Online tyre distributor Delticom AG has announced a number of measures aimed at returning the company to profitability. These measures already include discontinuing some businesses and may lead to an investor acquiring Delticom or a significant share of the firm.
Proposed changes to the EU Tyre Labelling Regulation came a step closer to becoming reality on Wednesday when the European Parliament, Council and Commission reached a political agreement on the matter. The text of the Regulation now awaits formal approval by the European Parliament and the Council. Once both endorse the updated Regulation in the coming months, it will be published in the Official Journal of the Union and will enter into force 20 days after publication. The new Regulation will apply from 1 May 2021.
The last few weeks have seen well-known automotive retailer and autocentre owner Halfords Group make a major move into the tyre retail space. Of course, this is nothing new, the company has been travelling towards tyre retail for about a decade. The last push of this scale was in February 2010 when the company bought Nationwide Autocentres for £73 million – a move that was laden with history of its own.
Melbourne, Australia has become the fifth location for Pirelli’s global flagship P Zero World retail store. The new opening follows Los Angeles (2016), Munich (2017), Monaco (2018), and Dubai (2019) as the latest site for the brand’s “boutique store for tyres” concept. P Zero World stocks Pirelli’s most exclusive products alongside bespoke services for owners of sports and luxury cars.
In October Halfords Group bought troubled online tyre retailer Tyres on the Drive for £746,000, but the company had previously valued the business at as much as £150 million.
Halfords Group plc bought McConechy’s Tyre Service Limited, the sixth-largest tyre retail business in the UK, on 7 November 2019 for £8.5 million. This makes the newly-expanded Halfords Autocentres the second largest tyre retailer in the UK.
UK tyre wholesaler Traxx Tyres has announced a new partnership with Apollo Vredestein. Traxx will initially stock and distribute Vredestein brand tyres, with the possibility of adding the Apollo tyre range in the future.
Less than a year after Tirescanner.com was founded, at the start of November, the business reported that it is live in Florida. This means Tirescanner already covers 1200 postcodes codes, matching consumers with products from a range of hundreds of thousands of tyres and – crucially – connecting them with “the best local retailers”. At the moment this works on a next day install, but the plan is to take this to a same-day level. And more states are said to be coming fast. We’re used to pretty rapid progress when it comes to dotcom start-ups, but such fast growth is more understandable when you consider that Tirescanner is driven by Blackcircles.com founder Mike Welch. Tyres & Accessories recently caught up with Welch in order to find out how the company plans to continue and sustain this growth.
Sales of Michelin motorcycle tyres have doubled within the past five years. The tyre maker also aims to double sales again in the coming five, and will be aided here by a comprehensive renewal within its two-wheeler tyre portfolio in 2020. No less than nine new products will be introduced next year, a line-up expected to represent a quarter of Michelin’s sales within this segment. The new additions are currently on display at the EICMA motorcycle show in Milan, Italy
UK new car registrations declined -6.7 per cent last month, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). 10,348 fewer cars were registered than in October last year, reflecting a tough environment for businesses and consumers as economic and political uncertainty continued to impact confidence.
Lydia Limited, the company behind tyre price comparison site Motokiki, called in the administrators on 24 October 2019. Simon Girling and Chris Marsden of BDO LLP were appointed Joint Administrators on the same day. Tyres & Accessories understands that the administrators are seeking to sell the technology assets of the company and is seeking offers before a Friday 15 November 2019 deadline.
Tyre people often remind us that the tyre is a vehicle’s only point of contact with the ground. This is, of course, true and a very salient point. However, as tyres get smarter, so are roads and infrastructure.
In the spring, Auto Bild looked at the wet and dry braking results from five of its latest summer and all-season tyre tests. Tyre brands that had participated in at least three tests received an average percentage value for all braking tests results, and based on these values the motoring magazine named Michelin its ‘Manufacturer of the Year’. With winter now approaching, Auto Bild has reached for its pocket calculator again to work out which products are “the best tyres for the cold season”.
From next year, Goodyear will replace its sister brand Dunlop as sole tyre supplier to the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). Goodyear says the decision comes with a view to enhancing the Goodyear brand within the motorsport and ultra-ultra-high-performance (UUHP) segments. Goodyear first returned to motorsport outside North America at the end of August with the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at Silverstone.
The Michelin Group informed the 619 employees at its tyre production facility in La Roche-sur-Yon, France this morning that it will close the site by the end of next year. In addition, 74 people at Michelin’s Cholet plant, employees working in roles related to the supply of rubber mixed to the La Roche-sur-Yon site, are also affected by the closure.
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