S&H Tyres BV – Adding Personality to Tyre Sales

Based in Hendrik Ido Ambacht, which is an abridged version of a town name containing 75 letters, a few kilometres outside of Rotterdam, S&H Tyres is ideally situated to service dealers in the Benelux and the rest of Europe. “In the early days we established business relationships with a number of suppliers which, subsequently enabled us to source tyres direct from the manufacturer,” said Simon Klapwijk. “Any profit was invested back into the company and for the first few years we continued a pattern of steady growth. We had a number of business connections and that did help but we could not survive on previous contact knowledge alone. Slowly but surely we began to build a consistent customer base with an ambitious plan to eventually develop a pan European sales network. There is no easy way to achieve this and most new business was gained by literally knocking on doors and through our own bloody minded persistence. It proved to be, for us, the right approach because within a few years we had enough collateral available to enable us to purchase our own offices and take on additional staff. They have greatly assisted our further expansion and to become more active in the international tyre market.

“The stability and growth of the company in succeeding years is testament to the dedication of not just the directors but also all staff members and to the trust and confidence our valued customers place in us to deliver the best tyres available. Most of our customers have remained loyal to us proof that so many appreciate our commitment to them. As business in general becomes increasingly challenging I still believe goals can be achieved as long as you have the right team in place.” This is a view totally endorsed by Henk van Dijk when he told T&A, “Our most important working principal is based upon strengthening customer trust before we even attempt to sell them anything. In the long term it is more mutually beneficial and creates a far more successful sales environment. In a similar vein we have purposely adopted a quite tranquil atmosphere within the office, easing the pressure on our telephone sales force, when they are in a relaxed frame of mind they will inevitably be more motivated and will consequently work to improve their sales figures.” For the last five years S&H Tyres has been the exclusive importer of EP Tyres of Indonesia, marketing the Accelera brand of high performance tyres throughout the Benelux and a number of Eastern European countries. More than 50 sizes are available in this range in a number of speed ratings. “Three years ago we first discussed, with a business partner, the idea of having our own private brand,” said van Dijk.

“The Zeetex brand has now been available for some months. It is produced using moulds developed jointly by the tyre manufacturing company and ourselves. The Zeetex truck radial is currently offered in 32 sizes, PCR in 35 sizes and SUV/UHP in 20 sizes. Recent editions to the range include a winter tyre series and a UHP tyre initially in 13 different sizes. Additional sizes will come on stream as and when required. The plan is to market the Zeetex brand through exclusively through tyre dealers in each European country and in this regard we will be interested to talk to perspective distributors. We recently opened a technical centre in China to look after our interests especially the quality of our products and to deal with logistics” Although most sales through S&H Tyres are direct from manufacturer to supplier, the company does operate a 5,000 sq metre warehouse holding, on average, 50 thousand tyres, which are primarily for European mainland deliveries. The company is concentrating more and more on HP tyres, illustrated by the vast array of brands and sizes currently in stock however more limited ranges of truck, PCR, winter and SUV tyres are available. The warehouse is operated by a logistics company who supply the manpower to unload and store, as necessary, all deliveries as well as arrange the outward shipping of all orders. “Sales are expected to reach 1 million units for this year,” continued van Dijk.

“Controlled as we are by market factors it may well be difficult to maintain sales at this level in the coming months. We are not exceptional in being an independent tyre wholesaler, however perhaps we are somewhat exceptional in offering unbiased advice to our customers and by listening to their problems and giving them our personal attention. Conscious of our social responsibilities, S&H Tyres gives 10 percent of its profit to charity. Our maxim has always been that there is no substitute for hard work and honesty in business. Like a snowball, you have to keep pushing for it to grow.”