Selling Even More Tyres Now

With more than three decades of experience in the UK, We Sell Tyres managing director, Alan Jackson, has great experience of the inner workings of the tyre business. He started his career with ATS in the early 70’S at a time when the chain was a collection of regional companies. This provided him with an excellent opportunity to cut his teeth by selling to garages and haulage companies. This experience and the subsequent transformation of ATS into ATS Euromaster was to be a turning point for Alan Jackson who, via WS Tyremasters and a stint at Stapleton’s, recently opened a new We Sell Tyres warehouse in Nottingham – the latest part in what is arguable his most challenging business venture to date.

We Sell Tyres (Wholesale)’s new Nottingham operation will be the company’s flagship site along with its Norwich branch, which relocated to larger premises in April 2006. The company continues to run additional operations in Corby and Worksop. As an important member of Group Tyre, We Sell Tyre continues to develop sales of all premium and mid-sector brands, not to mention exclusive brands Marangoni, Federal and Maxxis.

Tyres & Accessories caught up with Alan Jackson shortly after the opening and asked what has taken the regional wholesaler from baseline to a near £20 million business in less than 10 years.

Describing himself as having more love for the simplicities of wholesaling over the technicalities of retailing, Alan Jackson explained that the formation of We Sell Tyres pre-dates the company’s existence.

As mentioned above Jackson’s initial tyre industry roles came at ATS where started as a representative and progressed to branch manager before moving to the wholesale arm, WS Tyremasters in 1990.
Although now firmly part of the Tanvic Group, We Sell Tyres are also members of Group Tyres (UK) Ltd. WST is very much a ‘stand alone’ operation and as Alan Jackson says: “We intend to prosper from our own sales and logistics achievements.

According to Jackson the steps that led up to where he is today started off (in 1990) with a small warehouse in Swaffham Norfolk. At this time Jackson was responsible for the East Anglian operation of West & Sellick/WS Tyremasters several years later in 2001 he eventually attained the position of general manager at the WST head office in Watford.

Recognising and capitalising on the niche-market that the Norfolk region offered was key to Jackson’s success at this stage. (It is worth mentioning that at this time the influence of wholesale and broker business was particularly strong. These businesses flourished because, in the nineties at least, the manufacturers own distribution networks were regarded as relatively weak.)

Eventually WS Tyremasters took over a 25,000 square foot build in Dereham. Shortly afterwards (in 2002) WS Tyremasters was sold to Stapleton’s. The next big step in March 2003 saw the Tanvic Group, support the opening of the Norwich branch of We Sell Tyres. Tanvic already operated the TS wholesale company in Newark WST branches followed in Corby and Worksop in the process. The Newark operation re-branded itself as WST. The Tanvic Group also operates its own retail sites within the east Midlands and currently have seven branches. Jackson undoubtedly acknowledges the role played by the Tanvic Group: “If it wasn’t for their vision WST wouldn’t be in existence. It’s virtually unknown for a wholesale business to start from scratch and be where WST are today.”

Success at this stage is said to be largely down to Group Tyre with the group ethic and the “group deal” all being part of the winning formula. On this note, Alan Jackson is keen to point out that it was not an individual, but rather a team effort that brought the company’s success to pass.

We Sell Tyres have a dedicated team at each location, Nottingham sales manager, Ken Duke, told Tyres & Accessories that staff loyalty is something that reflects the high level of morale within the company: “We have a low turnover of staff, even with drivers believe it or not!”

At the last count We Sell Tyres (Wholesale) employed around 170 staff across its four branches with 40 delivery vehicles on the road. Asked if the number of vans/delivery runs was likely to increase this year, Jackson answered: “If the demand is there, this may grow…I would be disappointed if this didn’t buy the end of 2007.”

We Sell Tyre’s move into new premises in Nottingham comes on the back of sustained growth in 2006, which was led by “exceptional growth” in the high performance, and run-flat tyre sectors. Interestingly, many of these sales were generated via the motor dealership tyre programmes that the wholesaler operates.

According to Alan Jackson, Motor dealership businesses representing GM, Pendragon and BMW can be named among the We Sell Tyres customers. “We have an extremely pro-active motor dealership dept with sales manager Carl Grant actively involved in the day-to-day management of this important sector of our business.” Independent tyre shops are also said to have remained loyal to the We Sell Tyres price, availability and service and delivery offer into Nottingham and the surrounding areas, a service Jackson believes to be unequalled.

The new operation will be the company’s flagship site along with Norwich, which also relatively recently relocated to new and larger premises. There are two other locations at Worksop and Corby. With all this progression and development occurring on an almost annual basis, the obvious question is: What’s happening next year? Alan Jackson wouldn’t be drawn on his long-term plans, but pointed out that the consolidation of the recent expansion is a priority for the next 12 months.