Sustainability Channel

Swiss motorists prefer Pirelli – P lunga is the year’s best tyre brand for the fourth consecutive year according to ‘Auto Illustrierte’ readers

For the fourth consecutive year, Pirelli has won the ‘Best Tuning Cars & Best Brands 2009’,  the contest most liked by the readers of ‘Auto Illustrierte’ (AI), the prestigious independent Swiss motoring magazine. In a survey involving over 2,000 readers, Pirelli was declared the best tyre brand of 2009.

The ‘Best Brand’ contest has by now become an important institution of AI magazine, especially for tuning enthusiasts. Dieter Jermann, Director Swiss Market, Pirelli Tyre (Europe) SA, personally received the ‘Best Brand Award 2009’ during the l’Auto Zürich Car Show, the most important and most visited car fair in German Switzerland, which took place in the city from 5-8 November.

Pirelli Tyre receives the Innovation Award in the "Day of Research"

Rome, 6 November – On the occasion of the VII Giornata della Ricerca (VII Day of Research), an awards ceremony took place for the 2009 Premio Imprese x Innovazione  (2009 Award for Business Innovations) won last June by Pirelli Tyre, together with Datalogic and Whirlpool Europe, in the ‘large corporations’ category “for the major contribution of innovation to business results, achieved through the integration of concepts and instruments of innovation into the daily activities of personnel at all levels of the organisation”.

The awards scheme, launched by Confindustria (the Confederation of Italian Industry) in collaboration with APQI – Associazione Premio Qualità Italia (the Quality Award Association of Italy) and a number of experts of the sector, has as its objective to make known and diffuse organisational and strategic models oriented toward growth through innovation.

The Premio was received on behalf of Pirelli Tyre by Maurizio Boiocchi, head of the company’s Product Development. The ceremony was attended by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano, the president of Confindustria Emma Marcegaglia, the vice-president for Research&Innovation Diana Bracco and Mariastella Gelmini, Minister of Education, as a testimony to the authorititativeness of this initiative, now in its third year.

To know more and to listen to the interview to M. Boiocchi (available in Italian only):

http://www.confindustriaixi.it

CHINA, ANTIPARTICULATE FILTERS GROW

• with the the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China in the presence of the Italian Minister, Stefania Prestigiacomo, Chinese authorities, and the Chairman of the Pirelli Group, Marco Tronchetti Provera. The agreement foresees collaboration among the three parties in development of projects for distribution of filter systems for reduction of particulate emissions from diesel vehicles already in circulation (‘retrofit’) and introduction of technologies and advanced products, as the Pirelli products have been shown to be following tests and pilot projects already completed. Part of the environmental cooperation program launched by the two ministries in 2000, the agreement  focuses on the five provinces recently singled out by the Chinese government for adoption of measures to limit circulation of polluting vehicles, among which Shandong (the location of the Pirelli plant).

   

• between the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, the Municipality of Beijing and Pirelli Eco Technology to support installation of filters on polluting vehicles circulating in Beijing, is part of this commitment. The agreement follows the completion of a pilot project launched in 2008, which brought homologation of the filters produced by the Pirelli Group, thanks to their particular technological characteristics. The city of Beijing has already ordered a significant quantity of  Pirelli Eco Technology filter systems which will be fitted on buses in the capital city.

   

•  with Hixih Group (previously the Yinhe Group), already a partner of Pirelli since 2005 in tyre manufacturing, to build a plant for manufacturing of filters in Yanzhou, in the province of Shandong.

   

The new factory, whose construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of  2010, will be located in the same area where the manufacturing sites developed by the two partners for production of truck and car tyres were built, and will thus create a diversified industrial hub able to profit from synergies in manufacturing and distribution of the two products. The investment, already included in the 2009-2011 industrial plan, will take into account the evolution of the market and could reach 50 million euros in three years, with manufacturing capacity of around 100,000 filters per year and approximately 1200 employees. The industrial site currently uses advanced manufacturing technology and represents a manufacturing, logistics and commercial hub for the entire Asia-Pacific region for the Pirelli Group. Today about 60% of Pirelli’s overall production in China is for the local market, while the remaining 40% is exported to other Asia-Pacific markets.