Tyre Wars: An overview of the wholesale tyre conflict

The tyre trade has been buying and selling tyres for over 100 years. One might have imagined that it would have settled on a profitable, manageable and structured method of distributing car tyres from manufacturer or importer to retailer by now. However, it hasn’t and one suspects it never will.

Way back in the mists of time life was simpler. The tyre manufacturers supplied their tyres to the vehicle manufacturers and tyres were supplied at the local garages. The number of brands available was limited and people tended to buy what they wanted at the garage displaying their brand’s logo.

In the 1960’s tyre manufacturers would have supply arrangements with local dealers who would agree to take their brand of tyres and then redistribute to local tyre fitters, all at fixed retail prices of course. Then the manufacturers decided that they could deliver, and they cut out the local dealer, they set up their own logistics operations and offered to deliver tyres to anyone who would buy them. The result was chaos.

In the meantime, the network of local tyre wholesalers in the UK was developing. The manufacturers realised that they could not survive delivering just their own brands so they delved into the market with their own tyre wholesale operations.

At the same time there had been the development of a number of regional tyre wholesalers. Of which Stapleton’s had become a national player.The co-operation of strong regional wholesalers across the UK culminated in the establishment of Group Tyre.

Whilst Stapleton’s and Group Tyre dug in for a long war a third player entered the fray. Hampshire-based Micheldever, the sleeping giant, decided to make some moves to expand out of its Southern base. It first bought Southam Tyres, then opened a warehouse at Chepstow, and now Halifax with rumours of interests in the North East being rife. Battle was joined.

To listen to the larger operators it would be fair to presume that no independent had any involvement in the fleet market or the franchised dealer sector. However the independent trader is well aware of the situation and whilst some may be content to work on ever diminishing markets, others may be taking another view of the situation.