LOCAL BUSINESS
New ads for Goodyear
Goodyear is debuting a new North American advertising campaign with the televising on Sunday of the Daytona 500 auto race, NASCAR’s biggest event watched by about 20 million viewers.
The iconic Goodyear blimp will be prominently featured in what the Akron tire maker calls animated “blimp pops” during the broadcast and deliver Goodyear’s “More Driven” message.
The initial TV commercial is called “Most Demanding Customer,” and showcases NASCAR and its drivers as a proving ground for Goodyear’s tire innovation, the company said.
Goodyear also is using radio and print advertising and a digital campaign.
The marketing program was developed by Goodyear and agency GSD&M Idea City of Austin, Texas, and digital agency Digitas of Boston.
“In our new advertising, we continue to showcase that what we learn making tires for expert drivers who face grueling conditions, such as NASCAR, inspires what we roll into consumer tires,” Gary Melliere, general manager, Goodyear Brand/Sponsorships, said in a statement.
AUTO INDUSTRY
GM grows in South Korea
General Motors Co. announced plans to invest $7.3 billion over five years to expand in South Korea, saying the market remains important to the company. The GM Korea unit will boost manufacturing facilities and double the size of its design center this year making it the company’s third-largest after the U.S. and Brazil, the Detroit-based automaker said.
Zetsche stays at Daimler
Daimler AG, the world’s third-biggest maker of luxury cars, extended Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche’s contract for three years to pursue his efforts for the company to regain the top industry spot.
Zetsche, 59, vowed 1½ years ago to return the Mercedes brand to its No. 1 rank among luxury carmakers. Since then, the division has fallen further behind Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Volkswagen AG’s Audi unit in global sales. BMW overtook Mercedes as the world’s biggest luxury-car brand in 2005. Audi, building on a presence in China, has been in second place since 2011. Daimler is extending Zetsche’s contract until the end of 2016.
The CEO has outlined plans to roll out 13 new vehicles without predecessor models over the next eight years and to fix a disjointed sales strategy in China.
As the European car market heads into a sixth consecutive annual decline, Daimler is forecasting that earnings before interest and taxes from ongoing business will remain unchanged from last year, when operating profit dropped 10 percent to $10.7 billion.
FOOD
Meat prices going up?
A drop in cattle supplies and improved poultry and pork demand will boost meat prices this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Beef production will drop 3 percent to 25.1 billion pounds on reduced supplies of slaughter-ready cattle, according to Shayle Shagam, a USDA livestock economist. The domestic cattle herd shrank for a sixth straight year in 2012, and the beef-cow herd on Jan. 1 was the lowest since 1962. U.S. beef imports will rise 16 percent, he said. The average steer price will rise to $1.295 a pound in 2013 from a record $1.2286 last year.
“The estimated retail beef price will rise slightly above the record $5.02 a pound in 2012,” Shagam said at the agency’s annual agricultural forum in Arlington, Va. “Improved economic growth and reduced U.S. cow slaughter will support increased imports” of hamburger meat, he said.
The worst drought since the 1930s damaged grain crops and pastures, boosting feed costs and forcing ranchers to shrink herds. Since Chicago cattle futures reached a record in January, prices are down 4.9 percent. Also, U.S. chicken prices will rise 9.7 percent this year, leading a projected average 3.5 percent gain in consumer-food prices in 2013, according to Joseph Glauber, the chief economist at the Department of Agriculture. Milk prices will rise 4 percent to $19.25 for 100 pounds, up from $18.51 in 2012, he said.
INVESTING
Cooper sets dividend
Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. announced a quarterly dividend of 10.5 cents, payable March 29 to shareholder of record March 6.
BUILDING MATERIALS
Saint-Gobain sees cuts
Cie. de Saint-Gobain SA, Europe’s biggest supplier of building materials with Northeast Ohio operations, said it will step up cost cuts this year after 2012 earnings missed analysts’ estimates amid Europe’s economic woes. The company will slash costs by $774 million in 2013, it said.
Compiled from staff and wire reports