Grouptyre: New warehouses aid South East business growth

Grouptyre reports that it is winning new business across the south coast and Kent thanks to investment by member EG Wholesale. The company has opened several new distribution points to improve its service to franchised dealer networks and independent tyre retailers and garages. During the last nine months EG Wholesale has invested £2.5 million in distribution hubs in Canterbury, Strood, Bournemouth, Southampton and Portsmouth and, most recently, opened a new centre in Worthing.

The investment in warehousing facilities has reportedly enabled EG Wholesale to make considerable improvements to its service. According to the company, some were Elite Garages’ retail outlets that have been extended to incorporate a wholesale function while others are purpose-developed wholesale depots. Customers can now take advantage of a same day delivery service that is available up to four times a day, while a rapid response ‘on demand’ facility is offered to customers located within a 10-mile radius of EG Wholesale’s network of distribution centres.

As a result company representatives said that the improvements – especially to delivery – have enabled EG Wholesale to win a number of important new contracts, including four large BMW groups, independent tyre retailers plus independent fast fit centres, all of which have switched to Grouptyre as their supplier because of the high quality service EG Wholesale provides.

“Grouptyre is committed to providing the services of a national distributor coupled with local market expertise, and through our membership of the organisation we have maximised the ‘National Strength, Local Service’ approach to wholesaling across the south of England,” said managing director Richard Whittemore.

The expansion programme has seen EG Wholesale increase its stockholding capability by £1 million to £3 million which, in turn, has generated increased sales and improved profitability. Meanwhile, the sales team – which also delivers sales and technical training and provides business development support to retail customers – has doubled in size.  As part of this growth, Glenn Pant has joined the company as a business development manager and Sean Robinson has been promoted to regional sales manager.

“In the short term our aim is to continue our expansion programme and offer an even greater range of products,” explained Whittemore, adding: “To achieve this we intend to boost our warehousing capacity by a further 50,000 square feet to feed our newest wholesale hubs and are planning to develop an additional distribution centre in the middle of our territory, probably around the Maidstone area.”

Part of the Elite Garages group – which has a turnover of £45 million and employs around 200 staff – EG Wholesale stocks an extensive range of high performance and UHP tyres to meet the needs of the high number of prestige marques in the region.  It also operates a successful motorsports division specialising in track and rally tyres and offers import/export facilities.

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