The UK seasonal tyre market is larger than you think
The UK tyre industry has been taking deliberate steps to develop its winter tyre market for over a decade. As a result winter tyre sales constitute an increasingly important market position (see Related News in the subscriber section of this article). At the same time, the evidence Tyrepress.com has seen suggests all-season tyre sales have been growing at an even faster rate and could even be outperforming winter tyres when measured across complete 12 month periods. Back in May (see Tyres & Accessories May, page 18) we reported on the latest relevant research produced by market analysts GfK, which suggested winter tyre sales were accelerating faster than ever. This month, in keeping with our winter versus all-season theme, we expand on this data to include a number of all-season details and compare it with the conclusion drawn by our other sources.
Winter tyres outperform all-season sales during the coldest months
GfK’s data measures the peak winter period (November – February) and compares the results over the last four winters. And on first glance it is immediately apparent that winter tyre sales have grown from 1.5 per cent of total market unit volumes to more than double this (3.5 per cent) between November 2012 and February 2013. However, as good as this is, this latest figure is actually some way behind the 4.3 per cent unit market share reported between November 2011 and February 2012. Or in other words sales stalled during the last winter season (October 2012 to February 2013). This winter saw sales fall by around 30 per cent.
At the same time the figures show that winter tyre sales represent a disproportionately high 5.5 per cent value share during the peak November 2011 to February 2012 period, suggesting winter tyres generate roughly a quarter more income than standard summer tyres on average. Obviously the weather will have helped push sales along and this will have assisted both figures, but the fact that the market tripled in the space of three years (even if it did fall back a bit latterly) and the fact that value shares outperform “normal” tyre products suggests there is still plenty of potential in the UK winter market.
| Seasonal’ tyre unit market shares 2009 – 2012 in % | ||||||
| Year* | Winter Tyres | All-season** | Combined | |||
| 2009 | 1.5 | 2 | 3.5 | |||
| 2010 | 2.9 | 2 | 4.9 | |||
| 2011 | 4.3 | 2 | 6.3 | |||
| 2012 | 3.5 | 2 | 5.5 | |||
| *GfK sell-out data compares the last four winter (November – February ) periods | ||||||
| **Rough figure based on GfK data | ||||||
| ***T&A estimate | ||||||
| Source: GfK, T&A research | ||||||
What about all-season tyres?
According to GfK, the company’s researchers generally measure all-season tyres as part of the overall summer tyre market in the UK. However if we drill down a bit further and look at this sector in isolation we can see it holds a roughly two per cent volume market share. While this may at first sound small, this could represent as much 600,000 tyres annually when you consider the market as a whole is generally accepted to be very roughly 30 million units a year. And what’s more this share has not altered significantly in the last three winter sales periods we refer to suggesting – as our other data indicates – that this position is relatively stable.
T&A’s speculation as to what these market shares might mean in terms of unit volumes aside, what is clear is that the combined winter and all-season market shares could have been as much as 5.5 per cent last year, peaking at 6.3 per cent in and around 2011. A thumb in the air estimate suggests this equates to around 1.89 million units, although with difficulties in precisely defining the difference between all-season and winter tyres inevitably leading to some double counting it may be prudent to round any such estimate down.
However while the total size of the UK winter/all-season tyre market might be surprisingly large, the fact that the largest volumes of winter product are sold in Scotland won’t shock anyone. According to GfK, winter tyre sales north of the border represent 28 – 30 per cent of the total.
We are left with three relatively clear conclusions: winter tyre sales remain way ahead historic levels albeit behind the winter 2011-2012 peak; combined winter and all-season sales represent a larger share of the market than previous publically acknowledged.
GfK’s latest data does not support the theory that the all-season market is actually larger than the out and out winter tyre parc. There could be a number of technical reasons for this, the most obvious being differing views on categorisation of individual products.
Either way, what both perspectives affirm is that despite a double digit recession and the refusal of snow to fall consistently at the right time of year, there remains clear potential for the winter/all-season market to grow. And those offering a combined winter and all-season offering appear best placed to capitalise on this.
Related news:
Comments