Tyretraders.com enters administration

Martin T Coyne & Matt D Hardy of Birmingham based Poppleton & Appleby have been appointed as joint administrators of Tyretraders.com Ltd. Overhead expenses, rising costs, the fall in tyre prices and investment that apparently outpaced growth of the business are all said to have led to the company entering administration. Moving forward, the administrators aim to sell the business as a going concern.

According to the administrators, Tyretraders recorded audited sales of £3.7 million in 2014 and unaudited management accounts for 2015 suggest a similar performance.

Between 2008 and 2012 Tyretraders.com Ltd invested £297,000, when in conjunction with Wolverhampton University, it embarked on the development of a bespoke e-commerce platform to manage its sales and operations.

Furthermore, the Tyretraders.com website reportedly receives traffic averaging 10,000 visits per week over the last 12 months. Around 50 per cent of that traffic is said to result in return visits. However, currently the site is displaying just one line of text: “Due essential maintenance our website is unavailable at the moment and will be restored ASAP.”

Tyretraders operates from a First Avenue, Sutton Coldfield base, which doubles as a fitting centre and covers some 20,000 square feet.

Michael Charles of London based Amco-Agency and Rajiv Kumar of Birmingham based Kumar & Company Limited have been instructed to deal with expressions of interest in the business and/or the assets.

Michael Charles of Amco said: ”Three quarters of UK motorists research the price of tyres online but only 8 per cent have purchased from the channel. In Germany almost 15 per cent buy online so significant growth is likely in the near future”.

Rajiv Kumar of Kumar & Company added: “The facility Tyretraders have established in First Avenue is excellent. Well thought out, sensibly equipped and capable of much higher throughput”.