Continental: Tyre manufacturer of the year
Continental received two awards this week from trade journal Tire Technology International. The international expert jury named Continental the Tyre Manufacturer of the Year. Continental also received special praise for recycling rubber from end-of-life tyres in conjunction with the retreading of truck tyres at the ContiLifeCycle plant in Hanover.
Both awards were presented at a ceremony held at the Tyre Technology Expo in Cologne, Germany. “We are delighted to be named Tyre Manufacturer of the Year 2014,” says Nikolai Setzer, Continental executive board member responsible for the tyre division.
“As our tyre division is currently midway through realising its Vision 2025, the timing couldn’t be better. This is great appreciation for our global tyre team for the successful execution of our long-term growth plan, which is based on substantial investments in expanding our existing tyre plants and buildings,” he explains.
Praising the ContiLifeCycle plant, jury member Joe Walter, an adjunct professor at The University of Akron says: “Utilising end-of-life rubber products should lead to a significant reduction in Continental’s corporate carbon footprint while producing retreaded tyres in an environmentally friendly fashion. This recycle-retread initiative seems to be win-win for the consumer and the environment.”
Christian Sass who heads up the truck and bus retreading division at Continental says they are delighted that their ContiLifeCycle plant has been named Tyre Manufacturing Innovation of the Year.
“We see this as confirmation that, with our globally unique combination of rubber recycling and truck tyre retreading, we have come up with a sustainable solution. In the space of 18 months our team transformed the vision of an innovative retreading and recycling solution into a reality. The outcome is a retread solution that is even more sustainable and has reached a new level in terms of product performance and characteristics.”