National Tyres Outlines Expansion Plans

National Tyres and Autocare has plans to open 14 new branches in Scotland by the end of 2008. Chairman and chief executive Alan Revie, who led a management buy-out of the company from Continental in 2001, reportedly sees these new additions to National Tyres as a first step in an expansion that will see the company operating more than 400 sites throughout the UK. At present National Tyres operates 204 outlets nationwide. “We are looking to expand the network and, as the first stage of a UK wide strategy, have identified 14 towns and cities across the central belt and Highlands where we plan to open branches by the end of 2008,” said Revie. “The funding is in place to do it, we have already opened a new branch in Falkirk and another will open shortly in Edinburgh.”

The company has reported healthy sales during 2007, with six-monthly results to June 30 showing sales of £51 million, up 19 per cent from the same time last year. Parent company the Axle Group has reported pre-tax profits of £5.7 million for the 2006 calendar year, a 17 per cent increase on the 2005 results. According to Revie “2006 and the first half of 2007 have been driven by excellent performance across the group. We are confident that we can sustain the growth trajectory of the business and I expect to see further improvement in both turnover and profits through our core business of selling tyres and as the results of our investment in MOT centres and the brakes programme begin to feed through to the bottom line.”

The company’s healthy financials have encouraged investment in recent times, with £2 million spent on National Tyres’ UK network during the past 18 months. This amount includes £700,000 on equipment and training for a brakes programme and £200,000 on six new MOT test centres.