marketing Archives - Page 145 of 216 - Tyrepress

The bigger the tyre brand, the more important marketing becomes in order to communicate its values and its worth. With this in mind, the “marketing” tag collates all the latest marketing-related news and analysis into a single place. This reverse-chronological list of thousands of articles is your go-to source of tyre industry, marketing-related news and information.

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Kwik-Fit to Open Distribution Centre in Corby

A new £10 million Kwik Fit distribution centre is planned for the Northamptonshire town of Corby, and according to the company it will be operational by mid-July. The facility, to be managed by Ceva Logistics UK, will employ more than 200 drivers, distributors and administrative staff.

“The tyres are just starting to arrive at the centre and distribution will begin in stages,” said Kwik-Fit marketing and business development director Chris Bosworth. He added that some 40 trucks will operate out of the facility, with another 34 from satellite depots nationwide.

6th May 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Toyo Reaches Back for New HP Sales Manager

Joe Jordan has returned to Toyo Tire USA Corp as national sales manager for high performance and specialty light truck tyres. Jordan worked for Toyo from 1991 to 2000 before operating his own tyre and wheel accessory store near San Diego.

In his new role, Jordan will manage sales and training programs for the ultra high performance and specialty light truck tyres as well as support marketing and promotional efforts surrounding the products. (Tire Review/Akron)

1st May 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Alldata Celebrates 70,000 Customers, Sets Sights on Future Success

Alldata held a media day event at its headquarters in Elk Grove, California, on April 3, to celebrate its latest accomplishment — 70,000 customers — and to spotlight how the company is helping automotive service professionals boost their business success.

President Jeff Lagges and other company executives discussed how Alldata is reinventing itself for a changing market, and its commitment to providing OEM repair information and business solutions to help automotive service professionals increase their competitiveness, elevate productivity and profitability, and forge stronger relationships with customers.

Lagges pointed out that one of the major components in the company’s success, and its 90 per cent customer retention rate, has been to maintain direct contact with customers, primarily through a direct salesforce. “We measure our success by our customers’ satisfaction,” he said.

29th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Sumo Firenza Increasing its European Profile

During the past 18 months or so Sumo Firenza has steadily increased its European profile through exhibiting at a number of international tyre exhibitions and introducing its flagship Sumo Firenza ST-08 pattern. The company reports that its sales performance in the UK, Ireland and Europe continues to grow; here in the UK Bond International has been appointed sole distributor, and in Ireland this role is handled by Daly Tyres.

The Sumo Firenza ST-08 pattern includes a low aspect ratio pattern and base compound intended to absorb and combat road noise and straight wide grooves for water drainage at speed. The tyres are, adds Sumo Firenza, manufactured with state-of-the-art Japanese technology, and the ST-08 range is available in 28 size options from 195/55R15 V through to 215/35ZR18 W. This range, reports the manufacturer, will increase in due course to include 19 inch and 20 inch fitments.

28th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

NE Wholesale – Delivering High Performance

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.

24th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

New Look for ContiNetwork

As part of its relaunch first announced at the start of this year, the ContiNetwork commercial vehicle retail business has unveiled its new logo and corporate identity. Created by the marketing agency the Haygarth Group, the new look is intended to tie in more closely with parent company Continental.

ContiNetwork manager Stefanie O’Meagher commented: “The relaunch is designed to support dealers and help develop new business opportunities. We’ve been really impressed with the fresh new identity Haygarth has developed for us.”

24th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

GITI Tire’s UHP Range – 80 Sizes and Steadily Growing

A greater presence in this part of the world is planned for GITI Tire, as comments made by GITI Europe marketing manager Peter Foulkes regarding May’s Reifen exhibition testify: “GITI intend to use their presence at the show to officially launch and take forward to the next progressive stage, the company’s growing sales presence in Europe (including the UK and Ireland).” Mr. Foulkes adds that, at the show, GITI plans to show off a number of products not yet seen here, including a new asymmetric ultra high performance tyre – the Champiro HPY.

And while we must await the Essen show for further details on this new product, GITI is already well established as a manufacturer of performance tyres. The company reports it is continuing to expand its position within the UHP sector of the market, and now offers more than 80 sizes, with many further additions in the final stages of development.

23rd April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

11th Hour Reprieve

Swiss based alloy wheel manufacturer Uniwheels has acquired the European interests of Germany’s ATS Group, former subsidiary of South African company Tiger Wheels. Included in the purchase are the company’s affiliated production factories in Germany and Poland as well as the globally recognised ATS brand name. We can only speculate at the purchase price – Uniwheels has chosen not to disclose this – and a separate solution is sought for the company’s US subsidiary, ATS Light Alloy Wheels (Alabama), Inc.

“With Uniwheels we have found an investor, who is taking over the shares of the subsidiaries of the insolvent ATS Beteiligungs GmbH,” commented Tobias Hoefer, representative of the Group’s insolvency administrator, Hack Hoefer. “With that in Europe all jobs and sites of the Group can be kept. This is the best possible result for the creditors and the employees.”

22nd April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Hunter Announces Sales and Marketing Organisational Changes

US based automotive service equipment manufacturer Hunter Engineering has announced two key new appointments from within the company’s ranks.

Dave Smith has been promoted to senior vice president, and Beau Brauer to vice president of marketing. Smith joined Hunter in 1975 as a sales representative in Richmond, Virginia. and was appointed Cleveland regional manager in 1980. Since 1984, he has served as Hunter’s vice president of sales and marketing. During this time he led the growth of Hunter’s field management team and sales and service organisations from 200 representatives to more than 630 today. Similar growth was achieved in Canada. Smith will now continue to manage Hunter’s U.S. and Canadian field managers and sales and service organisations, and provide guidance to Hunter’s marketing department.

Brauer joined Hunter in 2005 as a sales representative in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was named New York regional manager in 2007, responsible for sales, service and national account activities in the region. As vice president of marketing, Brauer is now responsible for all of Hunter’s marketing and advertising department activities.

22nd April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Kraiburg “Satisfied” With 2007 Figures

With a turnover of 83.4 million euros in 2007, Kraiburg Austria recorded an increase of around four per cent on the previous year. The company’s mainstay of sales remains its retreading business division, accounting for 56.9 million euros.
This stability has been achieved in spite of the increasing competition due to material providers from overseas and cheap truck imports from the Far East. Positive results have begun to show through from the restructuring measures initiated last year in the sales organisation.

To improve the operating result, the company had taken the decision to manage customer contacts in selected countries without commercial agencies directly via the field and indoor service team. This cost-saving measure has been welcomed by all Kraiburg retreading partners.

22nd April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Marangoni Title Sponsor at Santa Pod Fast Show

A crowd of over 15,000 attended the Marangoni Fast Show at Santa Pod on 9/10 March. For Marangoni, the Fast Show was a huge success. The informal and involving Marangoni roadshow feature with its ‘hand’s-on’ approach reportedly proved popular with show visitors, particularly the Pit Stop competition with its top prize of a white-knuckle ride up the strip in the Santa Pod 2-seater dragster.

21st April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Cooper Contracts Sapphire for Waste Tyre Disposal

Cooper Tire and Rubber Company Europe Ltd has awarded a waste tyre collection contract to Sapphire Energy Recovery. According to the companies the contract reduces the number of miles waste has to travel for waste disposal and therefore reduces the company’s carbon footprint.

Sapphire Energy Recovery is now transporting the majority of the waste tyres generated during the manufacturing process to Lafarge Cement’s Westbury Works just nine miles from Cooper Tire’s Melksham factory, where they are consumed in the cement kiln.

18th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Bandag Dealer Network Expands in Australia and NZ

A significant expansion of the Bandag Manufacturing network in New Zealand will take place following the announced conversion of three Bridgestone New Zealand factories to Bandag. New Zealand customers are currently serviced by two independent Bandag franchises; C.O Tyres and Tyre Retreaders. These established Bandag franchises have helped the company grow in New Zealand and, reports Bridgestone, will continue to enhance Bandag’s marketplace reputation.

In the latter part of 2008, Bridgestone’s three retread factories in Auckland, Rotorua and Christchurch will be refitted with state-of-the-art Bandag retread equipment and the current retread process systems will be streamlined. The net result of this, says Bridgestone, will be an enhanced network providing quality retread tyres and services.

18th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Customer is King?

It’s an age-old (and some would argue overused) cliché in the tyre industry, but to what extent is the customer really king in the UK tyre retail business? Could sales staff have even taken this approach too far, at the expense of optimum sales prices? This month, in the first part of an exclusive bi-monthly ‘mystery caller’ series, Tyres & Accessories is publishing an insight into the service performance of retail outlets up and down the country, produced in association with research specialists, Encircle Marketing.

Ever wondered how much the average tyre retails for (broken down by speed rating, sales channel and indexed against the market average)? Want to know which brands tyre fitters recommend first and what sales arguments they use? Look no further than this page in this month’s magazine and the UK section in future issues (starting in June 2008’s T&A) for further detailed mystery shopper analyses. The conclusions published here are drawn from March 2008 data based on over 12,000 prices, more than 4,000 argumentations and in excess of 1,800 mystery calls made up till 27/03/08.

18th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Best of British

In February 2007 Cooper Tires opened a new European Technical Centre (ETC) alongside its factory in Melksham, thus beginning the Wiltshire site’s transformation from a production location for Avon brand tyres into a hub for the company’s Europe-wide activities. Under the guidance of ETC general manager Marcus Hancock – a 19-year company veteran who began his career at Melksham before furthering his career with Cooper in the US – the centre has spent the 14 months since its opening taking full responsibility for the design and development of products manufactured at Melksham, with high-performance passenger car tyres a particular focus. The first such tyre to be primarily developed in-house at the Melksham ETC was ready to be launched in March 2008.

18th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors