Michelin is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone. In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal (in North America) tyre brands. Most companies identify the new Michelin Energy tyre, introduced in the early 1980s. It 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.
Among Michelin's numerous inventions, there is the removable tyre, the « pneurail » (a tyre for trains made to run on rails) and the radial tyre technology now used in modern "green tyres" that reduce fuel consumption.
Two brothers, Édouard and André Michelin, ran a rubber factory 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 incorporated on 28 May 1888. In 1891, it 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.
Michelin has made a number of innovations to tyres, including in 1946 the radial tyre (then known 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. As of August 2008, this tyre is still available for the 2CV. In 1934, Michelin introduced a tyre, which if punctured, would run on a special foam lining, now known as a run-flat tyre (self-supporting type).
In the 1920s and 1930s, Michelin operated large rubber plantations in Vietnam. The Vietnamese workers were exploited pitilessly and brutally, which led to the famous labour movement Phu Rieng Do.
" French Indochina - The French community of about 40000 lived in the European quarters, - for the mass of the population the reality was forced labour - working to produce the colony's exports of rice, tin, tea, and above all - rubber - the source of the fortune of the Michelin company."
In 1988, Michelin acquired the tyre and rubber manufacturing divisions of the American B.F. Goodrich Company founded in 1870. This included the Norwood, North Carolina manufacturing plant which supplied tyres to the U.S. Space Shuttle Program. Two years later, it bought Uniroyal, Inc., founded in 1892 as the United States Rubber Company. Uniroyal Australia had already been bought by Bridgestone in 1980.
Michelin also controls 90% of Taurus Tire in Hungary, as well as Kormoran, a Polish brand.
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, Spain, Germany, the USA, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, Japan, 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.
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's tyres continued to be perceived as being inferior to Bridgestone's[citation needed], and Michelin committed errors of judgment in allocating adequate tyres for some of the race weekends. Dani Pedrosa's team switched to Bridgestones in the midst of the 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.
References
^ Annual Results 2010". Michelin. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
^ Cronin Fisk, Margaret; O’Reilly, Cary (10 September 2009). "Michelin Loses $12 Million Verdict in Suit Over Crash". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
^ Chapelcornertyres.com
^ Travaux de la commission des finances
^ Solheim, B: The Vietnam War Era: A Personal Journey, page 11, Praeger Publishers, 2006. (See Google Books.)
^ Julian Jackson, BBC Radio Three, The Other Empire, episode 4/5 first broadcast 15 September 2011
^ Karen Barber,"Goodrich Expects to Sell Norwood Plant to Michelin," The Charlotte Observer, October 12, 1988.
^ "Michelin North America has been the sole tire supplier for the space shuttle program from the first launch in 1981". Greenville News. 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
^ Autoindustriya.com
^ Michelin.com
^ "A Fond Farewell". Michelin.com. 2008-10-26. Retrieved 2009-09-03.
