Micheldever Tyre Services Archives - Page 16 of 17 - Tyrepress

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General Tire Sales Could Grow 10 per cent in 2007

Distributed exclusively in England, Scotland and Wales by the UK’s leading 4×4 tyre wholesaler (Micheldever/Southam Tyres), the General brand is reportedly the fastest growing 4×4 range in the UK market. According to Alan Baldwin, Micheldever’s sales director and 4×4 specialist, General’s awareness of the market and desire to produce products that consumers want, will result in an increase in market share of about 10 per cent in 2007. General Tire, a wholly owned subsidiary of Continental Tyre AG, is the specialist arm of the well-known German premium tyre manufacturer.

14th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Ashley Croft To Leave Micheldever

Career Tracks, UK News

Ashley Croft, Warehousing, Logistics and Wholesale Sales Director of Micheldever Tyre Services, has resigned from the company. Ashley Croft was one of the original six members of management involved in the Buy Out of the company in February 2006.

2nd February 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Micheldever Appoints New Falken Brand Manager

Micheldever Tyre Services Ltd (MTS) has announced that Jon Limmer will take on the newly created Falken brand manager position at Micheldever. He will report directly to Alan Baldwin, wholesale director. Jon Limmer has been promoted from his current role with MTS of business development manager, South West of England and Wales region. Limmer has been with MTS for six years and can be described as a tyre industry veteran, having held a range of roles across his 20 years within the industry.

23rd November 2006/by Tyrepress Editors

BFGoodrich Dealers on 4×4 Adventure trip

A group of 4×4 tyre dealers were flown out to Morocco recently, to take part in a 4×4 desert rallying experience, courtesy of BFGoodrich. As part of the five-day trip, the group enjoyed the chance to co-drive with official members of the five-times Paris Dakar winning Mitsubishi team. The group was selected by Michelin’s appointed wholesaler for BFGoodrich in the UK, Southam Tyres. Southam Tyres is the largest distributor of 4×4 tyres in the UK, and selected the dealers in recognition of their continued support of the BFGoodrich brand.

9th October 2006/by Tyrepress Editors

Falken Tyres Show New FK452 at Max Power Live

Falken Tyres attendance at Max Power Live (at the NEC.), said to be the “Fastest, loudest car show ever”, lived up to expectations according to the company. Inside the halls were filled with stands and bursting with customised cars. Outside was the Speed Arena where people could watch the cars in action.

The Falken team designed their exhibit to stand out and, according to company staff it was constantly busy as a result. The Falken girls once again drew in the crowds by giving people signed posters and having their photograph taken. In addition GT4, the Playstation computer game that features the Falken Skyline, had queues of people waiting to play.

1st August 2006/by Tyrepress Editors

Micheldever Signs Five-Year Exclusive Distribution Deal with Kumho

Micheldever Tyre Services Ltd (MTS), the UK’s largest independent tyre distribution company, has signed a five-year distribution agreement with the UK arm of the leading Korean manufacturer, Kumho Tires. The distribution deal is the company’s first ever long-term agreement in the UK tyre market and gives MTS exclusive rights over Kumho’s portfolio of car, 4×4 and van products in Great Britain. The announcement marks the culmination of a successful nine-year association between the two companies. Over the last three years, they have been developing the Ecsta Performance Centre (EPC) programme, dedicated to specialist Kumho tyre sales and support.

12th July 2006/by Tyrepress Editors

Micheldever Tyre Services Sold in Management Buyout

Tony Todd, the architect of 34 years of growth at Micheldever Tyre Services’, has sold the company to its management team. On 6 February Alan Baldwin, Phil Brookes, Ashley Croft, Mike Flood, Brian Kerswell, and Eric Noble became the new owners. A number of other companies, including Kwik-Fit, are said to have unsuccessfully approached the company.

The deal was backed by private equity company Graphite Capital and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Financial sources report that Graphite is taking a 72 per cent stake while the management will own the remaining shares. While details of the price-tag have not been released, estimates would have to be based on the £150 – £160 million of sales the company achieved in 2005.

8th February 2006/by Tyrepress Editors

Product Flexibility

In 2005 Michelin, Europe’s leading agricultural tyre supplier, focused its efforts on promoting its Xeobib and CargoXbib product lines. At the same time the global manufacturer launched the Exelagri dealer scheme as a way of strengthening its relationship with dealers on local and regional levels.

14th December 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

ECSTA Dealer Council

Kumho’s ECSTA Performance Centre (EPC) network, which accounts for a significant percentage of its UK tyre sales, has recently formed a dealer council to represent all the centres involved and further the image of Kumho tyres to the consumer.

Formed with the full support of Kumho Tyre UK and Micheldever Tyre Services, the national distributor of Kumho tyres, the 11 members of the council have been voted in by the EPC retailers and include a representative of Kumho Tyre and Micheldever.

14th November 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin Exelagri

Michelin has launched a new “added-value dealer programme” called Exelagri that will ensure its customers benefit from improved efficiency, service and technical expertise.

The Exelagri programme will enable Michelin to build a network of the best agricultural tyre specialists in the UK and Europe. This in turn will impact on end-users with improved service levels and access to technical information on premium Michelin Group products (Michelin and Kleber).

19th September 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Lucky DJ Wins Kumho Car Competition

Lee Hoggett, aka DJ String, was the winner of a £20,000 Hyundai Coupe in a nationwide competition organised by Kumho. Kumho UK managing director, Steve Tidmarsh, presented the prize at the Huntingdon Performance Tyres of Godmanchester – the ECSTA centre where Lee Hoggett originally entered the draw. The car, a top-of-the-range 2.7 litre V6 model was fitted with 18 inch Mille Miglia EV-R alloy wheels.

24th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Warning: Stolen Tyres

More that 400 Merit 235/45 R 17 97W tyres have been stolen from a container en route to Micheldever Tyres. As Micheldever Tyre Services is the only official UK importer of this brand, any offer of these tyres should be regarded as suspicious. There are minimal quantities of this tyre currently in the market place. Micheldever has offered a reward for any information leading to the successful prosecution of those involved in the theft of these tyres.

11th January 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Tyre Wars: An overview of the wholesale tyre conflict

The tyre trade has been buying and selling tyres for over 100 years. One might have imagined that it would have settled on a profitable, manageable and structured method of distributing car tyres from manufacturer or importer to retailer by now. However, it hasn’t and one suspects it never will.

Way back in the mists of time life was simpler. The tyre manufacturers supplied their tyres to the vehicle manufacturers and tyres were supplied at the local garages. The number of brands available was limited and people tended to buy what they wanted at the garage displaying their brand’s logo.

In the 1960’s tyre manufacturers would have supply arrangements with local dealers who would agree to take their brand of tyres and then redistribute to local tyre fitters, all at fixed retail prices of course. Then the manufacturers decided that they could deliver, and they cut out the local dealer, they set up their own logistics operations and offered to deliver tyres to anyone who would buy them. The result was chaos.

In the meantime, the network of local tyre wholesalers in the UK was developing. The manufacturers realised that they could not survive delivering just their own brands so they delved into the market with their own tyre wholesale operations.

At the same time there had been the development of a number of regional tyre wholesalers. Of which Stapleton’s had become a national player.The co-operation of strong regional wholesalers across the UK culminated in the establishment of Group Tyre.

Whilst Stapleton’s and Group Tyre dug in for a long war a third player entered the fray. Hampshire-based Micheldever, the sleeping giant, decided to make some moves to expand out of its Southern base. It first bought Southam Tyres, then opened a warehouse at Chepstow, and now Halifax with rumours of interests in the North East being rife. Battle was joined.

To listen to the larger operators it would be fair to presume that no independent had any involvement in the fleet market or the franchised dealer sector. However the independent trader is well aware of the situation and whilst some may be content to work on ever diminishing markets, others may be taking another view of the situation.

17th November 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

The Sleeping Giant Stirs

The Micheldever wholesale operation has been rapidly growing but until 2001 had been concentrated in the South. However, the desire to replicate the wholesale success achieved in the South had led Tony to search for strategically placed wholesale premises initially in the Midlands and North of England, and when Southam Tyres came on the market in October 2001, Tony beat off competition from UK, European and Far Eastern wholesalers to acquire the Southam business. This immediately provided Micheldever with the UK’s most successful 4×4 tyre distributor and its specialist sales team, plus exclusive distribution rights to BFGoodrich 4×4, General Tire and Roadhog. However, due to virtually zero investment from its previous owners, the Southam warehouse was poorly equipped, lacking adequate storage systems and having an ageing fleet of vehicles.

The Micheldever investment came swiftly, with a new fleet, tyreracking systems and a vastly increased range of stock. The benefits of having the most comprehensive range of car and 4X4 tyres available in the Midlands quickly led to excellent sales results for the previously product starved Southam sales teams.

However, the move that really sent the message out that Micheldever had intentions to become a national player was the announcement of the new Halifax depot. A purpose built warehouse on four floors it will have a capacity for 600,000 tyres. By mid 2003 work was progressing well at Halifax, and finally in Sept 2003 the UK’s largest tyre warehouse commenced deliveries on a phased schedule.

Obviously for Micheldever the main thrust of the business at present is the development of the wholesale division and taking the offer to the trade across the UK. One of the much-vaunted drivers for offering national coverage is the potential to be developed in the franchised dealer network. The opportunity to supply tyres as first fit on fleet cars through the franchised dealers is reportedly enormous.

Tony Todd is adamant that there are two factors to being successful. The first is that you can’t sell it if you haven’t got it; the second is that you can’t do the job unless you have got the right tools and the right people in place.

17th November 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Ashley Croft Joins Micheldever

Career Tracks, UK News

Ashley Croft, previously Managing Director of Stapleton’s Tyre Services until October of last year, has joined Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS) as Director. His prime responsibilities at Micheldever will be the Wholesale and Logistics development of the business.

16th May 2003/by Tyrepress Editors