Web Site Launched for Top Shop Awards
Building on the success of its first Top Shop Awards program last year, Tire Review and presenting sponsor Ammco/Coats launched a new Web site dedicated to all aspects of the prestigious North American tire dealer awards program.

The site – www.tirereviewtopshopaward.com – features complete entry information (including an online entry form), key contest dates, prize information, helpful entry tips, a compilation of timely small business-oriented features, and detailed profiles of 2007 finalists and semi-finalists. In addition, the site has a gallery of images, print ads and TV/radio commercials from 2007 finalists and semi-finalists, and a look at the advertising and marketing 2007 winner Gatto’s Tire & Service did to celebrate and promote its win.

Now in its second year, the Tire Review Top Shop Awards, presented by Ammco/Coats, seeks to honor the “best of the best” independent tire dealers in the U.S. and Canada. The 2008 contest is now officially open, and entries will be accepted until July 11. Entry forms and information will be available on the Top Shop Web site, in each issue of Tire Review magazine through July, and via Tire Review’s Web site and Hennessy’s Web site.

Dealers can nominate their own businesses, or others can nominate tire dealer businesses. The entry process is simple: Those making the nomination need to provide basic information about the dealership being entered and write a short (300-word maximum) essay explaining why that dealership should be considered.

The Grand Prize Winner will receive a Coats APX90 tire changer, $1,500 in cash, airfare and hotel for two (2 nights/3 days) to the 2008 SEMA Show, a feature story in the October issue of Tire Review, and a Top Shop trophy to display in their dealership.

Three Finalists will each receive a Coats 1250-3DV tire/wheel balancer (featuring on-board training), $500 in cash, a feature story in the October issue and a specially designed finalist trophy.

TIA has teamed with ASA Tire Systems to offer members free, professionally designed Web pages.

The new member benefit includes customized color and spaces on the page for contact information and rotating color images. Member Web pages will also be optimized for search engines, and give the member company the ability to have customized e-mail addresses. In addition, ASA and TIA will help register the company’s domain name.

TIA members can find out more about this service by contacting ASA Tire Systems’ Erik Croswell at 866-210-6717.

SUMMER SPLASH
Summer movie season is here, and Yokohama Tire Corp. is ready to go…Go Speed Racer, that is. To help promote its part in the Warner Bros. film (Yokohama’s Advan tires appear on the Mach 5 racer in the movie), Yokohama took to the streets of with a specially designed ALMS entry for the recent Long Beach Grand Prix and this month’s Grand Prix of Utah. The Yokohama-sponsored Mazda LMP2 race car features Speed Racer movie logos and the trademark letter “M” on the front, and drivers Ben Devlin and Gerardo Bonilla wear suits inspired by the movie.

JK Tyre Buys Tornel, Looks to Expand
India’s JK Tyre has been quite busy building its business and tiremaking capacity, topping off its recent surge of investment with the $50 million purchase of Mexico’s privately held Tornel.

The deal, which closes this month, effectively makes JK Tyre India’s largest tiremaker. Tornel’s annual sales for 2007 were placed at around $202 million. Tornel has three plants with a combined capacity of 6.6 million tires per year, giving JK Tyre a total global annual capacity of 15.3 million tires.

JK Tyre vice chairman and managing director R.P. Singhania said the company plans to maintain the Tornel brand in Mexico and Central and South America, and will bring its JK brand to the Americas. It will use Tornel’s 241 distributors and 282 sales outlets to distribute its own brand.

Just days before the Tornel purchase, JK Tyre announced plans to build a greenfield radial passenger tire plant in India. The company is looking for a suitable location. At the same time, JK Tyre is expanding capacity at a number of its bias and radial tire plants.

“We are falling short of capacity and we are planning a new plant,” Arun Bajoria, president of JK Tyre told Business Line.

The company sees a future for radial tire manufacturing in India. “About 94% of passenger tires are radial, but truck radialization is just about 5.5%. This should be 10%-11% in a few years, and by 2010, radialization in truck segment will be around 20%,” said Bajoria.

Loading Up
To test its new 63-inch giant OTR radials, Titan Tire constructed a 24-foot bull wheel at its Quincy, Ill., facility. The bull wheel will load the 13.5-foot-tall 59/80R63 giant tires with up to 500,000 pounds at speeds up to 45 mph, according to Titan. The tiremaker feels that using its new bull wheel will confirm the casing of the tire and its heat characteristics. Ten days of testing is equivalent to a year of field use, the company said. Titan has been installing new tire building and curing equipment at its Bryan, Ohio, plant and said it is on schedule to begin delivering the 63-inch radials this summer.

Nominations Open for Tire Industry Hall of Fame
TIA is accepting nominations for the 2008 Tire Industry Hall of Fame until July 1. The Hall of Fame is open to individuals in the tire industry, including manufacturers, inventors, publishers, equipment suppliers, tire association executives, tire dealers, tire and rubber recyclers, and retreaders. The Historical Contributors category of the Hall of Fame recognizes those individuals who have been out of the industry for 20 years or more. These individuals may be retired, deceased, or may have begun their career in the tire industry and moved on to a different industry.

TIA is also accepting nominations for the Friend of the Industry Award, which recognizes well-known individuals who are allies and proven supporters of the tire industry. These individuals are not part of the tire industry, but have affected it positively in some manner.

A nomination form that can be used for both awards is available on www.tireindustry.org or by calling TIA’s national office at 301-430-7280 ext. 109.

The Hall of Fame Inductions will take place during TIA’s Breakfast with the President at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino during the 2008 SEMA show in Las Vegas.

Alldata Looks Forward to Help Repair Shops
Alldata recently held a media day event at its headquarters in Elk Grove, Calif., to celebrate the signing of its 70,000th customer and to spotlight how the company is helping automotive service professionals boost their business success.

President Jeff Lagges and other executives discussed how Alldata is addressing a changing market, and its commitment to providing OEM repair data and business solutions to help service professionals increase their competitiveness, elevate productivity and profitability, and forge stronger relationships with customers.

As Alldata looks forward, its goals are to build more awareness in the marketplace, focus on the health of the industry in general, continue to help improve repair location productivity so that shops are growing and not just surviving, and to continue its focus on customer service and support.

Steve Gill, vice president of program development, talked about the need for best practices for shops to remain competitive and survive, emphasizing that the most pressing issues facing shops are vehicle reliability, diagnostics as a growing portion of repairs, the continued need for tech experience and training, and new vehicle technologies where integrated system repairs will require OEM data.

No Bull Program
It may not be for everybody, but Professional Bull Riding certainly delivers the crowds. Cooper is the official tire of the PBR and one of the series’ main sponsors, and the PBR’s April visit to Chicago’s Rosemont Horizon saw more than 20,000 ardent fans attend the two-day showdown between man and beast. The fan- and sponsor-friendly PBR hits 30 U.S. cities with its lively brand of family-oriented entertainment. Cooper has been taking dealers out to PBR events in advance of their arrival in those dealers’ markets, giving them a first-hand look at how they can leverage this sponsorship to attract customers and build awareness.

Seminars, Programs for Automechanika
Automechanika Canada, set for June 19-21 at the International Centre in Toronto, will offer seminars designed to help aftermarket professionals succeed in these changing times.

Highlighting the program are a keynote address by Bob Greenwood, an award-winning automotive aftermarket industry expert; seven seminars; and nine educational courses.

Additionally, the Automotive Parts Remanufacturers Association and the Ontario Tire Dealers Association, two of the show’s industry partners, will contribute to the seminar program, and OTDA will sponsor the exclusive Tire & Wheel Pavilion at Automechanika Canada.

Planned seminar sessions will discuss market changes, environmental issues, tire recycling, used tires and next generation starting/charging systems.

For more information visit www.automechanikacanada.com .

Zurick Program Adds Experience, Data
Zurich Financial Services Group launched its Global Industry Specialization Program, developed to “better leverage its existing knowledge base and expertise in general insurance and to further expand its risk insights into specific industry sectors,” according to the company.

The program brings together managers from different regions and markets to help Zurich create differentiated customer insurance programs and tailor risk management, Zurich said.

“Providing customers with the value of our risk insights and understanding of industry sectors will enable Zurich to retain existing customers and expand into further attractive markets for continued profitable growth,” said John Amore, CEO of Zurich’s general insurance segment.