The transformation that has taken place in recent years in how we receive and absorb news and opinions in all areas of the media has resulted in an exponential growth in the importance of so-called “Influencers”. This can be especially prevalent in areas of specialist interest, such as the agricultural sector.
Alliance Brand Ambassadors Visit India
This was demonstrated recently at a specialist press event held from 10-14 February in India by Yokohama-ATG, the manufacturers of the Alliance, Galaxy and Primex brands of tyre, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Alliance brand’s presence in the agricultural tyre sector. Key invitees included agricultural influencers from the main European markets, i.e. UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain as well as Commercial Tyre Business.
The event, which took place at various locations in India, was unlike the usual kind of press conference we are invited to, in that its aim was not to launch a new product or to make a significant corporate announcement. Instead, the aim was partly to familiarise key influencers from the agricultural sector with Yokohama-ATG as a company, to immerse them in the corporate culture, and to show the level of sophistication and technology that is present at Yokohama-ATG’s agricultural tyre facility in Vizag, but also to encourage the influencers to talk about topical farming and tyre-related issues, both with each other and with locals.
Forever Forests
One of the key messages that Yokohama-ATG wanted to get across to its guests was the company’s commitment to sustainability. Indeed, the company says it aims to achieve a 38% reduction on its 2013 CO2 emission levels by 2030 and to reach Net Zero by 2050. It also aims to achieve at least 30% renewable raw material usage by 2030 and 100% sustainable raw materials by 2050.
A vital part of this commitment is embodied in the company’s Forever Forests programme, which began in 2007 as an initial project to plant 500,000 saplings at Yokohama production and sales sites in Japan and overseas by 2017 – The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.’s 100th anniversary. The project utilises the Miyawaki method of tree planting, which involves planting species local to a given area, a technique which encourages rapid reforestation and greater biodiversity.
Today, this programme continues with a new goal to plant 1.3 million trees by 2030, including saplings to be provided to others for planting. In India the project includes regular tree plantation across the company’s three plants in Vizag, Tirunelveli and Dahej as well as the support of the Mission Mangrove Project in Mumbai by undertaking an awareness and plantation drive involving the planting of 3700 mangrove saplings at the Thane Creek Nature Reserve near Mumbai.
For Yokohama-ATG’s guests, involvement in the Forever Forests programme meant taking part in a tree planting ceremony at the Vizag plant. Indeed, the project stipulates that every visitor to the facility plants at least one tree. To date some 250,000 trees have already planted at the factory helping to absorb as much as 8,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum.
State-of-the Art Technology
The second area of focus for Yokohama-ATG during the event was to demonstrate the high level of technology on display at the Vizag factory. It is only three years since the first tyres rolled off the production lines in Vizag, so it’s a new plant with state-of-the-art infrastructure and machines. The factory makes pneumatic radial and bias tyres for agriculture and industrial applications as well as bias tyres for OTR and forestry applications.
Investments in terms of plant and machinery include a modern carbon in-take system with complete auto controls, which saves space and reduces environmental impact, a robotic paint booth for green tyres, an advanced raw materials and IN-Process material testing lab, multiple investments in conveyor systems to optimise product flow around the plant and an ongoing investment in a tyre testing centre for PCR tyres.
High level tyre manufacturing technology is not the only investment though, and indeed significant additional investment is being ploughed into areas which fulfil the goal of increased sustainability in the widest sense. There is significant investment in sustainable energy, of course, including solar panels. However, the company has also invested in its employees by improving safety around the plant by introducing pedestrian pathways, a safety oath and regular behaviour-based safety audits.
The company also holds regular employee meetings and has a programme to increase the number of female employees in the plant. Gerrit Vinkers, Yokohama-ATG’s Field Service Manager, Europe, explains the thinking behind this:
“The tyre industry is more male dominated, and the role we set ourselves was to have a more 50/50 participation, both male and female. The effort that we are taking in the factory is to make sure that everybody can work there, so when employees come into the company, they are trained, depending on the job, for up to half a year, and all tooling and machinery is made for the purpose that manual labour is as low as possible.
“If you look what we do for the community outside, such as schooling, medical aid, small schools, which are being supported by us, you can see it’s not only the factory that we support, it’s the whole community around it.
“For us it’s all about sustainability. If you look at what we do, at what kind of effort we’re taking, to become carbon neutral in 2050, and the way that we are giving a timeline and showing the goals that we are achieving, we are ahead of our set goals.”
Influencer Discussions
The event in India was not just about demonstrating the high level of technology at Vizag and Yokohama-ATG’s sustainability credentials, it was about engaging the influencers in discussions about farming both with Yokohama-ATG technicians and with local farmers.
Central to this was a Farm Day held on a farm near Panipat, 90 km north of Delhi, which included at a guided farm tour and interactive discussions led by Commercial Tyre Business’s own Richard Wilson, who asked a variety of questions relating specifically to the visit to India, but also about farming in general.
In particular, though, we wanted to hear from the influencers, none of whom had visited a tyre factory before, whether there was anything on the trip that surprised them and how the trip to the plant had impacted on their view of Yokohama-ATG and the tyres they are using.
Well-known British influencer Olly Harrison, who recently hosted a field day for Alliance at his farm near Liverpool, expressed his surprise at finding out in detail about how tyres are manufactured.
“You think of tyres as being put in a mould, and you just pour it in, and you get a tyre. When you see the cross sections, of the treads, and all the wires, and the beads, it’s amazing really, what goes into it. They are manufactured, not just cast.”
Stefan Vogelsang, a German influencer, echoed this and added: “I was surprised at how so much works automatically in the factory, and at how far developed it is.”
Martin Williams, also from the UK commented: “I was amazed by the progressive nature of it, the technology and the attention to detail. You wouldn’t believe unless you’d seen it, how advanced it is. I also can’t believe that we went to a factory making tyres that is net zero and that another plant in the group is powered by solar power.”
One of the things that those of us in the tyre specialist media often talk about, is the fact that the tyre industry has historically failed to get across to the end-user the true value of its products, because those media outlets that ultimately communicate with the end-user do not themselves usually understand the true value either. The growth of social media and the role of influencers has, in theory, made it easier for communicators to connect directly with the market. It will be interesting to see how this group of influencers reports on their experience with Yokohama-ATG to their respective audiences.
The official video of the event can be viewed here:
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Editor’s Note:
The Alliance Tire Company was originally established in 1950 in Israel when it produced tyres for passenger vehicles. It first became involved in the agricultural sector in the mid-1950s when it started fitting highly inflated truck tyres to agricultural trailers, followed by the commencement of the manufacture of bias tractor tyres. During the 1990s and early 2000s the company developed a variety of technologies, starting with bias flotation tyres and high-speed row crop tyres and followed by radial flotation tyres and the innovative Dual Master All Steel Radial tyre for wheeled excavators.
In 2007, the Mahansaria family, in partnership with Warburg Pincus acquired Alliance Tire Company from its Israeli owners and commenced the construction of a manufacturing facility in india. Following an investment of $200 million towards capacity expansion in 2014, ATG was completely acquired by the Yokohama Rubber Company in 2016.
Since then, the company has invested in the opening of the Vizag facility in 2020, plus the development of further innovative technologies including the development of the world’s first VF Flotation tyre as well as the development of Elit technology for forestry tyres and Stratified Layer Technology for agricultural tyres.
