development.”

This ongoing commitment to product improvement is recognised by leading vehicle manufacturers including; Scania and MAN, who both specify Continental as original equipment for their trucks.

The tyre development process now required by vehicle manufactures runs parallel with the vehicle development, usually taking several years, with the tyre designers involved at all key steps in the vehicle development.

The challenge to get and continuously build OE business ensures that tyre development is meeting the performance criteria laid down for each new model.

Every new truck will have very specific tyre performance requirements, targets will be set for handling, braking, rolling resistance and mileage.

The tyres specified as OE are now an integral part of the overall suspension and handling dynamics of the vehicle. It’s this type of development that really pushes the technology envelope.

Acknowledging the variability and severity of Australian operating conditions, Continental has been undertaking extensive local testing and tuning programs to ensure its products deliver optimum performance in Australia’s notoriously difficult road conditions.

Roy Norris, National Sales Manager for Commercial Tyres says it is essential for Continental to gather as much data as possible on how tyres perform in real life situations with local operators, seeing it as a ‘crucial’ part of the development process.

“The development of tyres to suit our unique conditions has involved many months of testing in cooperation with local transport operators. Tens of thousands of kilometres of testing has been conducted on a variety of vehicle types and in a wide range of operating conditions’ he says.

“Armed with this data, our own Continental engineers and designers have been undertaking a development process of the product range for local conditions. It’s fair to say that we are committed to the Australian market and we intend to make tyres that perform reliably and with durability to suit Australian conditions.”

Continental says it will debut a number of new tyre products over the next 12 months, which it believes will provide operators with improved performance options.

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