Gripen UK’s First Half 2010 Sales Equal Full Year 2009 Total
Fresh from exhibiting at the Hillhead show in Buxton in June, Gripen Wheels UK director Ray Coulson has reported that the company’s rapid growth is continuing in 2010 despite the fallout of the recent recessionary period. According to Coulson, sales for the first six months of 2010 grew fast enough to equal the full year sales total the firm accrued in 2009. While your first instinct might be to suggest that such growth must have come from a low base in preceding years, when you consider that the firm has been operating in the UK for less than three years and that the whole tyre business has faced significant challenges during this period, it would be churlish not to take notice of the rate of the company’s expansion.
Asked what’s behind the recent impressive growth at Gripen, Coulson explained in a recent interview with Tyres & Accessories that increased take up of new accounts and improved product mix were at the root of the strong sales performance. Prior to 2010, Gripen UK’s was largely reliant on sales of imported budget brands in relatively small (as far as OTR products go) sizes. This year has seen the company source and deliver a complete collection of premium brand products and adjust its offering to include the larger (and more valuable) sizes of OTR product in addition to the budget and smaller sized tyres it has always sold. Together these two factors mean that, before the seventh month of 2010 is concluded, sales are already ahead of the company’s full-year 2009 result.
Coulson concedes that demand may have additionally been bolstered by a kind of restocking affect – where OTR tyre customers have run their tyres’ tread so low that they can do nothing but purchase new products – meaning the second half of the year will be critical in order to show that the first is able to sustain its level and volume of growth. That said, early indications suggest the second half is again ahead of the comparable period last year.
Gripen’s strong UK performance has been supported by significant developments with the European Gripen group as a whole. The appointment of Arjen Sibon, who recently joined Gripen as key account manager Europe from well-known wholesale operation Heuver Banden, for example is likely to see the sales and purchasing power of the group’s regional operation enhanced. In addition Gripen Wheel’s AS’s Swedish headquarters recently built addition warehousing, which has enabled the firm to stock more OTR tyres on behalf of its daughter companies.
Looking forward into the rest of 2010 and beyond, Ray Coulson expects Gripen (both the UK and European operations) to further develop their focus on their respective wheel offerings. This move also demonstrates the company’s decision to increase its emphasis on being a service provider rather than just a tyre sales and delivery operations.
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