Blackcircles.com turns a profit
Black Circles, the Peebles-based online tyre retailer established by Michael Welch, turned a profit in 2011 results. 10 years after it began trading, Blackcircles reportedly made a retained profit of £2295, according to The Herald newspaper.
The abbreviated accounts do not reveal a turnover figure, however in an interview given to Tyres & Accessories at the start of last year, managing director Mike Welch predicted that the company’s turnover would increase 66.7 per cent to £30 million in 2011, following a partnership deal with leading supermarket Tesco to run TescoTyres.com. Other reports put 2011 sales significantly lower at £20 million.
News of a profit, however small, will be welcome to the online tyre business’s line up of high profile executives and board members. The company chairman is Graeme Bissett, a former senior partner with accountant Arthur Andersen who became finance director of Kwik-Fit for three years before its takeover. Last year the company signed up former Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy as an adviser. He had reportedly been a shareholder for three years.
MD Mike Welch, 34, left school at 16 to start working as a tyre fitter in the Wirral. According to The Herald two years later he set up mail-order tyre firm Tyre Force and later studied at Liverpool’s John Moores University. He was then headhunted by Sir Tom Farmer to work on Kwik-Fit’s online operation, while he continued his studies at Edinburgh’s Napier University.
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