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WORLD NEWS
Closing of GCR Tires in Rimouski
TreadWright Going Bead-to-Bead
The Rimouski GCR Tire Center is one of the stores that has been closed by the Ontario-based chain, which announced in January the instant closure of 17 branches across the country.
Customers found the shutters down at the Rimouski store with a notice
of closure posted on the door. The store manager refused to grant an interview referring any enquiries to Bridgestone Canada.
The company announced the closure of 17 stores across Canada and three tyre retreading
plants, including two in the Maritimes, according to Canadian newspaper Le Quotidien.
The company's head office is located in Mississauga, Ontario. GCR Tire Centers are a division of Bridgestone Canada.
Light truck tyre retreading specialist TreadWright Inc. is revising manufacturing at its Houston plant in a move to produce 100 per cent bead-to-retreads in support of its “American Made" marketing message.
The move follows the installation of a duo of Italmatic MRP 90 automatic builders to go with 14 new Italmatic curing presses installed throughout 2017, according to TreadWright CEO Anthony Showen.
The Houston-based company has invested $1.5 million over the past year to upgrade and expand
manufacturing.
Mr. Showen said the plant's capacity will hit 500 units daily by this summer.
The new equipment allows Treadwright to make all of its products with Treadwright branding moulded into the sidewalls, which Mr. Showen said is a key to promoting the products as high- quality U.S.-built alternatives to lower quality imports.
Oakland Park, Fla.-based Tesco- Italmatic L.L.C. installed the equipment, sourced from Cassina de' Pecchi, Italy-based Italmatic S.r.l.
Inhabitants of Czarna near Łańcut, in the Czech Republic, do not want to have a tyre retreading plant built in the buildings of a former abattoir, which an entrepreneur from Markowa bought from the Gmina Spółdzielnia. They are afraid of a fire, because the same entrepreneur who wants to open a business in their town had a fire at a similar plant in Markowa.
The head of the Czarna commune,
Mr. Dobrzański, says that he understands peoples’ fears as there are plans to retread a thousand tyres for SUVs and 160,000 passenger car tyres a year.
Before he issues a decision in this matter, he must consider a number of opinions, including the Regional Director for Environmental Protection in Rzeszów.
Michelin Sells TCi
Stores and Retread Shop
Czech Residents Against Retread Plant
Michelin North America has sold four Tire Centers stores and a TCi retread plant to two independent commercial tyre dealers.
Toledo, Ohio-based Shrader Tire & Oil Co., bought three TCi stores in Ohio: Columbus, Heath, and West Chester. Shrader also acquired the TCi retread plant in Pemberville, Ohio. The other buyer is Meekhof Tire Sales & Service Inc., based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which bought the TCi commercial outlet in Saginaw. Michelin said: “Tire Centers, a wholly owned subsidiary of Michelin North America Inc., has sold certain
commercial locations in Ohio to Shrader Tire & Oil, and a location in Michigan to Meekhof Tire. The companies have agreed that financial and other terms of the transactions will not be disclosed. After these resolving these transactions, TCi’s remaining commercial operations in Colorado, Arizona, and California will be transferred under the responsibility of Michelin Americas Truck Tires, the heavy-truck tyre unit of Michelin North America, as previously announced. We expect this transition to be completed by the end of the year.”