UK all-season tyre market: leading wholesaler MTS on continued fast growth

Graham Mitchell, MTS wholesale director talks to T&A about continuing all-season growth and the company’s response, including its strengthened all-season tyre line-up

MTS wholesale director Graham Mitchell (Photo: Micheldever Tyre Services)

While the all-season tyre market in the UK has started its ascent from a low base, it remains the fastest growing consumer car tyre segment. The trend has been supported by the last five years of manufacturers’ all-season product development, which have reduced the compromises involved in fitting a tyre capable of performing well in moderate winter weather conditions all year round. Leading independent UK tyre wholesaler Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS) has been strengthening its all-season range with exclusive brands, including the new all-season tyres from its owner Sumitomo Rubber Industries’ global flagship brand Falken and long-term MTS partner GT Radial, the recent addition of Turkish brand Petlas to its line-up, and further product additions from brands such as Runway and Ovation. MTS wholesale director Graham Mitchell tells Tyres & Accessories about how the wholesaler views the all-season (and winter) tyre segment in the UK, as well as the company’s plans to support its dealer network with the increased interest in these adaptable products.

T&A began by asking Mitchell whether MTS’s experience in the all-season tyre segment matched Europe-wide figures that show an increasing interest in all-season tyres. Mitchell said: “Yes. It’s the fastest growing segment that we are seeing, although of course it’s coming from a low base. For instance, in 2022, all-season ETRMA sales grew in volume by 4.1 per cent versus 2021 sales, continuing the growth trend we had seen each year since 2016, with the exception of a one-year Covid blip in 2020. ETRMA isn’t the complete picture, but it does represent all the premium brands and the majority of mid-range.

“In addition, this season we have several of our exclusive brands superseding their all-season offering with newer patterns – including Falken EuroallSeason AS220 Pro and GT Radial Maxmiler Allseason 2. We also have the Runway brand adding an all-season pattern to their range, and Ovation, where we are adding their all-season product to the range we carry across our warehouses. The range coverage is also expanding in several brands to provide applications for a broader range of vehicles.”

SUVs and all-season tyres

One reason for the increasing relevance of all-season tyres has been their common fitment and availability on SUVs, the most buoyant segment of car markets across Western Europe for the past decade. Manufacturers have often chosen to build in all-season suitability as a nod to SUVs’ history as a way of guaranteeing extended mobility in challenging conditions – though this association is increasingly ambiguous as road-bound crossovers have come to dominate the SUV car parc. MTS itself has a strong focus on SUV and 4×4 tyre products primarily via its Southam Tyres business. T&A asked whether all-season tyres are particularly compatible with the demands of motorists for applications such as SUVs. Mitchell pointed out that another light vehicle segment is strongly linked to all-season capabilities.

“The van segment is a growth area for MTS, being driven by fleets where the benefits are easier to promote. All-seasons is growing in the SUV market, in part due to the product design rather than the demand of the vehicle.

“We are not getting a specific demand for an all-season tyre over a summer one in SUV versus car, it is just that more of the available products are all season. The manufacturers are also expanding their all-season ranges to cover more SUV sizes in the same way they are for summer products as well – this is the way our UK car parc is evolving and they are matching this change in all product segments.”

The original Falken Euroall Season AS210 remains a popular all-season fitment, alongside the newly released AS220 Pro for performance cars (Image: Falken)

Game up for winter tyres as UK becomes more all-season accepting

With all-season on the rise, the fitment of winter tyres, already a very small part of the UK tyre market, has become a minor niche interest. Is there any way back to growth for full winter tyres? Mitchell said, “I don’t see it.

“Winter has never been particularly relevant in the UK and the risks on stocking it based on whether it snows or not make it a hard product to push. All-season snow performance is getting better and snow is so infrequent that I cannot see it becoming relevant.”

So given that all-season tyres are increasingly seen as a genuine alternative option to guarantee winter mobility, how is MTS responding to this trend?

“MTS is responding to this in interest in a variety of ways. We are doing it through the stock we hold by increasing volumes in response to demand and developing additional product lines with exclusive brands. Our comms and the channels we use are also key to how we communicate that interest to customers, particularly in the fleet market, where promoting the benefits of all-season tyres to fleets is helping to reinforce our expertise, and knowledge proposition and making significant commercial gains in that market.”

How far can all-season go here? Given its climate, is the UK really an all-season tyre market? T&A wondered whether there is any interest from distributors and dealers in proactively engaging customers with the benefits of fitting all-season tyres rather than summer products. Mitchell said that perception among motorists has not yet moved as significantly away from all-season as an alternative to winter tyres rather than as a full-year fitment as that.

“All-season makes a lot of sense in the UK, especially in the north of the country and Scotland. For example, we have many of our company cars running all-season tyres. However, it is still perceived as a seasonal tyre by most of our customers, i.e., fit when winter hits, rather than a winter tyre. We always promote the best tyre for the customer’s needs, never pushing anything that is inappropriate. All-season has its place – transport fleets are a good example of this – and if we believe the all-season is the best option for a customer, considering all of their needs, we will then promote it.”

MTS’s rising all-season product portfolio

As previously mentioned, MTS has strengthened its product portfolio to reflect the increasing relevance of all-season tyres in the UK tyre market, as Mitchell explains: “We are growing them to match market demand. In order to meet the seasonal demand, we have additional all-season product deliveries arriving during August and September, as well as our usual winter stock delivery.

“Across our exclusive brands, we are carrying both winter and all-season product in Falken, Fulda, GT Radial and Kormoran brands. In addition, we have all-season in Runway, Petlas and Ovation. We are also stocking selected budget and Premium product in all-season patterns as well.”

GT Radial 4season (Photo: Giti Tire)

Three of MTS’s major exclusive brands have recently added new products to their all-season tyre ranges. The GT Radial 4Seasons all-season tyre is equipped with features designed to cope with an array of weather and surface conditions. Its dual ultra-wide groove ensures fast water evacuation, resistance to aquaplaning, and short braking distances on wet surfaces. The multiple deep sipes also provide excellent grip on snow and ice surfaces, enabling firm accelerations and short stopping distances.

On the van tyre side, the brand also offers the Maxmiler Allseason 2 for LTRs and vans in changing weather conditions, combining long-lasting mileage and safety. It has an advanced all-season compound that helps reduce braking distances on wet roads and secure handling and high-speed stability during warm summer days.

The Turkish tyre manufacturer Petlas is the latest to join the MTS portfolio of exclusive brands.

From the Petlas range comes the Full Grip PT925 – a tyre designed for all-weather performance, including enhanced handling and braking. It offers excellent traction in difficult conditions, including a reduced risk of aquaplaning, thanks to its increased footprint and V-shaped special tread pattern design.

Another Petlas all-season tyre is the Multi Action PT565, designed for a wide range of weather and road conditions. Its unique pattern design, special compound and V-shaped channels offer effective discharge of water, mud and snow, helping to increase its cornering capabilities and assuring safety in both snow and ice conditions. The Multi Action PT565 also features 3PMSF and M+S markings, which guarantee its improved grip and braking on snowy roads.

The Falken portfolio of products includes a new tyre for 2023, the EuroallSeason AS220 Pro – Falken’s first all-season tyre specifically tailored to performance-oriented vehicles. It supports high cornering speeds in wet and dry conditions and is Falken’s answer to the challenge in recent times of increasingly wet winter conditions, while also offering great safety reserves on snowy roads. It follows on from the EuroallSeason AS210, which will also again be available to MTS’s tyre retailer network. Its key features include an innovative V-shaped groove design that ensures enhanced performance on wet roads and improves aquaplaning resistance. The Multi-Directional Sipe positioning (MDS) also delivers superb traction on snow and all-weather handling and enhanced compounds ensure superior wet performance, better fuel efficiency and extended tyre life.