Heuver focusing on customer relationships, introducing new products in 2013

Less then five decades after starting out as a one-man tyre business in western Holland, Heuver Tyrewholesale has grown into a major commercial segment wholesaler. Today the company is headquartered in Hardenberg, near the Dutch border with Germany, and specialises in supplying truck, OTR and agricultural tyres to customers throughout Europe. Tyres and Accessories recently spoke with director Bertus Heuver about Heuver Tyrewholesale’s current activities and focus; he shared that during 2013 the wholesaler is introducing an entirely new brand and intends to grow in at least two key regions.

Heuver Tyrewholesale is well known for its distribution of the Aeolus brand in eight key European markets – Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, France, Switzerland and Romania – however the wholesaler is active throughout most of Europe and also offers a number of competitive ranges for the countries where it doesn’t deal in Aeolus. This year, another brand has been added to this portfolio.

“We have obtained European distributorship of Leao, a brand produced in China,” Bertus Heuver tells Tyres & Accessories. “The brand is new to Europe and price-wise we see it as a very interesting opportunity for our customers.” The Leao range covers truck and agricultural tyres – Heuver says that Leao is the first Chinese brand of tractor radials to be sold here in Europe. Although Heuver Tyrewholesale already stocks a number of sizes in the Leao range, the company won’t begin actively promoting the agricultural line-up for another few months. “We need the full range available before we can really start selling them as every tractor has two tyre dimensions, and when you only have the front tyre sizes available it is hard to sell a set,” explains Heuver. 

The director says Heuver Tyrewholesale has a “full focus for Aeolus in the eight countries where we are distributor” but will actively promote Leao in the other markets where it does business; he adds that Heuver Tyrewholesale is looking for dealers for the Leao brand in Poland, Scandinavia, the UK and Ireland, especially dealers who can cover a large area.

In addition to offering Leao, Heuver Tyrewholesale acts as importer for the Alliance OTR and agricultural ranges in all its markets. “We got the dealership four years ago and turnover is rising strongly. We are very happy to have this brand, it gives our agricultural business a big boost,” shares Bertus Heuver. A further important brand is Athlete Wheels; Heuver Tyrewholesale is looking for dealers throughout Europe for this range.

Fully convinced of Aeolus’ quality

As for Aeolus, Bertus Heuver states “we are fully convinced of the quality of Aeolus and their patterns. We’re very happy to have the Aeolus factory’s main brand. The Aeolus brand will always be their main focus for development, research and for supply – we have this guarantee.” The Aeolus range distributed by Heuver Tyrewholesale in eight European markets covers all three commercial segments; in addition, Aeolus now produces passenger car tyres. Visitors to the Heuver-run Aeolus stand at last year’s Reifen trade show in Germany were amongst the first to see the new passenger car range. At the time it appeared Heuver Tyrewholesale would add this line to its existing Aeolus product portfolio, however Bertus Heuver says this won’t be the case.

“We helped the Aeolus factory a lot in the tyres’ development and with technical and regulatory support,” he elaborates. “The more we were involved in this pcr project the more enthusiastic we became, but alongside this we were aware that passenger hasn’t ever been our business. We decided last August not to distribute the Aeolus passenger car tyre range. It will still definitely be sold in Europe, and at the moment Aeolus is looking for wholesalers that are more specialised in car tyres.

“In Holland there are huge passenger car tyre wholesalers whom we have very good relationships with,” Bertus Heuver continues. “Our customer base is different; to get involved in car tyres is new from a logistics perspective. We are very good in commercial tyres, this is where our strength is. We would have had to build new logistics and sales teams to distribute the passenger car tyre range.” The Heuver Tyrewholesale director describes the Aeolus pcr line-up as a “very good product” and notes that with it Aeolus is aiming not to compete with the many Chinese brands on the market, rather to target the market segment currently occupied by Hankook and similar products.

Growth in Poland, Scandinavia

Heuver Tyrewholesale has employed a sales representative for the UK and Ireland for a number of years now and although it doesn’t distribute the Aeolus range here – Bertus Heuver says his company has very good relations with UK/Ireland distributor Kings Road Tyres – this market is important to Heuver. Other regions the Netherlands-based wholesaler is focused on building up include Poland, where it hired a sales representative in December 2012, and Scandinavia, where Heuver is currently looking for a sales representative. Bertus Heuver describes Poland as very attractive place do to business in terms of logistics. “It is easy for us to transport tyres there. We can have tyres there within two or three days. Furthermore, I think Poland’s economy is growing stronger now – if you look at all the European countries I think Poland is doing very well.”

In Bertus Heuver’s opinion, Leao and Athlete, with its full range of OTR tyres, gives the wholesaler a strong position in these markets: “I see big opportunities.” To reinforce Heuver’s presence in these and other markets, recently the heads of the company’s four business units – Aeolus, truck tyres, OTR tyres and agricultural tyres – met and decided to increase face-to-face contact with customers. “All sales people need to be on the road as much as possible as we need to be at our customers’ sites as much as possible these days,” reflects Bertus Heuver. “That’s where we make our sales.

“Reliability to the customer is very important to us,” Heuver adds. “We want to achieve a very close commitment to our customers in supply, reliability of services, in the deals we make, in webshop orders, everything. We are trying to improve our business and our services on a daily basis. As a wholesaler you don’t manufacture a product but you provide the customer with services. What we do is try to work very closely with the customer and to have this, logistic-wise, technically and information-wise on the highest possible level. Every customer should feel very comfortable doing business with Heuver. This is one of my main aims – the Heuver brand is something we want to build more strongly in the market – you can repeatedly tell people you are very good, but the important thing is to prove you are very good. We have focused a lot on improvement over the last five years and improved our reliability in supply, in invoicing – everything should be to a very high standard. That’s our daily thrill, you can say.”

Agri segment strong

The current European financial situation has weighed heavily on many wholesalers, particularly those specialising in the consumer tyre segment. “The nice thing with our company is that if one part of the business is moving slowly, another part is good,” observes the Heuver Tyrewholesale director. “For a few years agricultural tyres were just okay, and now they’re doing brilliantly. OTR is doing reasonably well, while truck tyres is a bit slow.” 

Heuver adds that “2011 was a good year and 2012 started a little slow. It recovered in April, May but was again slower later in the year.” He concedes that it is much harder for passenger car tyre wholesalers at the moment though. “Many tyre dealers had a difficult year with car tyres and tried to reduce stock levels to ensure a good balance sheet at the end of the year. Business is particularly slow for consumer tyres. The winter was also not strong – a lot of negative factors came together for wholesalers.” 

Given Heuver Tyrewholesale’s presence in three commercial tyre segments, the company projects that turnover in 2013 will reach a similar level to last year. “Our turnover will be the same,” states Bertus Heuver. “We’re looking at Scandinavia and we’ve just started in Poland, so we expect some extra market activity there. If I look to the budget, we expect profit to be 15 per cent higher in 2013. We anticipate this because we expect to take a step forward in Scandinavia and Poland, because we’re putting more people on the road, and because we expect to win more market share in the OTR business, along with extra turnover with agricultural dealers in Germany.”