Michelin
Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin SCA, commonly referred to as Michelin, is a French multinational tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes région of France.
In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the Kleber Tyre Company, Uniroyal, BFGoodrich, Riken, and SASCAR brands. Michelin is also notable for its Red and Green travel guides, its roadmaps, the Michelin stars that the Red Guide awards to restaurants for their cooking, and for its company mascot Bibendum, colloquially known as the Michelin Man, who is a humanoid consisting of tyres.
Michelin's numerous inventions include the removable tyre, the pneumatic tyre for automobiles, the asymmetric tyre, the run-flat tyre, the green tyre, the pneurail and the radial tyre. Michelin manufactures tyres for Space Shuttles, aircraft, automobiles, heavy equipment, motorcycles, and bicycles.
The company has been the world's largest tyre manufacturer by annual revenue since 2021. In 2012, the group produced 166 million tyres at 69 facilities, located in 18 countries.
History
In 1889, two brothers, Édouard Michelin and André Michelin, ran a farm implement business founded in 1832 called Barbier-Daubrée in Clermont-Ferrand, France. One day a cyclist whose pneumatic tyre needed repair turned up at the factory. The tyre was glued to the rim, and it took over three hours to remove and repair the tyre, which then needed to be left overnight to dry.The next day, Édouard Michelin took the repaired bicycle into the factory yard to test. After only a few hundred metres, the tyre failed. Despite the setback, Édouard was enthusiastic about the pneumatic tyre, and he and his brother worked on creating their own version, one that did not need to be glued to the rim. Michelin was reincorporated on 28 May 1889. In 1891 Michelin took out its first patent for a removable pneumatic tyre which was used by Charles Terront to win the world's first long-distance cycle race, the 1891 Paris–Brest–Paris.Four years later, Michelin created the world's first pneumatic tyres for automobiles, using them in a car called L'Eclair competing in the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Michelin operated large rubber plantations in Vietnam. Conditions at these plantations led to the famous labour movement Phú Riềng Đỏ.
File:Indochine française.jpg|thumb|left|240px|Michelin's domination of the supply of rubber in French Indochina led to the Phú Riềng Đỏ strike in 1930. This resulted in France investigating Michelin's treatment of workers on its rubber plantations.
In 1934, Michelin introduced a tyre which, if punctured, would run on a special foam lining, a design now known as a run-flat tyre.
Michelin developed and patented a key innovation in tyre history, the 1946 radial tyre, and successfully exploited this technological innovation to become one of the world's leading tyre manufacturers. The radial was initially marketed as the "X" tyre. It was developed with the front-wheel-drive Citroën Traction Avant and Citroën 2CV in mind.
Michelin had bought the then-bankrupt Citroën in the 1930s. Because of its superiority in handling and fuel economy, use of this tyre quickly spread throughout Europe and Asia. In the U.S., the outdated bias-ply tyre persisted, with a market share of 87% in 1967. Michelin also introduced the XAS, the world's first asymmetric tyre, in 1964.
In 1966, Michelin partnered with Sears to produce radial tyres under the Allstate brand and was selling 1 million units annually by 1970.
In 1968, Michelin opened its first North American sales office, and was able to grow that market for its products rapidly; by 1989 the company had a 10% market share for OEM tyres purchased by American automobile makers.
Also in 1968, Consumer Reports, an influential American magazine, acknowledged the superiority of the radial construction, setting off a rapid decline in Michelin's competitor technology. In the U.S., the radial tyre now has a market share of 100%.
In addition to the private label and replacement tyre market, Michelin scored an early OEM tyre win in North America, when it received the contract for the 1970 Continental Mark III, the first American car with radial tyres fitted as standard.
In 1989, Michelin acquired the recently merged tyre and rubber manufacturing divisions of the American firms B.F. Goodrich Company and Uniroyal, Inc. from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. Uniroyal Australia had already been bought by Bridgestone in 1980. This purchase included the Norwood, North Carolina manufacturing plant which supplied tyres to the U.S. Space Shuttle Program.
Also in 1989, Michelin created Michelin Okamoto Tire Corporation, a joint venture with Japanese rubber/condom manufacturer Okamoto Industries, who already owned the Riken brand. In Japan, MOTC marketed Michelin, BFGoodrich, and Riken, which Michelin still markets today as a budget performance tyre brand.
In 1994, Michelin Okamoto launched the Green X line of fuel-saving tyres, a line of studless winter tyres: the Maxi-Glace, W-Edge, and the Maxi Ice, as well as a high performance tire, the GTX Virage, which was also marketed as the MXF Sport in some countries. The joint venture was later terminated in 2000, with Michelin buying all of Okamoto's shares.
In 1992, Michelin unveiled the green tyre, a tyre featuring Green X technology, advertised as saving fuel, lowering rolling resistance, and reducing emissions, in that year's Paris Motor Show with the MXN, a variant of their MXT tyre.
The green tyres was launched to the public released in 1994, marketed as the Energy in Europe and the rest of the world, and as the Green X in Japan. In Europe, the Energy launched with the Energy MXT, a fuel-saving version of their regular MXT tyre and the Energy MXV3-A for luxury cars. In 1997, the Energy MXV4, an asymmetric luxury performance tyre, was added to the lineup.
In Japan, the Green X line began with the MXGS in 1994. The line later consisted of the MXGS, MXT Green, MXV3-A Green, MXV4 Green, MXE Green, and the MXK Green. In the early 2000s, the series was unified globally as the Energy, and is still sold today as the Energy Saver line.
As of 1 September 2008, Michelin is again the world's largest tyre manufacturer after spending two years as number two behind Bridgestone. Michelin produces tyres in France, Serbia, Poland, Spain, Germany, the US, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, Japan, India, Italy and several other countries.
On 15 January 2010, Michelin announced the closing of its Ota, Japan plant, which employs 380 workers and makes the Michelin X-Ice tyre. Production of the X-Ice will be moved to Europe, North America, and elsewhere in Asia. In 2019, Michelin announced that plants in Germany and France are to be closed soon.
Michelin also controls 90% of Taurus Tyre in Hungary, as well as Kormoran, a Polish brand.
In December 2018, Michelin acquired Camso, a manufacturer of off-the-road tyres, tracks, and accessories for power sports, agriculture, material handling and construction markets.
On 22 January 2019, it was announced that Michelin had acquired Indonesian manufacturer Multistrada Arah Sarana, which produces Achilles Radial and Corsa tyres. On 19 June that year, Michelin owns 99.64% of the share capital of Multistrada.
Motorsport
MotoGP
Michelin participated in MotoGP from 1972 to 2008. They introduced radial construction to MotoGP in 1984, and multi-compound tyres in 1994. They achieved 360 victories in 36 years, and from 1993 to 2006, the world championship had gone to a rider on Michelins.In 2007, Casey Stoner on Bridgestone tyres won the world championship in dominating fashion, and Valentino Rossi and other top riders complained that Michelins were inferior. Rossi wanted Bridgestones for the 2008 season, but Bridgestone was reluctant to provide them; Dorna threatened to impose a control tyre on the series, after which Bridgestone relented.
In 2008, Michelin committed errors of judgment in allocating adequate tyres for some of the race weekends. Dani Pedrosa's team switched to Bridgestones in mid-season, a highly unusual move that caused friction between Honda Racing Corporation and their sponsor Repsol YPF. Other riders also expressed concerns and it seemed that Michelin might not have any factory riders for the 2009 season, leading to rumours that Michelin would withdraw from the series altogether.
Dorna and the FIM announced that a control tyre would be imposed on MotoGP for the 2009 season and Michelin did not enter a bid, effectively ending its participation in the series at the end of 2008.
Michelin returned to MotoGP in 2016 as the official tyre supplier after Bridgestone's withdrawal from the series at the end of 2015.
Formula One
Michelin first competed in the 1977 Formula One season, when Renault started the development of their turbocharged F1 car. Michelin introduced radial tyre technology to Formula One and won the Formula One Drivers' Championship with Brabham and McLaren, before withdrawing at the end of 1984.The company returned to Formula One in 2001, supplying the Williams, Jaguar, Benetton, Prost and Minardi teams. Toyota joined F1 in 2002 with Michelin tyres, and McLaren also signed up with the company. Michelin Tyres were initially uncompetitive but by the 2005 season were dominant.
This was partly because the new regulations stated that tyres must last the whole race distance, and partly because only one top team was running Bridgestones, and so had to do much of the development work. Michelin in contrast had much more testing and race data provided by the larger number of teams running their tyres.
Following the debacle of the 2005 United States Grand Prix where, because of safety concerns, Michelin would not allow the teams it supplied to race, Michelin's share price fell by 2.5%. On 28 June, Michelin announced that it would offer compensation to all race fans who had bought tickets for the Grand Prix. The company committed to refunding the price of all tickets for the race. Additionally, it announced that it would provide 20,000 complimentary tickets for the 2006 race to spectators who had attended the 2005 event.
Michelin has had a difficult relationship with the sport's governing body since around 2003 and this escalated to apparent disdain between the two parties during the 2005 season. The most high-profile disagreement was at the United States Grand Prix and the acrimony afterwards. Michelin criticised the FIA's intention to move to a single source tyre from 2008 and threatened to withdraw from the sport.
In a public rebuke, FIA President Max Mosley wrote: "There are simple arguments for a single tyre, and if is not aware of this, he shows an almost comical lack of knowledge of modern Formula One." Another bone of contention has been the reintroduction of tyre changes during pit-stops from 2006. Michelin criticised the move claiming "this event illustrates F1's problems of incoherent decision-making and lack of transparency".
In December 2005, and as a result of the difficult relationship with the sport's governing body, Michelin announced that it would not extend its involvement in Formula One beyond the 2006 season. Bridgestone was then the sole supplier of tyres to Formula One until the end of the 2010 season, with Pirelli providing tyres for 2011.
The last race won on Michelin tyres in Formula One was the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso benefitted after the Ferrari engine of Michael Schumacher failed during the race. This gave Michelin a second consecutive Constructors' Championship win, with the 2005 and 2006, after Bridgestone's seven-year winning streak, and brought to a total of four the number of titles for Michelin since this championship's inception back in the 1958 Formula One season; Michelin's other titles were in the 1979, and 1984 seasons.