French tyre manufacturer, Michelin, has explained that it remained profitable in 2020 despite a pandemic-induced drop in sales, thanks in part to prices dropping on raw ma taking a hit worldwide, Michelin also saw its sales drop by 15 per cent to 20 billion euros ($24.3 billion).
The firm’s net profit meanwhile fell by nearly two-thirds from 2019 to 1.9 billion euros.
Michelin has been trying to move upmarket with a greater focus on premium tyres and specialist products, and the shift in its product mix helped earnings in 2020.
Meanwhile, it cut administration costs by 240 million euros and cut investments by nearly a third.
In January, the firm announced it hoped to shed 2,300 posts in France over the coming three years without any forced layoffs.
Michelin said “in a still highly uncertain environment as the health crisis unfolds” that it expected the passenger car and light truck tyre markets to expand by 6 to 10 per cent this year.
For trucks, it sees an increase of between 4 and 8 per cent, and 8 to 12 per cent in speciality markets.
It hopes operating profits will jump to at least 2.5 billion euros next year.
Jaguar’s Journey From 1922 To Going All-Electric By 2025
British luxury car brand, Jaguar, on Monday revealed plans to construct only electric vehicles from 2025, more than a century since its birth as a manufacturer of motorcycle sidecars.
Born in 1922 as the Swallow Sidecar Company, the group launched its first car 13 years later, before switching its name to Jaguar after the Second World War in 1945.
Jaguar “conveys Britishness”, noted Peter Wells, professor of business and sustainability at the Centre for Automotive Industry Research.
“Historically, Jaguar was the car of so-called ‘self-made men’… but also then became rather more dashing, and the sports cars became something of a choice for footballers and other celebrities,” Wells told AFP.
Its premium saloon models have also been a favourite of British prime ministers.
In 1948, Jaguar launched the XK120 sports car, which went on to win the 24 hours of Le Mans race in 1951.
The Jaguar won the event five times in the 1950s, thanks also to its C and D types.
In 1961, it launched what was to become arguably its most iconic sports car, the E-type.
After merging with British Motor Corporation in 1968, Jaguar became an independent company once more and was listed on London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index a few years before its purchase by Ford in 1989.
With the US giant in big financial trouble around the time of the global financial crisis in 2008, Jaguar was bought by current Indian owners Tata Motors.
Tata also bought Land Rover from Ford to form Jaguar Land Rover, currently Britain’s largest carmaker.
JLR on Monday also announced that Land Rover would have it first fully-electric vehicle in 2024.
While seen as a vital move to meet growing consumer demand for greener transport, Mike Hawes, chief executive of UK automotive lobby group SMMT, said JLR’s future roadmap was also a “long-term commitment to the UK”.
“The UK automotive industry is essentially strong, innovative and agile, but the global competition is fierce,” Hawes said in a statement, as Britain’s trading landscape is shaken up by Brexit.
Delivering JLR’s ambition “will require the UK to improve its competitiveness”, he added.
British union Unite meanwhile described the JLR outlook as “good news in challenging economic times for the company’s estimated 40,000 UK employees”, largely working out of facilities in England’s West Midlands.
Jaguar’s only all-electric vehicle to date is the I-Pace, which retails at around £65,000 ($90,500, 74,500 euros).AFP
