ATS Euromaster poised for “biggest ever” cold weather tyre demand

While some may have expected the mild 2011/12 winter to have put the mockers on UK winter tyre market growth (not to mention the complication of tyre labelling legislation – see Related News), ATS Euromaster was confident enough to place its biggest ever order of seasonal stock in March 2012. The reasoning behind its £10 million order rested to a large degree on fleet customers. Now the tyre service specialist has reported that fleet customers’ forward orders for cold weather tyres are already 80 per cent up for winter 2012/13 compared to last year. ATS-E has begun the switch to winter rubber for some of its customers in earnest from the beginning of this month, and is expecting its total cold weather tyre sales this year to increase by sixty per cent over 2011 volumes.

Peter Fairlie, Group Sales Director at ATS Euromaster, says: “Demand is strongest from the fleet sector, where businesses and public sector organisations have experienced the benefits of cold weather tyres for two winters running.

“Every major fleet customer which asked us to fit cold weather tyres last year is maintaining that commitment this winter – some are even rolling the policy out to additional assets.  This growth demonstrates that once managers and drivers have experienced the benefits of winter tyres, they don’t want to be without them,” he adds.

Last year’s winter tyre sales at ATS-E rose by nearly 200 per cent compared with 2010, when ATS Euromaster launched its winter tyre offer for car and van fleets.

Fairlie says that fitting cold weather tyres during winter months gives car and van operators the best of both worlds, playing down fears of the additional costs related to owning a second set of rubber. “You’re only causing wear to one set of tyres at a time,” he explains. “Total tyre wear doesn’t increase; and if there’s a slight additional cost to the purchase of tyres, fitting, and out-of-season storage in a tyre hotel, businesses can measure that against downtime following an accident and improved tyre wear during the colder months.

“The fact that cold weather tyres stop vehicles more effectively in cold weather is a measure of performance and should make company drivers less vulnerable to bad weather.  They help to keeps fleets mobile and reduce the number of days when snow and ice keeps company drivers off the road.”

While it is a finding often stated that cold weather tyres grip better than regular summer tyres when the temperature drops below 7° Celsius, ATS-E says the products last longer too. During winter months, it claims the wear on normal tyres increases, reducing overall tyre longevity by up to 20 per cent.

Last winter the Met Office recorded 147 separate days between 1 October 2011 and 31 March 2012 when temperatures dropped below 7° during prime commuting hours in 10 major UK cities (measured from 7:00-9:00 and 16:00-18:00).

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