Aeolus has confirmed its involvement with the CV Show in April, where it will debut with its exclusive UK distributor, Kings Road Tyres (KRT). According to the company, the show will provide an important opportunity to build wider brand awareness for Aeolus, which has been manufacturing commercial vehicle tyres since 1965.
Cooper Tire’s 4×4 range has been extended with the introduction of the Zeon LTZ and two new Discoverer models, the S/T MAXX and A/T3. All three tyres are off-road ready, with the Zeon LTZ performing as a hybrid between sport truck and all-terrain applications, with improved road handling and ride characteristics. One of the brand's distributors in this segment, Kings Road Tyres has worked with Cooper for more than 10 years, and purchasing and marketing manager, Tim Bader predicts that the new options could make a big impact, creating “a real buzz among stockists and end users”.
Kings Road Tyres (KRT) has announced that it will exhibit at the new construction industry show, Plantworx as distributor of Michelin’s industrial tyre range. Taking place on 14-16 May, 2013 at Stoneleigh Park near Coventry and, with backing from the Construction Equipment Association and more than 100,000sqm of space devoted to live construction equipment, KRT says it is likely to be the largest event of its kind in the UK.
Kings Road Tyres’ group credit control manager, Barry Hill, recently celebrated the achievement of completing 40 years unbroken service with the company. Hill joined KRT at the Southampton location in 1972 and spent 34 years at the centre before a career change saw him appointed as group credit control manager based in Hayes in 2006.
The National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) has appointed a new national chairman to its board of executive officers. Steve Callow, managing director of Callow Car Care Ltd., takes over from David White of Kwik-Fit. Callow Car Care is based in the North West and was established 40 years ago by Steve’s late father Ron. It offers fast-fit and MOT service from two centres in Merseyside and Wirral.
Three members of the board of KRT have completed a management buy-out of the group – UK & Ireland (financed by GE Capital). The new company – Kings Road Tyres Group Ltd will be led by Adrian Bader (managing director), Mark Cooper (commercial director) and Simon Lister (financial director). Bader told Tyres & Accessories that the transition of company ownership is proceeding “seamlessly”, since “most of the people that were running the company before will be running the new company”.
KRT has been marketing and distributing tyres for the past four decades having become one of the largest independent tyre distributors in the UK and Ireland. According to the company, 4×4/SUV tyres are a “very important part” of their growing business, which became a new focus when the company added the Cooper range of Light Truck, 4×4 and SUV tyres to their line up 10 years ago. During this time the Cooper brand name has reportedly grown dramatically. And the range of fitments and patterns in the Cooper portfolio enables KRT to cover “the majority of every requirement.”
Kings Road Tyres claims to be at the forefront of agricultural tyre distribution in the UK, and as an official wholesaler for leading agricultural manufacturers such as Michelin, Firestone, Trelleborg and Goodyear, as well as the exclusive UK wholesale distributor for both Taurus and Jetire brands, the company is already able to offer an extensive range of agricultural tyres. This product line-up has been further extended for 2011, with the addition of the premium Kleber agricultural tyre range.
Compared to the 2007 edition of Brityrex, ECI International says that the number of visitors rose by 5 per cent at the 2010 show earlier this month. Exhibitors at the UK tyre trade show told ECI that the show had been a success, with many reporting excellent sales and new business opportunities from the three-day exhibition at the Manchester Central convention centre. Representatives from diverse companies such as Point S, Apaseal and Kings Road Tyres were among those voicing their appreciation for the event.
Brityrex 2010 attracted a group of visitors from Shandong Province’s Guangrao County, which met with Tyres & Accessories on the Tuesday evening in Manchester’s Renaissance Hotel off Deansgate. The delegation included the president of Deruibotire (also known as Shandong Deribao Tire Co Ltd) Yuan Tingshu; Guangrao Shandong vice county magistrate Li Jianjun; and Bureau of Commerce of Guangrao County director and party secretary Zhu Hanqing. The delegation gave a presentation on the strengths of Guangrao County – a location described by Li as “an economic powerhouse within Shandong Province” and one of China’s major tyre and automotive accessory producing regions, as well as the host of China (Guangrao) International Rubber Tire & Auto Accessory Exhibition (ChinaGRTAE), which is due to be staged for the second time in 2011. Along with Tyres & Accessories and other representatives of the UK tyre trade, the delegation met with the NTDA’s Richard Edy and Peter Gaster, also of UK wholesaler Kings Road Tyres.
Having taken the opportunity to promote its private Kingstone brand in Europe at Reifen 2010, wholesaler Kings Road Tyres goes into Brityrex looking to build relationships and communicate information effectively in the face-to-face format offered by the exhibition, in addition to continuing the stride made this year with Kingstone.
UK wholesaler Kings Road Tyres told Tyres & Accessories its presence at Reifen was an opportunity “to sell the Kings Road Tyres brand” at its stand next to one of Hall 2’s entrances alongside other major European tyre distributors. Purchasing and marketing manager Tim Bader said the show offered a “great opportunity for promoting our private brand Kingstone into Europe”.
With Brityrex International 2010 now less than a year away Tyres & Accessories/tyrepress.com introduces the first in a regular monthly series of exhibitor profiles. As part of our role as media sponsor, this new feature marks the beginning of our coverage in preparation for next October’s show. With industry observers suggesting things are looking up for the tyre business since the phrase “green shoots” was first mentioned a few month’s ago, many inside the industry are looking forward to a future bounce in the market.
In light of this one company, which has remained loyal to a dedicated UK tyre exhibition is Kings Road Tyres (KRT). Over the past 37 years Kings Road Tyres has developed into one of the UK’s leading national wholesalers, offering the trade an inventory covering the entire spectrum of product.
Kings Road Tyres & Repairs Ltd (KRT) was fined £30,000 with £10,000 costs on 25 September at Carlisle Crown Court after a jury found the company guilty of a breach of the 1994 Health and Safety at Work Act at its Carlisle warehouse. The guilty verdict related to the fact that a pile of truck tyres stacked 19 high contravened the company’s health and safety policy. The jury cleared the firm of two other charges relating to an accident in which a roofer had fallen through a skylight. Peter Gaster, KRT group MD accepted that KRT staff failed to apply the correct measures in this instance of over stacking, but maintains the company had to defend its position against unfair and frivolous claims in respect of the roofing incident.
In addition to the court case there was also some controversy over local newspaper, the News & Star’s, coverage of the case. The News & Star reported that Judge Barbara Forrester issued the fine after taking into account several “aggravating factors about the firm’s storage of tyres.” However, Peter Gaster told Tyres & Accessories the paper’s reference to “aggravating factors about our storage of tyres…is incorrect and was not mentioned by the Judge.”
“We reported the roofing incident under RIDDOR, and this caused Carlisle City Council Health and Safety Inspectors to visit our premises to discuss the accident. Whilst on our premises they noticed a rather high stack of tyres. At no time then or previously has anyone been injured or has there been any accidents resulting from our storage policy,” he explained.
ATS Euromaster is embarking on a consultation exercise “reviewing” as many as 80 of its UK centres. According to a company spokesperson, the tyre retail chain currently runs 456 centres, but is looking into the viability of continuing to run some in their present format. Therefore mergers, redundancies and some degree of reorganisation are all being discussed. However the company is apparently not currently looking into the sale of branches.
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