Continental AG earns official soccer sponsorship

Continental AG, parent company of Continental Tire North America, Inc., has been named an Official Tire Sponsor of the 2010 FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) World Cup games in South Africa.

"This sponsorship agreement continues a strategy we have been following since 1995 for our premium Continental brand, and continues our focus on soccer as a platform for increasing brand awareness in our core markets," explains Dr. Alan Hippe, president of CTNA's Passenger and Light Truck Tire division. "This sponsorship will elevate Continental into the top three premium replacement tire brands in Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia and South America, and it will get us there more rapidly than would be possible with traditional advertising."

Hippe added that the 2006 FIFA World Cup attracted a total of more than 26 billion live TV viewers and also reached record levels on its official Web site with more than four billion page views.

South Africa is a natural target for sponsorship, Hippe says, noting that Continental holds the leading market position in that country's replacement sector with a market share of more than 20 percent of tires that are produced locally. The company operates a passenger and light truck tire manufacturing facility in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, which employs 1,600. That plant produced and sold some 2.6 million OEM and replacement tires in 2007. Continental also runs a factory for MPV tires, also in Port Elizabeth, which meets demand south of the Sahara, as well as in other countries hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup(TM).

As part of the agreement, Continental also has an option to extend its sponsorship until the 2014 FIFA World Cup(TM) in Brazil.