Bridgestone New Truck Tyre Segment Market Leader

The 1.2 million tyre strong UK commercial vehicle segment has a new market leader. Speaking at Bridgestone UK’s Truck Point annual dealer conference, commercial director Greg Ward told delegates that Bridgestone’s truck and bus market share had grown 2 per cent on last year’s total to 28 per cent, overtaking previous market leader, Michelin. Goodyear’s share stands at 20 per cent, while Continental is estimated to hold 9 per cent of the market. The remaining 16 per cent is held by various “other” manufacturers.

According to Ward, Bridgestone’s progression comes on the back of major fleet gains and strong service performance in recent years. It is understood that Michelin’s share is strong in terms of public service bus contracts, but the commercial truck fleet side of the operation has been losing ground to its competitors. Other conference topics included exclusive news of around £2.7 million worth of truck fleet gains, and the awarding of LRPA expert dealer status to 49 truck point dealers.

In May Tyres & Accessories published details of how this growth trend had been progressing. At that point, the most recent ERMC data (end of April) showed Bridgestone’s overall year-to-date market share was 26.4 per cent; steer-axle share was 21 per cent; drive share totalled 31 per cent; and trailer amounted to 33 per cent.

Bridgestone also became global market leader this year, with 18.15 per cent of the worldwide market, ahead of Michelin with 17.74 per cent and Goodyear with 17.39 per cent.