Bandag Loses Biggest Fleet Contract to Goodyear

Eurofleet, Bandag’s pan-European fleet service, has lost its largest contract to Goodyear, according to informed sources. The news is a severe blow for the company as the account in question, a full service tyre contract with GE-TIP (General Electric Equipment Services – Transport International Pool), covered roughly 35,000 vehicles and accounted for 50 per cent of Eurofleet’s revenue.

Now that Goodyear has taken over the contract, Tyres & Accessories has learnt that the company will mostly supply its retreaded products to all 69,000 of GE-TIP’s trailers. During the course of the new three-year deal Goodyear is expected to supply 40,000 new and retreaded tyres through its Truck Force network every year. While the majority of these will be hot-cure products, the company will also provide Goodyear and Dunlop new tyres as OE to the fleet’s new trailer purchases.

Bandag representatives are playing down the situation, explaining that while the company was indeed outbid when the contract came up for renewal at the end of February, it has already replaced a fair proportion of the business. Bandag marketing director, Danny Van Essche, told T&A that of the 50 per cent of turnover lost, 20 points have already been regained from expanding business with existing customers.

The loss of the Eurofleets’s largest customer has resulted in the company’s decision to “reposition” its business. From now on the company says it will focus on its key markets (the UK, Germany and the Benelux countries) and on serving smaller customers rather than large fleets like GE-TIP. In total GE-TIP’s total fleet is comprised of some 69,000 vehicles in 20 European countries.