Nick Gregg, group managing director at ATS Euromaster, has been appointed to join the Tyre Industry Council later this year, strengthening the retail representation on the Council.
The TIC claims that its tyre safety work is expanding, particularly in the area of tyre safety clinics and roadside tyre checks, and so welcomes the support from retailers as well as tyre manufacturers.
Following the consolidation of its car, van and truck divisions into one single company, ATS Euromaster Ltd has strengthened its national and divisional sales teams by appointing two new directors. Martin Saint will become national sales director and Robert Blaikie has been appointed divisional sales director.
Recent years have seen the commercial truck tyre market move in favour of the Independent dealer. Where previously the fleet sector was dominated by the Equities – ATS Euromaster, Motorway/Hi-Q, National, and Central – the divestment and rationalisation that has taken place over the last five years has enabled the Independents to become a significant player. In fact, at a recent market trends presentation, Continental Tyres estimated that the Independents are now responsible for nearly 50 per cent of all tyres being sold to the market.
Supplying tyres to the truck fleet market, however, is big business and it takes a professional approach backed by a major manufacturer to get anywhere in the fleet business. Not only that, it takes a national, and ever increasingly, international approach to the market. That makes life difficult for the Independent dealer who cannot realistically deal with fleet business in all corners of the UK, never mind offer European cover.
The solution for the Independent is to join a tyre services network that can handle the approach to the national fleets and through its members offer national, or even international cover for fleet customers.
ContiNetwork, set up several years ago by Continental following its divestiture of National Tyres, is one such service network and forms Continental’s primary route to market for commercial tyre sales and service. Interestingly, Continental is now the only service provider to concentrate its distribution solely on the Independent network. Something that is of great importance to the Independent dealer who could often find himself competing against a service provider’s own Equity for the same business yet at different prices.
ContiNetwork has since established itself as one of the leading Independent networks and, according to Continental, services more national fleet business than any other Independent network. With 49 member companies – so-called ContiNetwork Partners – with some 200 tyre depots covering the whole of mainland Britain, its members are in a position to be able to deal with Continental’s national and regional fleets alongside their own contracts.
The package ContiNetwork gives its members is more than just tyres. There has to be a competitive product certainly, but ContiNetwork works to develop relationships and build confidence with its members.
Taking the wider view of the picture, trucking is now, for most medium to large operators, an operation that requires a varying degree of international transportation. That exposes drivers to conditions in foreign markets that they are not ideally equipped to handle. European service is notoriously poor, and equally notoriously expensive. All fleet operators agree that any international operations require international breakdown recovery cover. This causes difficulties for all manufacturers, with limited coverage in Europe. Bridgestone have solved this through a pan-European network of independent dealers operating under the Truck Point banner.
Truck Point has some 220 independent commercial tyre specialist outlets in the UK and a total in excess of 1,600 across Europe. The operation covers most of Western Europe and Scandinavia and is now expanding eastward into Poland and Hungary and other states as the demand for the service expands.
Bridgestone Europe has recognised the need to build a strong Truck Point network, and has recognised an urgent requirement to develop brand awareness of Truck Point across Europe. In light of this the company has launched a multi-million pound UK campaign to increase Truck Point awareness in the tyre trade and in the fleet sector. This is supplemented by an advertising campaign across Europe. Roger Moulding Marketing manager for commercial products at Bridgestone UK, told T&A, “We need to tell people what Truck Point is about and the changes we are making to the programme.
The Truck Point awareness campaign comes at a time when the competition in the truck tyre sector is heating up. There are opportunities being created in the UK by the divesting of commercial services by Continental, There are changes afoot at ATS Euromaster and the Goodyear situation, perhaps unfairly, casts a shadow over Hi-Q – though Goodyear is far from being bowed and the trade can expect developments in that area shortly. However, for the independent commercial tyre specialist there is really only one possible route forwards in dealing with the fleet market, and that, in the UK certainly, has to be Truck Point.
Mobile tyre fitting is here to stay and is being offered to fleet customers (and others) as a positive advantage, saving them time and effort. Preventative maintenance, in the form of car park tyre checks at the workplace, is also becoming popular. ATS Euromaster took a long, hard look at its mobile offering and decided that a few changes were necessary.
The car fleet tyre market has seen some changes recently. The forerunner of fleet tyre management was, we believe, FTM, first established in 1991. Cutting to the chase, two years ago as part of the Montinex Group, FTM almost went to the wall when Montinex collapsed. Its management included Kevin Parker, who was snapped up by National Fleet, then in the hands of Continental, and Dominic Bateson who in quick time arrived at the helm of General Motor’s backed Fit4Fleet. At the same time Kwik-Fit had been acquired by Ford and there was a drive to expand Kwik-Fit’s coverage of the fleet market. Sir Tom Farmer bought FTM from the receiver and brought in Mike Wise to operate FTM to cater for the independent sector alongside Kwik-Fit Fleet. This was an arrangement which despite Mike Wise’s team’s success in delivering the contracts, remained uneasy as many independents questioned FTM’s autonomy from Kwik-Fit. Some simply had a dislike, or fear, of the Kwik-Fit ogre. Now that FTM has gone and Kwik-Fit Fleet has turned its back on the independents the sector is in a state of flux. This, in depth feature airs the views of the top players in this important and growing sector. The two equity players, ATS and Hi-Q have leading positions in the sector though both freely admit to chasing Kwik-Fit. Central’s role is somewhat less, and anyway is masked in the figures of one of the larger fleet tyre management operation’s figures. ATS Euromaster is in the invidious position of having lost two of its top management, both appointed from outside the tyre trade to bring in fresh approaches. The past year has seen ATS putting a great deal of effort into the retail outlets, perhaps at the expense of the car fleet sector. “The coming year”, says Ian Thomas, strategic development and interim sales director, “will see a redirection of emphasis and a development of the fleet sector alongside the ongoing retail developments.” ATS Euromaster, which we will refer to from here as ATS, has been in the fleet sector for a long time, however it’s interests have historically been largely in the truck and agricultural sectors rather than the car and van fleets. In the truck fleet market ATS lays claim to 35 per cent of the tyre replacement market and 85 per cent of the truck breakdown market in the UK. The inroads into the car sector, though significant, are far less and Ian Thomas admits that in car fleet terms ATS is trailing market leader Kwik-Fit, though he stresses that the company’s second place in the sector is a long way ahead of the third largest player. Ian didn’t say which was the third largest player but at present we might estimate that the honour falls to either National Fleet or Hi-Q, though if AA Tyre Fit is as successful as Centrica hope that position may change within the year. Paul Harrell, retail director responsible for Hi-Q advises T&A that the Goodyear Dunlop equity has been under review and through 2003 will be taking on a new stronger Hi-Q branding, with a reorganisation which truly strengthens Hi-Q, putting them in leading positions in some sectors of the UK market. Mike Wise who proved himself as a contract winner at FTM has been retained as the sales director for Kwik-Fit Fleet. In a frank discussion with T&A Mike was quite open about his thoughts on the market … “Honestly, I don’t think there is a future for the independent tyre retailer in the fleet tyre market … Kwik-Fit wins on every count … there will always be some work for them [the independents], but in the long term I question their viability against the strengths of Kwik-Fit.” To find out how the competition responded to Mike’s outspoken views read the most in depth discussion on the fleet tyre sector ever written …
Tyreserve is a new company aiming to create a big impression in the UK car fleet servicing market, which is reckoned to be worth around 200 million Pounds a year. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of national wholesaler Stapleton’s Tyre Services and is being launched at the beginning of April, backed up by an investment by Stapleton’s of two million Pounds. The fleet car market is extremely competitive, with the market leader being Kwik-Fit, followed by ATS Euromaster, FTM Tyrefit and National Tyres & Autocare. These first three have a market share of around 85% and, last year, Kwik-Fit acquired the shares of FTM. FTM is an association of independent retailers, banding together to provide a national fleet service and facilities. Tyreserve is aiming at FTM as its main target – when FTM was acquired by Kwik-Fit, there was some unease expressed by some independents, who wondered how this would affect the status quo. It promises to be an interesting time, with a new player entering the market and, presumably, the existing players determined to defend what they already hold. What makes it more interesting is that the main directors of Tyreserve were all working up until recently for Kwik-Fit Fleet. At least two names will need no introduction to the UK tyre trade – Managing Director David Goodyear and Network Director Charles Hespin.
In the UK, ATS Euromaster has announced that Birmingham City centre will become home to its new National Administration & Finance Centre, creating over 150 jobs in the process. Commenting on the announcement, Roland Combes, Managing Director, said: “We want to develop our strategic base in the city of Birmingham to complement our state-of-the-art Customer Service Centre in Aston. The new facility means we will be able to provide seamless operational support for our centres, whilst continuing to deliver the best possible service to our growing UK customer base.”
The car fleet market varies from country to country across Europe, but in countries such as Germany and the UK, it is an important percentage of the car market. Increasingly, the owner of the car fleet is paying a fleet management company to maintain the cars and carry out maintenance, tyre replacements and so on. Many leasing companies expect to expand on a pan-European basis, which means that, increasingly, the service provider has to have continent-wide coverage. In the UK, the market leader in this field is Kwik-Fit Fleet, followed by ATS Euromaster, FTM Tyrefit (an affiliation of independent retailers, giving nationwide coverage and which has linked up with point S for coverage on mainland Europe) and National Tyres & Autocare. All these have operations outside the UK. It is easy to see the attraction of the fleet market – it is estimated that sales of tyres, batteries and exhausts to this sector are worth £180 million in the UK alone – and for the tyre manufacturers, it is strategically important as a means of increasing market share. The fleet customer is extremely demanding; not only in terms of service, but also in management reports and information, so the fleet service provider has to be much more than a mere tyre supplier. The market is very competitive and the motto of the provider is ‘service, service, service’. The attitude is summed up by Simon Roper, Managing Director of Kwik-Fit Fleet, who says, “Nobody takes tomorrow’s business for granted.”
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
