Continental and Goodyear Share Warehousing: Update

Following the announcement that Christian Salvesen would take on warehousing and distribution deals with two of the UK’s leading tyre companies, Tyres & Accessories took the opportunity to speak to Continental’s supply chain manager, Stuart Jackson, and asked what the company had to gain from working with a competing manufacturer.

There are a number of significant customer benefits arising from the company’s decision to transfer its logistics to Christian Salvesen. The deal (announced in February’s T&A) will see the German-based manufacturer cooperate in a three-way arrangement with Goodyear Dunlop and Christian Salvesen operating out of Goodyear’s Erdington warehouse.

“Currently retailers – think of your average ATS Euromaster, National Tyres and Autocare or Kwik-Fit – are receiving up to 10 deliveries per day. As the drops it takes are relatively small (averaging three to four tyres at a time), this means there is a lot of disruption,” Stuart Jackson explained. The deal is designed to make the whole business of receiving stock a manageable operation.

In short benefits are said to include: less disruption for customers; less of the associated administration; more transport flexibility; and “significant” IT opportunities, including vehicle tracking, ePod and web order tracking to point of delivery.

But isn’t there a conflict of interests in working with such an influential competing manufacturer? “We don’t think so, the Birmingham site is just more state-of-the-art than the Rugby site, and technology moves quickly in this business,” said Jackson adding that deal meant. Christian Salvesen will take over the running of what was previously Continental’s Rugby warehouse, and is expected to do so quickly.

Without wanting to sound too cynical, T&A asked whether the arrangement would see Christian Salvesen receive a good deal on its fleet tyres. “I’m sure reciprocal business may be forthcoming, but that is all the subject of negotiation at the moment,” Stuart Jackson concluded.