Motorists in England will be pleased to hear the Government has allocated £168 million to repair pothole damage. Based on a cost of £53 for each temporary pothole repair, the money given to 148 councils will be used to fix around three million potholes. Councils that “demonstrate best practice in highways maintenance” will receive extra.
Bridgestone representatives have dismissed reports that the company is considering acquiring up to 500 tyre depots in the UK in a bid to go head-to-head with the leading tyre retailer in the UK, Kwik-Fit. According to the reports, which surfaced over the weekend in The Telegraph, Bridgestone “is seeking to buy eight to 10 regional automotive retail groups within a year and merge them into one brand.”
Last month’s leader “Pumping up” discussed how a number of key economic and tyre market indicators are pointing to better days ahead in the tyre market. Then in mid-April ETRMA reported that its members experienced double-digit increases in (sell out) sales during the first quarter of 2014 compared with the low first quarter of last year. But how does this translate into retail demands and what strategies are tyre retailers adopting to make the most of any consumer pickup coming through? Here Tyres & Accessories analyses the latest research from Encircle Marketing in light of recent macro-economic indicators.
Continued branch attrition at some of Britain’s largest tyre retail chains means the line between the top five and the rest of the top 10 has continued to blur. Furthermore, we now have three 50+ branch retail chains outside the top four (which are all 100+) for the first time since Tyres & Accessories started tracking this data five years ago.
Catalytic Converter (CAT), Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) and Exhaust Theft protection market leaders Catloc have just confirmed Halfords Autocentres and Kwik Fit as their new national fitting partners. With CAT, DPF and exhaust theft on the increase in the UK, Catloc wanted to ensure that potential customers had easy access to fitting of their solutions and to partner with a fast fit chain who had the size and experience in covering the whole of the UK. With over 900 centres between them nationwide; Kwik Fit and Halfords Autocentres were the obvious choices.
According to research carried out for Kwik-Fit, as many as one in eight motorists claim the steering on their car pulls to one side or the other. If the ICM Research survey of 2,024 adults is representative of the wider British motoring public, this means that almost one million drivers are experiencing significant steering pull.
Survey results don’t necessarily paint a flattering picture of UK motorists, and the outcome of the latest research from Kwik Fit is no exception. The fast fit network commissioned Consumer Intelligence to survey a group representative of the British motoring public, and it turns out that nine per cent of the 2,002 adults surveyed admitted they weren’t even aware that an MoT certificate is a legal requirement for cars over three years old. An equal number didn’t realise car insurance is compulsory and ten per cent said the same about a valid tax disc.
Kwik Fit is celebrating 21 consecutive years of award-winning success after being voted the UK’s number one fast-fit company for 21 years in succession in the annual BusinessCar Awards. The company is the only organisation to have walked off with first prize each year since the honours were launched. BusinessCar editor Paul Barker commented that “Kwik Fit’s success once more in the fast-fit category of the BusinessCar Awards illustrates that the corporate marketplace is enjoying the excellent improvements the company is making to its network.”
Kwik-Fit has once again found itself at the centre of unwanted attention after a BBC consumer programme accused it of recommending work that didn’t need to be done and of failing to properly carry out free tyre safety checks. On 10 July, the “Your Money, Their Tricks” programme mystery shopped 10 Kwik-Fit branches with 10 different cars. The cars, which were of various ages and models, had been pre-inspected by a forensic engineer and had been prepared in order to demonstrate whether checks had been carried out. Similar allegations were made by the BBC’s “Watchdog” programme in September 2010. But this time it was rather tackily presented, as the title of the programme and the in-show caricatures demonstrate.
Kwik-Fit has confirmed it will sponsor one of the award categories in the What Car? Car of the Year Awards 2013 and also serve as an associate sponsor. The fast fitter is sponsoring the Reader Award for the most exciting car of 2013.
Strathclyde Tyres is promoting apprenticeships as an alternative route to work for young people struggling to gain access to college courses that would have provided them with the vocational qualification to begin their working life.
Kwik Fit has announced that it will take on 320 apprentices in 2012, more than double the company’s intake of 120 in 2011. The firm will offer the two year schemes to 16-18 year olds in locations throughout the UK. The announcement coincided with the visit of David Way, chief executive of the National Apprenticeship Service, to the company’s Training Academy in Derby. Way said the company’s commitment to its apprenticeship programme, ranked as “outstanding” by Ofsted, was “very impressive”.
Halfords Autocentres has appointed Simon Benson as operations director. He takes up the reins from Bill Duffy, who was recently appointed as Halfords Autocentres chief executive. Benson joins the company from Kwik-Fit, where he served for 10 years, most recently as divisional director. He has also worked for Kingfisher Group brands Comet and Woolworths.
Kwik Fit has announced a 2011 banded pay settlement for 4,400 employees in its 676 UK centres. The settlement provides an increase of 3 per cent for fitting staff on the standard company salary for their grade, affecting the majority of the workforce. All other staff, including managers, supervisors, MOT testers and service technicians, will receive a 2 per cent increase. Kwik Fit said the agreement was reached after amicable discussions with the trade union Unite. The pay increase will be backdated to 1 January 2011.
Kwik Fit Group has announced the arrival of Stapleton's boss Kenji Murai. Itochu, which owns Stapleton's, completed its acquisition of the fast fit giant this week. Itochu also announced the departure of chief executive officer Ian Fraser and group finance director Michael Healy. Itochu stated: “We would like to thank Ian and Michael for their work in establishing Kwik Fit as the clear market leader and creating a very strong position. The company has substantially developed under their leadership and we wish them well for the future.
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.