NE Wholesale – Delivering High Performance

For NE Wholesale, the ability to provide three times daily deliver to customers has become a firm emphasis. To achieve this level of service, the company has built up a fleet of more than 120 vans that operate out of five distribution points, infrastructure that despite the cost of developing, has, comments NE Wholesale, been worth the expense and effort. The company has seen a growing number of customers making the switch to NE Wholesale after seeing the benefits offered by the wholesaler’s ‘Rapid Response’ one-hour service, currently enjoyed by around 65 per cent of NE Wholesale’s customers.

“This is a just-in-time service offer that works on the principal of delivering the tyres within one hour of them being ordered,” comments Ben Darcy, NE Wholesale sales & marketing director. “Our delivery service works hand in hand with our high performance tyre stock. Customers cannot afford to have large amounts of expensive premium brand product on the shelf gathering dust, and they don’t need to when they can receive the tyres within an hour of ordering.

The retail stockists of performance tyres this is very good news. “Around eight years ago we made a strategic decision to focus the distribution side of the business on high performance tyres,” continues Darcy. “We carry in excess of 30,000 WYZ premium brand tyres and specifically aim to satisfy the needs of large independent tyre dealers and franchise dealerships”. The sales and marketing director added that NE Wholesale frequently has rare, high performance product in stock when competitors do not: “Through the tenacity and focus of our buying team we are often able to source tyres that are out of stock everywhere else. When we find ourselves in this situation we tend to protect this stock for loyal customers and of course they still buy it from us at their normal price.”

Within its area of operations in the Northeast of England NE Wholesale has also built up a reputation as a wise tyre choice for franchise dealerships. The company has a comprehensive portfolio of dealership accounts and have in Gary Calvert, who runs the business’s Motor Dealer Division, an experienced tyre specialist. “Stocking the correct levels and mix of high performance tyres is an essential part of any franchise dealer programme,” comments Calvert. “We constantly monitor new OE information and update our own stock profiles as the market dictates. With space becoming an increasing issue within the parts departments of most franchise dealers we have developed a software package to ensure that our customers are always carrying the most appropriate high performance stock.”

The fourteen-person Telesales team at NE Wholesale is ultimately responsible for advising customers on OE specification, homologation and high performance tyre fitments. Ben Darcy explains that, through a programme of training and I.T. support, he feels he now has the most informed telesales team in the industry. “Our telesales team are now at the cutting edge in terms of their fitment and homologation knowledge. Some of this information they have learned, but an equal amount is available instantly through our use of effective I.T. systems. For example, if somebody rings asking for advice on the appropriate tyre to fit on a 2004 Porsche 911 Turbo, our team will deliver the correct guidance in a split second. I’m very proud of the way the team have committed themselves to learning this information and also how they have embraced a string of changes with regards to improvements to our I.T operating systems. Only by having a real learning culture within the business has this been possible”.

Darcy concludes with an insight into NE Wholesale’s strategy over the next three years. “We have a strategic plan for the company that focuses on continuing on the upward growth curve in wholesale. High performance tyres are an integral part of this plan and we remain committed to supplying as many customers as possible within one hour of them ordering. I said last year that our customers can expect to see new distribution points opening very soon as we are committed to servicing their needs. Opening the distribution point in Knaresborough in February 2008 is proof of this commitment and we will continue to expand and develop the business with one ultimate aim, to have the best service offer on tyres in the UK.”