Tyres Ltd Hastings – Michelin

Leo Van Berkel has 35+ years in the tyre industry and along with Carole and Brad, you can be assured to get the best advice, for the best tyre, at the best price. Honest upfront no bull advice. We are proud supporters of the local golf club, touch rugby and sponsor the Hastings Trust for at risk youth.

Michelin Tyres History

Michelin is a French company, and today it is considered the second largest in the world in the tyre business. It was founded in 1889 by two brothers, Andre Michelin and Edouard Michelin. The company was based out of Clermont-Ferrand in France, and is older than the Eiffel tower. They began the business by making bicycle tires, and other pneumatic tires.

The history tells, somebody come over to their factory, and while this person needed to have his tyre replaced on his bicycle, the two brothers ended up waiting to get the tire replaced so they went at it at their own factory, and took the over three hours to replace this tyre.

What ended up happening, well, they let the glue sit and they had to peel it off, and rip it back on, and the next morning they went to test out this tyres that they had finally replace for the bicycle, and turns out it didn’t last nothing more than a few short hundred meters.

But the two brothers were so convinced that the future rode on some form of rubber detachable tyre, that they went into develop the first retractable, mountable, detachable tire that you could put on a bicycle.

The first Michelin patent was in 1891 and it patented a removable bicycle tire, which helped Charles Terront in the Paris-Brest-Paris race. Most part of people were interested in how this company managed to get a hold of demountable tire.

And from there the two brothers realized, and the team that they had behind them, that they could probably do something with that technology. They began to grow the company through word of mouth because the wanted to get involved in everything possible, and the want to convince people that rubber tire and the way that they were making them was the future, and they were going to do that with the introduction of this little known technology.

In those days in France, the automobile industry was very low, because cars were too expensive and they weren’t used to this kind of vehicle. So Michelin make road maps to promote the automobile industry, they made 35.000 copies and tried to give to all people, to convince people than roads maps were the future so that people could travel to placed that they couldn’t before.

In 1946 the company took a tremendous technological leap by inventing the radial tire, taking advantage of technical success, it managed to become a leading player in the global manufacture of tires.

By 1968 Michelin installed its first offices in the United States of America, achieving rapid growth, and by 1989 the company reached 10% of the tire market share in the United States.

In 1989, Michelin acquired the recently merged tyre and rubber manufacturing divisions of the American firms B.F. Goodrich Company and Uniroyal, Inc.

Hawke’s Bay is a region on the North Island of New Zealand, located on the east coast and known around the world for its excellent wines. The Regional Council administers in their cities in both Napier and Hastings. It is one of the driest and warmest regions in New Zealand, becoming one of the most important wine-producing areas in the country.

Hastings is a city that belongs to the region of Hawke’s Bay in New Zealand, its current population is about 75 thousand habitants and is 20 kilometres from Napier, which is the second-largest city in the same region. Hastings is known for its large production of fruits, vegetables and red wine.

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