Quality and good partnerships key to Silverline’s success

One of the best-known firms in the UK’s 4×4 and SUV aftermarket is Silverline Wheels and Tyres. In addition to stocking major tyre brands and the Atturo SUV and 4×4 range, the Warwick-based company supplies rims designed for the finest British and European off-road vehicles and worn by ‘big iron’ imports from the USA. Silverline has created such a name for itself in this niche market that it’s hard to believe it began there by chance.

“Silverline Wheels and Tyres was set up by two brothers just over 25 years ago, and the company’s original brief was to specialise in UHP tyres to support major tyre brands, such as Pirelli and Michelin, in their track day events. We also used to run Hankook Motorsport,” shares Silverline sales and marketing director Chris Dawson. “But so many people we worked with came to us with their own road cars, and Silverline found itself with such increasing numbers of requests for 4×4/SUV wheels and tyres that we began dealing in these products around 15 years ago. When the tyre majors began supporting motorsport series directly and our work with them decreased, we picked up what we were already doing as a secondary business and ran with it.”

As a 4×4/SUV specialist, Silverline focuses on the upper end of the market. The company serves as UK distributor for a number of well-known brands and also sells its own private wheel label – Maxxtrac. In addition to lending its name to some Chinese-produced steel wheels, the Maxxtrac brand is used to front high quality rims made in Italy by AR Casting. Silverline is currently developing two new wheel designs for AR Casting; it began work on these late last year and expects to sign these off in mid to late June.

“This company produces most of our Maxxtrac 4×4/SUV rims as their quality is superb,” Dawson comments. “We’re in daily contact with AR Casting. The company is small but reactive – it takes them weeks instead of years to produce a new wheel.” He adds that AR Casting’s ability to work well and work fast has helped Silverline meet the most demanding requirements in the past, such as the supply of rims for military use during the Afghanistan campaign: “We had a contract with Ricardo Engineering to supply heavy duty wheels. AR Casting handled our requests so well that we brought the resulting product to market within 18 months, in half the scheduled time. And it proved such a popular product that we ended up not only selling it to the Ministry of Defence, but also all around the world.”

B2B customers are typically well aware of the Maxxtrac brand’s quality, adds Dawson, and B2C customers are quickly won over when they see the wheels – he says the difference between Maxxtrac and cheaper products is particularly noticeable when it comes to machining and paint finish. “The backs of some Chinese wheels are not properly painted.”

The vehicle-specific Maxxtrac range is tailored to UK and European market demands and accounts for around 70 per cent of Silverline’s wheel business. But for those wanting wheels from the home of the large pick-up and SUV, Silverline has not one, but two high-profile brands to choose from. “We’ve distributed the Mickey Thompson and Dick Cepek brands in the UK for more than six years now,” comments the sales and marketing director. “We gained the rights to them as we were already directly importing Cooper 4×4 tyres from the US. Cooper Tire & Rubber is the 100 per cent owner of both brands. For a while we were the only company in the world to have all four Cooper Tire brands – Cooper, Mastercraft, Mickey Thompson and Dick Cepek – at once. We were in a unique position.”

The two wheel ranges contain numerous models and fitments, and Silverline imports on request what isn’t stocked in its own warehouse. Those wanting a single set of wheels in a hurry can even have them flown in within 48 hours – at a price – and Dawson reports that Silverline does not require its B2B customers to commit to minimum order quantities. “This would be impossible in the small UK market,” he explains. “If the need arises, they can order for a single customer with one vehicle.” Around a quarter of the Mickey Thompson and Dick Cepek wheels Silverline imports are re-exported to continental Europe in order to meet a gap in the market there. Chris Dawson comments that this business “gives us a nice, steady association with other distributors throughout the EU.”

A strong and buoyant market

Although the British and European automotive industries were hard hit by the recent recession, several niche markets were sheltered from its effects. Companies catering to those wealthy enough to ignore the financial woes were able to maintain growth even in the leanest post-2008 years. Chris Dawson elaborates: “Many vehicles on the market today already have beautiful original equipment wheels fitted when they leave the showroom, and you need to ask yourself – who would replace them? But it happens a lot. There are many affluent people out there who will easily spend £70,000, £80,000 or £90,000 on a modern SUV, and they want it to be unique. They see new rims as an easy way to personalise their vehicle.”

Thanks in part to customers such as these, Silverline Wheels and Tyres has enjoyed stable growth over a number of years. “For the sector we’re active in, the 4×4/SUV sector, the market is still strong and buoyant, and there is no reason for us to anticipate it will downturn or even plateau,” comments Dawson. “It continued to grow during the recession years. Expansion wasn’t double-digit, however it showed single-digit growth during these years. We’re enjoying steady growth with top-end product.”

While Silverline doesn’t fear a downturn, it works to ensure it is ready to meet future developments. One major change already on the radar is the impending discontinuation of the Land Rover Defender. “The Defender is quite a significant business as it is a vehicle that can be tuned with great success,” Dawson explains. “Some customers in the UK buy a new Defender and hand it over to specialists – companies referred to as tuners in continental Europe – and up to £90,000 later they have a stunning, unique vehicle.”

To make sure Silverline remains a key rim supplier when the Defender hands the baton to its successor, the company will be looking closely at the upcoming Defender replacement over the next 18 months and, Chris Dawson says, aims to “second guess” the direction Land Rover will take. “We’ll have a fairly short window to work in. For example, if the new model is launched at the Geneva Motor Show in 2017, there’ll be a gap of some three to six months after this before vehicles enter the market. Therefore we’ll need to have a basic concept on the drawing board before the launch, and then during the three months we’ll have to get the technical details and sizes right. I’m confident we can do this – we’ve done it before and I’d say we have a 90 per cent success rate at it. The important thing for us is to be slightly ahead of the game.”