ATS Euromaster ‘Reviewing’ 80 Branches

ATS Euromaster is embarking on a consultation exercise “reviewing” as many as 80 of its UK centres. According to a company spokesperson, the tyre retail chain currently runs 456 centres, but is looking into the viability of continuing to run some in their present format. Therefore mergers, redundancies and some degree of reorganisation are all being discussed. However the company is apparently not currently looking into the sale of branches.

In the future ATS Euromaster is expected to place a greater emphasis on its mobile operations and intends to operate with fewer (but larger) service centres that will offer enhanced facilities to customers. The changes will include a move away from the current regional organization to one in which there are three key divisions Retail (purely customer facing), Comprehensive (a continuance of the multi-faceted operations already available at some ATS outlets) and Truck (focusing on commercial vehicle tyre sales).

The move will be supported by a £1m investment programme, which will take place over the next four months to upgrade some Centres and enhance the company’s 1100 strong car and truck mobile van fleet.

Chris Hufflett, Group Operations Director at ATS Euromaster, said: “This is being driven by a change in the way we provide service to our customers.  Motorists and fleet managers are having to tighten their belts and become more efficient, and the service we offer needs to reflect that.”

Re-organising the business in this way will leave Kwik-Fit, currently the largest UK tyre retailer with 662 centres, way ahead of its nearest rival. In the meantime, another rival (Nationwide Autocentres, 220 centres) is reportedly aiming to grow by around 25 sites a year to a minimum network size of 400 centres.