Following its 100 per cent acquisition by the Michelin Group, French online tyre firm Allopneus has a new chief executive officer. Michel Vincentelli succeeds Mathieu Blaise, who launched the Allopneus site in 2004 together with father Didier and brother Antoine.
French competition regulator the Autorité de la concurrence has approved the Michelin Group’s move to acquire sole control over French tyre e-tailer Allopneus SAS and its subsidiaries. In a statement published on 28 December, the Autorité said it cleared the deal unconditionally in the belief that it is “not likely to harm competition.”
Michelin has added the last 60 per cent of leading French tyre e-tailer Allopneus to the 40 per cent stake the leading tyremaker bought in 2015. Michelin now “intends to develop its knowledge of customer behaviour and the purchasing process and thus continue to offer the best possible experience, from online information seeking, right up to tyre fitting”, company representatives wrote in a statement dated 25 August.
Online tyre retailers are nothing new, and Michelin’s current 40 per cent share acquisition of leading French portal Allopneus shows the major manufacturers are taking an interest in this business. That said, no major tyre maker sells directly to the public over its own website – but this is about to change. As Goodyear chairman and chief executive officer Richard Kramer announced at the company’s annual shareholders meeting on 13 April, the US-based company is gearing up to begin rolling out online tyre sales in its homeland. Goodyear has yet to comment on whether it plans to extend these web retail activities to other markets.
Michelin says its acquisition of a 40 per cent share in France’s leading internet tyre retailer is a way to offer consumers “a simplified and financially-advantageous path” between searching online for tyre information and making a purchase and having tyres fitted by professionals. The tyre maker is investing €60 million for a minority stake in Allopneus SAS, which currently holds a seven per cent share of the French tyre market and sold some three million tyres last year.
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Allopneus; Michelin