BTCC
Dunlop has announced its key UK motorsport meet dates for 2009. The race calendar will include Dunlop’s role as sole tyre supplier to the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship and as official sponsor of the Dunlop Great and British Motorsport Festival. Additionally, the company is the sole tyre supplier to the Dunlop Sport Maxx Production Cup.
Dunlop has released the dates for its 2009 Great & British festival, at which the company’s Sport Maxx Production Cup series for saloon and sports cars will take place, alongside the Mini and Radical Championships. The festival will take place: at Rockingham on 18-19 April; at Brands Hatch on 6-7 June; at Donnington Park on 4-5 July; at Castle Combe on 18-19 July; at Croft on 22-23 August; and finally at Snitterton on 12-13 September.
Two PR campaigns by tyre company Goodyear Dunlop have been commended by industry experts, having been awarded three gold awards for its commitment to corporate social responsibility and use of photography, as well as receiving the prize for best publication.
The 2008 Goodyear Playground Appeal, which saw the tyre giant grant a needy playground a £10,000 makeover, has been deemed a worthy winner in the Midlands CIPR PRide Awards which recognise outstanding work in the field of communications and public relations. The accolade, which was awarded in the corporate responsibility category, was given to Goodyear for successfully executing the campaign and communicating the brand’s continued commitment to family safety through the Playground Appeal. Using an intensive media relations strategy, the campaign successfully positioned the brand as champion in the family safety arena whilst taking a responsible stance on the environment through recycling.
HiQ is promising to continue its good work throughout the length of its three-year sponsorship of the British Touring Car Championship, having been praised by organisers for its “brilliant” first 12 months with the UK’s premier motor racing series. The final round of racing at Brands Hatch in September signalled the end of a first year of partnership with the BTCC, which HiQ has branded “extremely fruitful”.
BTCC series director Alan Gow said: “HiQ and the BTCC is developing into a brilliant relationship. The company has been extremely pro-active from the first race back in March and we have received a great deal of feedback praising the company’s energy and enthusiasm. A lot of time and effort has gone into engaging with the fans of the series, who are reaping the benefit of having HiQ as the title sponsor and the introduction of this clever Champagne Moment initiative is giving those watching both trackside and live on television yet another chance to get actively involved in the championship.”
The Champagne Moment competition asked raceday crowds to visit its website www.hiqonline.co.uk and vote for their favourite driver at each round, embracing the BTCC’s approach of interacting with the public. HiQ also arranged Fans Forums to give fans a chance to meet the BTCC’s teams and drivers at its local stores ahead of each race meeting. Both initiatives helped the company to raise awareness of the HiQ name among thousands of new potential customers.
Italian manufacturer Marangoni has ramped up its efforts in increasing its profile in recent weeks. After the highly successful Summer show and event programme – which endeavoured to bring the brand to the forefront of the performance and tuning market – the British International Motorshow provided an opportunity to take the firm’s self-styled ‘Marangoni Brand Experience’ to the record crowds that gathered at Excel in London. The company believes that its name carries the promise of European heritage, all-round performance and value, hoping that this triumvirate of riches resonates strongly with drivers of both performance and everyday cars.
Headlining the Marangoni presence at the British International Motorshow, and very much the draw on the Santa Pod Raceway stand, was the mighty Progetto Marangoni Toyota Yaris; an attraction that has been popular with British crowds all year. With the car on public display for a full week and contrasting with other show exhibits, the company was delighted with the response of motorists. Marangoni report a “huge number of requests for information on the Marangoni product, with visitors clamoring for information and the right Marangoni tyre choice for their cars.” The palpable hit scored by the Yaris helped to further establish Marangoni as a widely-recognised tyre brand amongst the show’s knowledgeable and discerning audience.
As its first season as title sponsor draws to a close (the last race is on 21 September), HiQ is promising to build on its exciting three-year sponsorship of the British Touring Car Championship. According to the company, the sports bosses have praise the way in which HiQ have handled the image and representatives of the tyre retail chain say they will be coming back with even more initiatives when the 2009 campaign begins in April.
HiQ has been keen to interact with as many fans as possible during the season, in order to maximize its sponsorship of the sporting extravaganza. More than 2,000 supporters have made the most of the company’s fans’ forum events, which have taken place in towns around the UK before each race, featuring some of the stars of the circuits.
Having spent 17 years working for Procter & Gamble in both national and European positions Mark Brickhill became Goodyear Dunlop UK managing director in May 2007. What followed was something of a steep learning curve. Headhunted from a senior management position overseeing laundry products in Geneva, it was only a matter of weeks before he faced the new challenge of tyres. One year on, and set against an impressive global Goodyear recovery, Tyres & Accessories met Mark Brickhill at the company's Tyre Fort headquarters in Birmingham and asked: How is the UK turnaround going?
Arriving at Tyre Fort in Birmingham, the first thing you notice is the still gleaming Norbert Dentressangle logo that now hangs on the adjacent distribution centre (the Goodyear and Dunlop brands on the side of the huge building excepted). Less than a month after his appointment as general manager was made public, Mark Brickhill encountered something of a sea change in the company's newly revamped distribution setup. In January 2006 Goodyear Dunlop decided to hand over the warehousing and delivery control of most its products to a third party logistics company (3PL). The idea was for Goodyear Dunlop and Christian Salvesen (as it was then) to work together to improve efficiencies and costs for everyone involved. To say feelings about this move in general were mixed would be something of an understatement. And to say the service wasn't as good as all the respective parties had hoped for would be similarly wide of the mark.
In touring car racing, Dunlop is the tyre supplier of choice in the German DTM, Australian V8 Supercars and the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship. The company possesses more wins at Le Mans than any other tyre manufacturer. This racing pedigree has helped the company to innovate technologies for tyres designed for everyday motoring. Dunlop will be exemplifying this at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend (11-13 July), where the company will demonstrate how its racing success leads to high technology road tyres; the result of development partnerships with premium performance car manufacturers.
HiQ is offering British Touring Car Championship fans a 5 per cent discount for BTCC fans that buy and book their tyres online at www.hiqonline.co.uk. The savings are in addition to the existing offers that always apply whenever online purchases are made.
HiQ’s commercial manager Farrell Dolan said: “Not only are our online prices highly competitive, we’re also offering an additional five per cent off to the fans of the BTCC, who turn up in their thousands at every race weekend. Our sponsorship of the BTCC is in its first year of a three year deal, and we have all been amazed by the fans’ dedication and passion so far.
Goodyear Dunlop UK’s management has decided not to sell the HiQ tyre chain to a team of four managers led by retail director Neil Burrows. Instead the company will continue with its plans to sell franchises in 15 regional zones across the UK. HiQ’s management team will be based at Goodyear Dunlop’s TyreFort in Birmingham. Tyres & Accessories understands that, despite missing out in the bidding process, all four managers involved in the buy-out proposal will be offered roles at Goodyear Dunlop.
Mark Brickhill paid tribute to the quality and vision of the Management Buyout Team’s proposal: “The team presented a thoroughly professional bid, concept and business model. An announcement on specific future roles will be made shortly, with announcements on the individual regional franchise partnerships to follow after the due diligence process with each successful applicant.”
HiQ recently gave a tyre fitter from Derby the chance to showcase his skills to drivers of the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park. Dave Parker, a mobile tyre technician with HiQ, worked trackside changing tyres for Matt Neal, Darren Turner, and all the stars of Britain’s premier motor racing series.
The 30-year-old will join the Dunlop Motorsport team after HiQ bosses singled him out on account of his quick-change skills. The fast fitter, based at HiQ’s Abbey Street store, vowed to teach Dunlop Motorsport a thing or two about tyre changes as well.
As the official tyre supplier of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship, Dunlop is confident it knows what it takes to create a truly high performance tyre. The technology required to create such tyres is not only used on racetracks across the UK; it also resides in the tyres used by millions every day.
There was a time when the motto ‘race on Sunday, buy on Monday’ meant exactly that – sixty years ago a motorist could more or less purchase any car or component seen out on the track the previous weekend. These days competition cars are somewhat farther removed from their road going counterparts, but Dunlop says that in spite of this it strives to keep the race on Sunday, buy on Monday spirit alive as it believes on-track rubber developments can benefit every driver.
Most of the time BTCC drivers compete on treadless slick tyres, so one may be tempted to ask how such an item can help the development of a road tyre. The answer is straightforward – a tyre without tread is, by necessity, more dependent upon its compound to deliver the correct amount of grip. Tyre longevity, or lack of, also becomes more pronounced. Sensors allow data from the tyres to be read, and when fed into a computer Dunlop’s road engineers can study how the rubber behaves when pushed to its maximum.
HiQ is offering discounts of up to 20 per cent on “race track inspired” Dunlop tyres at stores across the country, as a way of celebrating the tyre retail chain’s first year as sponsor of the British Touring Car Championship. “We are delighted to be sponsoring the MSA British Touring Car Championships. It is a huge development for HiQ and we want to share our delight with customers. We have agreed to knock 20 per cent off a range of brands,” HiQ managing director Neil Burrows commented, adding: “The BTCC has proved that it can deliver high value of advertising worth, with live ITV coverage, the biggest UK motor sport attendance figures and broad media exposure. It gives HiQ a perfect opportunity to promote our unique offering as we re-launch and grow our network across the UK.”
HiQ has unveiled plans to “accelerate” the company’s franchise offer by transferring 109 existing company-owned stores into 15 regional zones for regional as well as national investment. The news came in parallel with the launch of HiQ’s sponsorship of this year’s British Touring Car Championship. Company representatives told Tyres & Accessories that this seven figure motorsport investment represents the single largest marketing investment Goodyear Dunlop has committed to the HiQ brand.
In a further twist, HiQ managing director Neil Burrows announced that he and “three members of the management group” are interested in investing into a “significant part” of the network themselves, demonstrating they really are willing to put their money where their mouths are regarding the franchise’s development. Therefore, in the interests of transparency, Neil Burrows and the other three as yet unnamed managers will be assigned to special projects (such as managing the BTCC sponsorship deal) within the Goodyear Dunlop group.
The news that Goodyear Dunlop is effectively franchising-off 109 of its retail outlets also goes some way to further explaining the recent decision to transfer former Goodyear Dunlop Commercial Director, Robin Sharpe, to “special projects.” With Burrows team’s decision to bid for HiQ in mind, it now appears that Sharpe will manage the HiQ team until the final announcement regarding the franchising of the HiQ equity branches has been announced.
Goodyear Dunlop representatives told T&A that the jobs of all those involved are secure and, in the event that their bid is not successful, they will be free to return to their former positions. The company will be unveiling details of its nationwide franchising programme on 31 March, with the definitive structure following in the summer.
At the time of the announcement Goodyear Dunlop Managing Director Mark Brickhill stated: “The fact that Neil and his team wish to invest in HiQ is a signal of the confidence that management have in the future success of HiQ. However, it is vital that we have complete independence and transparency during the franchise application period, which is why we have appointed Robin to lead the HiQ team during the next few weeks.”
“There are huge opportunities in the vehicle servicing market due to the lifting of restrictions on who can carry out servicing work on vehicles without affecting warranties. This, coupled with aggressive new product development plans from Goodyear and Dunlop, means that HiQ is in a strong position to grow significantly over the coming years.”
The total number of HiQ outlets nationwide as of February 2008 stands at approximately 120. The three-year plan unveiled last year is to more than double this number by 2010. The target now is for 60 more retail franchisees to have joined the network by the end of 2008.
Neil Burrows has previously stated that the company is initially interested in attracting franchisees in the North West and within the M25. While this is still true, the strategy for 2008 is also to fill gaps in the market. For example, at the time of going to press, there wasn’t a single HiQ outlet in Norfolk. “Longer term we are not limiting ourselves to 250 outlets,” Burrows commented, explaining that in the future retail outlets would be run by a combination of single centre owners and multi-store franchisees. The example of one franchisee in Cumbria exemplifies the way a multi-store franchise might operate. This franchisee is exclusively responsible for HiQ sales in the Lake District and as such he has the opportunity to enter into dialogue with the company regarding development of further HiQs in the area.
Over a year since HiQ relaunched itself as a car and van only tyre specialist, plans to upgrade the look and feel of the network continue to progress. 30 outlets are already refurbished in what are still the early stages of three to five year upgrade plan. HiQ’s novel use of the Internet as a sales tool is also said to be expanding following the system’s soft launch last August. While sales generated through the online system still represents “less than 5 per cent” of overall sales, this is expected to increase significantly as the company adds additional tyre brands and servicing options to the system.
Seven-figure sponsorship investment
While the launch of HiQ’s maiden year as title sponsor of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) may have been upstaged to some extent by the news of the radical changes within HiQ’s ownership structure, it would be a mistake to underestimate the significance of this deal.
“The HiQ business is a core part of Goodyear Dunlop’s plan for profitable growth and [the] HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship launch is evidence that we are continuing to invest to build HiQ as a vital channel to market for us. The HiQ network growth will be through franchising. Our existing franchises have been tremendously successful and there is significant interest from existing and potential new franchisees in joining us to invest in HiQ,”
During the BTCC/HiQ launch press conference Neil Burrows explained that he first entered talks with the BTCC series director and administrator on the subject of a sponsorship deal roughly a year ago. According to Burrows, the arrangement works at every level and the partnership “really has legs” for future development.
One example of this is the running of race evenings in outlets near race meetings, featuring racing stars and experts. The first of these will take place at the HiQ in Grays, Essex, and is expected to present a strong PR and promotion opportunity for the brand. Apparently the only problem with this kind of event is there isn’t enough races in the season to cover all 120 HiQs.
Another example is the discount promotion HiQ is currently running, with HiQ offering discounts of up to 20 per cent on “race track inspired” Dunlop tyres at stores across the country as a way of celebrating the tyre retail chain’s first year as sponsor of the British Touring Car Championship.
“We are delighted to be sponsoring the MSA British Touring Car Championships. It is a huge development for HiQ and we want to share our delight with customers. We have agreed to knock 20 per cent off a range of brands,” HiQ managing director Neil Burrows commented, adding: “The BTCC has proved that it can deliver high value of advertising worth, with live ITV coverage, the biggest UK motor sport attendance figures and broad media exposure. It gives HiQ a perfect opportunity to promote our unique offering as we re-launch and grow our network across the UK.”
HiQ has unveiled plans to “accelerate” the company’s franchise offer by transferring existing company-owned stores into 15 regional zones where Goodyear Dunlop are looking for larger franchise partners to invest in HiQ regionally as well as nationally. The news came in parallel with the launch of HiQ’s sponsorship of this year’s British Touring Car Championship. Company representatives told Tyres & Accessories that the seven figure motorsport investment represents the single largest marketing investment Goodyear Dunlop has committed to the HiQ brand.
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