Canadian Tire outlines plans for growth and productivity

Toronto, Ontario - Canadian Tire Corporation has outlined its plans to build a "bigger and better" company through a continued focus on growth and productivity. The update was provided by the company's management team during an investor conference, outlining the company's strategic direction for the 2008-2012 period. The company says it expects to introduce a total of between 60 and 70 new retail outlets annually across Canadian Tire Retail, Mark's Work Wearhouse, PartSource and Canadian Tire Petroleum. It is piloting a full-size Mark's store inside Canadian Tire stores as a specialty department in stores in Waterdown, Ontario and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia expected to open this fall. In 2008, it plans to test a new infill retailing concept featuring a product assortment tailored to the local market, a Mark's in every store, and retail footage of 18,000 to 20,000 square feet.
The company also plans to expand category assortments, new technology infrastructure and a network of approximately 22 PartSource hub stores across Canada to supply parts on a same-day basis for up to 80 per cent of Canadian Tire stores; to expand the assortment of Mark's women's apparel; and to continue to expand Canadian Tire Financial Services' portfolio of services, including new credit cards, balance transfers and credit line expansion.

September auto sales "respectable" but not great, analyst says

Richmond Hill, Ontario - Canadian new car sales enjoyed a "respectable month but not a great month," says industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers, noting that sales were down 2.9 per cent over last year, and that sales were higher four times in the last eight years. "The economy was still very strong in September and prices were coming down with the strong dollar and the huge incentive dollars in play, so there must be other things at work," DesRosiers says. DesRosiers suggests that a weakness in the U.S. dollar, with customer perception that prices are too high, may be to blame, but says "With this story blasted from one end of the media to the other, I'm sure some consumers just sat on their hands. This is how markets work and why I'm not concerned about the price differentials."

Toyota Adds Cheaper Tundras

Toyota Motor Corp. will add 13 more versions of its full-size Tundra pickup, including lower-priced models with fewer features, as Japan's largest automaker targets a bigger share of U.S. truck sales. Changes for the 2008 model year include "Tundra Grade" DoubleCab and CrewMax trucks for $1,400 and $1,990 less than the cheapest 2007 versions, Toyota said Tuesday. They are aimed at buyers who need a basic work vehicle, said Irv Miller, vice president for U.S. communications. "We want to have the opportunity to deepen our market, to attract more on the work side, the lower end, people that didn't need some of the equipment that had been standard," Miller said... Toyota is seeking a 60 percent boost in 2007 sales of full-size pickups, a segment dominated by Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC. The new Tundra, which debuted in February, offers size and engine power that matches or beats U.S. rivals' for the first time. It also cost more. Tundra sales are up 58 percent this year through September to a record 144,480. The 2008 trucks go on sale this month.

Electronic fuel injection turns 40 this year

Broadview, Illinois - Electronic fuel injection turns 40 this year, as Bosch notes that Robert Bosch LLC invented the first electronically-controlled fuel injection system and used it for the first time on a Volkswagen in 1967. "Every driver of a modern automobile today enjoys the results of the wealth of experience gained in four decades of the development of electronic gasoline injection systems as we see today," says Warren Suter, Director, Engine Management Systems for Bosch. "The key benefit of the original system and its successors has been to reduce fuel consumption and emissions while improving gasoline engine performance and vehicle drivability."
The company says that its original Jetronic fuel injection system progressed through the K-Jetronic, Mono-Jetronic and Motronic, each of which used more electronic and less mechanical control.