Many would reasonably argue that our country’s economic system has recently taken a blow to the head, but during this time when the “credit crunch” is complicating our lives, NE Wholesale is seizing the opportunity to distibguish itself from the majority of the tyre distribution market. As companies prepare to “cut costs” and customers are “clinching their belts”, NE Wholesale says it is remaining committed to its three-year strategic plan.
Wayne Thomas was appointed President of the Garage Equipment Association, (GEA), at their recent AGM, which was held at the GEA offices in Daventry, on 21 April 2009. Thomas takes over from Gary Shepherd, managing director of Rotary Lift UK, who has served as president for the past year. Thomas, who is currently managing director of GEMCO Equipment Ltd, commented: “The GEA has become recognised as our industry’s body, for example, it’s currently assessing and accrediting vehicle lift installation and service engineers. This accreditation scheme will drive-up the standards within our industry and provides our customers with greater peace of mind. During my term as president I will constantly influence the GEA in improving the standards of the garage equipment industry.”
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and for automotive industry charity BEN a dearth of funds in this period of recession has led to the cancellation of its 2009 lunch event. The BEN Annual Lunch, a thank you to supporters that have helped the charity over the previous year, is normally sponsored so as to not divert money from the main business of care and welfare. BEN reports, however, that the recession has affected its fundraising income, and that in these “difficult times” even its traditional supporters have needed to cut their costs.
On 1 April Goodyear Dunlop UK introduced its new Goodyear brand manager, Michelle Fisher. She will take over from Ben Crawley, who will now move into the position of business account manager, working on key strategic accounts, including KwikFit, for the company. Crawley has been with the company for seven years, three of which he spent in the brand manager slot. Fisher, formerly Goodyear Dunlop’s market research intelligence manager, moves into the role following her first year with the company.
Before joining the Goodyear Dunlop organisation Fisher, who has a BA Joint Honours degree in French and Business Studies, worked for Schneider Electric followed by the roles of market research executive and prospect relationship marketing executive at Aga Consumer Products.
Despite the current economic situation, Pathway Polymers, marketers of TyrFil Recycling Systems, claims that it has expanded its sales force and opened a new facility.The new 6,000 sq ft development, processor training and machine demo area is at Pathway Polymer’s production facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The development, processor training, and machine demo area is fully equipped with TrioFil, AutoFil, Graco, Electric TyrFil, and LiteFil tire fill systems for use by Pathway’s development staff and customer processors.
The three new territory managers include Kevin Carr, based in Henderson, Nevada, who covers the western US; Ben Parish, from Chicago, who covers the Midwest; and Pat McKinney in San Antonio, who is responsible for the southwest. (Tire Review/Akron)
The Garage Equipment Association (GEA) recently ran its annual Golf Tournament, raising £4271.40 for the motor trade’s charity BEN. During the evening an extra £2,000 was donated to BEN by Bradbury Equipment Ltd, the money was pledged by Bradbury as a percentage of sales via Unipart’s Mega Wise Buys scheme.
The golfing event hosted 17 teams from the motor industry with Premier Diagnostics winning the GEA Rose Bowl, and Crypton the runners up. Capital Petroleum won the BEN Cup and VOSA were the runners up.
Leading North East region car care specialist, North Eastern Tyre and Exhausts, has made a strategic addition to its team to help further the company’s success. Joanne Hooper, from Darlington, has been appointed as marketing coordinator for the wholesale arm of the business.
Known as NE Wholesale, this area of the business is dedicated exclusively to trade customers. NE wholesale operates four warehouses in locations throughout the North of England, and within these facilities carries in excess of 100,000 tyres, giving the company assurance that trade customers receive the best possible service and swift delivery; indeed, some 95 per cent of the company’s trade customers receive a minimum of three deliveries each day. Given the current scope of operations, NETE believes the time has come for a dedicated marketing specialist to further the success of this part of the company.
Drifting has seen a rapid growth in popularity in recent years in United Kingdom, and the 2008 European Drifting Championship attracted large numbers of competitors and fans to the Knockhill Circuit in Scotland. The racing action was reported to be top notch all weekend during the 17th and 18th of May, providing an exhilarating atmosphere for spectators. For Federal Tires, these events, in which British duo Ben Broke-Smith and Phil Morrison performed spectacularly, help the company draw closer to the growing enthusiast market for high performance tyres.
The weekend drew all manner of petrol head out of the woodwork, lured by the smell of burning rubber as it were to two days of burnouts, cruising and admiring the metal on display. Phil, from Driftworks, showed off his Skyline’s paint and body work, seizing much attention.
Cooper Tire’s acclaimed Zeon 2XS tyres will be put to the test on the small screen during the Fifth Gear programme that will air on 25 August. The ultra-high tyres will be featured on the Nissan R35 GTR of performance tuning company, GTC, as the car goes head to head with a Porsche 911 Turbo. GTC director Ben Linney’s GTR is the first example of the car to land on UK shores and, after tuning, pumps out 536bhp. The car was driven by Fifth Gear’s high-profile new ‘test driver’ during the head to head run at Welsh circuit, Anglesey, on 9 July.
The car, and the Cooper Zeon 2XS tyres, perfect for the GTR thanks to their superior cornering and handling characteristics, performed impeccably during the test, according to Linney. “The car was driven hard all day,” explained Linney. “The driver was doing power slides and drifts in the wet weather, just feet away from the cliffs. The 2XS tyres lasted all day, and with very little wear. As they say, they ‘don’t give up a thing’.”
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Goodyear Brand Manager Ben Crawley is celebrating after being highly commended at this year’s Marketing Society awards held at the London Hilton. Crawley was one of only two selected as a finalist from across the UK, in the society’s Young Marketer of the Year Award which recognises industry leading performance from marketeers under the age of 30.
Goodyear uses a mix of media to communicate its message of safety and the brands unique safety partnerships are the main focus of this initiative. By becoming Safety and Innovation partner of the RNLI, Mountain Rescue and British Eventing, Goodyear has been able to communicate a message of family safety to a much wider target audience. Communications have included cause related marketing via Goodyear’s award winning HydraGrip tyre renowned for its safety in the wet, where 50p per tyre was donated to the authority on water safety, the RNLI and the issuing of thousands of safety arm bands to horse riders across the UK through its partnership with British Eventing.
Barrie Flemming, Bosch Garage equipment product manager, received the GEA Certificate at the Garage Equipment Association (GEA) Dinner on 16 April. Bosch was presented in appreciation and recognition of valuable contributions to BEN – Motor and Allied Trade.
Bosch supports the charity as a media partner as well as many of their hosted events, throughout the year. These events are vital when increasing the awareness of the tremendous work that BEN provides, ensuring thousands of colleagues and friends receive the help that they need.
The Kumho Tyres MSA British Rallycross Championship moves to Pembrey in South Wales on May 3 and 4 for a crucial double-header that forms the second and third rounds of the championship. Title holder Ollie O’Donovan won the first round of the championship and holds a three-point lead at the head of the championship tables entering rounds two and three. Last year proved to be a bogey track for O’Donovan, technical problems costing him places in both of the championship’s visits to the fast Welsh track.
“I think I had quite an easy run in the first round but I’m not expecting it to be like that at Pembrey as there’s a long run from the start to the first corner and that doesn’t really suit my car as much as some others,” said O’Donovan, who added that his plan is to race hard right from the start. “I think everyone will be conscious that there’s a need to get the cars through two full days, but I’d rather go for it right from the start and take my win on Saturday than hang back and take a place and then perhaps miss out on Sunday too. The two drivers I’d be most concerned about are Steve Hill and Liam Doran, but I’ll take each day as it comes.”
For NE Wholesale, the ability to provide three times daily deliver to customers has become a firm emphasis. To achieve this level of service, the company has built up a fleet of more than 120 vans that operate out of five distribution points, infrastructure that despite the cost of developing, has, comments NE Wholesale, been worth the expense and effort. The company has seen a growing number of customers making the switch to NE Wholesale after seeing the benefits offered by the wholesaler’s ‘Rapid Response’ one-hour service, currently enjoyed by around 65 per cent of NE Wholesale’s customers.
“This is a just-in-time service offer that works on the principal of delivering the tyres within one hour of them being ordered,” comments Ben Darcy, NE Wholesale sales & marketing director. “Our delivery service works hand in hand with our high performance tyre stock. Customers cannot afford to have large amounts of expensive premium brand product on the shelf gathering dust, and they don’t need to when they can receive the tyres within an hour of ordering.
Nottinghamshire Police has revealed worrying findings after carrying out spot checks on motorcycles on the county’s roads, reports TyreSafe. As part of Operation Retina, which aims to combat the number of motorcyclists killed on the county’s roads, more than half of all bikes randomly stopped over a one-week period during the road checks were found to have defects, including worn tyres.
This statistic mirrors data released by Vehicle Operator and Services Agency (VOSA), which indicated bike MOT failures had increased significantly – from 1,700 to 5,000 – between 2006 and 2007, and TyreSafe says this highlights the fact that riders are simply not looking after their machinery.
Goodyear has introduced a range of new sizes for its Duragrip offering. Due to the apparent success of DuraGrip in 2007, the range has been extended covering popular family cars such as the Golf, Focus and Astra, as well as smaller cars such as the Fiesta, Punto and Polo. Goodyear representatives explain that the DuraGrip was specifically developed to cope with the constant stop/start of city driving. Futhermore, according to the company, the fitment of DuraGrip can actually pay back the price of the tyre in fuel savings.
“The tyre has been designed to deliver improved rolling resistance – and tests certainly show this to be the case. The DuraGrip tyre offers 18 per cent less rolling resistance than its predecessor. This, in turn, delivers increased fuel economy which is becoming an increasing priority for all drivers. In fact, when you do the sums you discover that the tyre can actually pay for itself within a year!” stated Ben Crawley, Brand Manager Goodyear UK.
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