To mark the launch of its new website, BFGoodrich has launched “BFGoodrich Good Project”. The brand will fund 10 projects for aspiring racing drivers, desert rally drivers or classic car restorers, who have not necessarily had the resources to pursue their dream. BFGoodrich will provide materials, logistical and financial support to 10 projects selected from across Europe.
Dutch-based B2B online tyre platform Tyres in Stock is active in a number of European markets, and the company now reports that at the end of last year Rainer Will was appointed to the role of field representative for the firm’s business in Germany. In his new position, Will takes over responsibility for major customers and new partners.
An influx of new vehicle registrations has driven demand for premium car tyres upwards in the UK. Yet somewhat paradoxically, the price of these products has continued to fall, further impacting the margin retailers can make versus what they can expect on lower-priced products. Tyres & Accessories sat down with Micheldever wholesale director Alan Baldwin and wholesale marketing manager Rory Carlin to discuss the premium fightback and its symptoms for dealers. “Premium brands are absolutely in the ascendancy,” Baldwin says.
The UK consumer-to-consumer reviews website for tyres, tyrereviews.co.uk published its first video tyre test at the beginning of 2016. Asking the question of whether there is a true all-season tyre, the test takes representative premium summer (Michelin Primacy 3), all-season (Goodyear Vector 4Season Gen-2), and winter (Continental WinterContact TS850) tyres, and adds the Michelin CrossClimate. […]
Goodyear has launched its next generation website in the UK and Ireland. While not quite the pioneering retail strategy employed by the manufacturer’s US digital platform, the new site (www.goodyear.co.uk) has increased the company’s interaction with end-consumers – a reaction to the sustained growth in consumers researching their tyre purchase decision online. In an unusual move for tyre manufacturers’ own websites, Goodyear also provides a recommended sell-out price on its tyres, which indicates a step towards the retail activity of its American cousin, albeit without any sort of requirement of the retailer to honour that price.
Apollo Tyres’ takeover of reifencom GmbH, operator of e-commerce sites in six European countries, has been described as part of the company’s strategy to expand its retail network in the European market. Apollo said its takeover will allow it to support the expansion activities of its subsidiary Apollo Vredestein, which include major investments in the European premium brand Vredestein. The company stated that it has major plans for growth via an expansion of its original equipment activities – the groundwork for which is being laid via the current construction of a new plant in Hungary.
In April, Goodyear Tire & Rubber chairman and chief executive Richard Kramer shared plans to introduce a company-owned online tyre retail platform in the USA. After opening for business in September, the tyre maker reports that the goodyear.com tyre sales site is now serving customers across the entire country. More than 4,000 outlets, including 600 Goodyear tyre and service centres, have joined the programme and will act as fitters for tyres purchased through the site.
Apollo Tyres Ltd has announced its acquisition of tyre wholesaler and online retailer Reifen.com GmbH. The German company changed hands for €45.6 million and, according to Neeraj Kanwar, vice-chairman and managing director of Apollo Tyres, the purchase of Reifen.com represents a “strategic fit in further growing our European business.
At the start of October in Paris Michelin launched Michelin Tire Care, a suite of connected software solutions designed to help hauliers get the most out of their tyres. The idea is that fleets get more performance (and therefore financial value) from their tyre purchases as they use the mobile/tablet-based software, and in doing so see the benefit of premium and especially Michelin truck tyre products. While software is clearly at the heart of this latest announcement, Tyres & Accessories considers whether we should be using the term “strategy” instead.
Heuver Tyrewholesale has upgraded its Tyre app, calling it “an essential part of the company’s multi-channel strategy”. The app now allows tyre orders to be placed from any location, online and offline, as a response to customer feedback.
In October 2014’s Wholesale feature, Tyres & Accessories asked whether Europe’s independent tyre wholesalers still have a future in the context of the German company Ihle Baden Baden’s failure and subsequent sale to Michelin. Pointing to the lightening of the business due to such factors as the price transparency offered by e-commerce (and online marketing) we wondered whether the value of the relationship between customers and their suppliers had become more tenuous, relying only on price and reliability of deliveries. Should these two considerations become the only weapons in a wholesaler’s arsenal, T&A suggested that their role becomes more akin to a specialised freight forwarder.
Micheldever Tyre Services’ wholesale business, worth £230 million in annual sales, has taken significant steps to support the on and offline operations of its independent tyre dealer customers in 2015. The added value of MTS’ services has become increasingly important in the light of continued growth in the number of retail branches controlled by the top 20 multiples (as noted in our Tyre Retail feature in the May magazine), and the increased online competition provided by internet specialists, big retail brands from within and outside the traditional tyre sector, and now, with Michelin’s acquisition of Blackcircles.com, major tyre manufacturers themselves. Alan Baldwin, sales director at Micheldever Tyre Services, told Tyres & Accessories, “I’m confident that there isn’t another wholesaler, distributor, and in many cases, manufacturer, in the UK that invests as much money, time and resources in supporting dealers as we do.”
Grouptyre says that “continued investment” by its members is one of the primary reasons for its 2015 growth following a period of consolidation. With a turnover fast approaching £310m, Grouptyre, which comprises 10 strong regional wholesalers, has seen further investment in warehousing, delivery vehicles and therefore availability of product and an increase in delivery drops to its retail customers. Currently Grouptyre has 40 strategically located distribution points, with more expected to be added, and 440 delivery vehicles nationwide.
Following the launch of Tyres in Stock in the Netherlands in January 2010, the company has embarked on an international expansion plan that has seen the company grow to cover nine markets across Europe. The latest is the UK, which kicked off in the fourth quarter of 2014 and is said to be going from strength to strength.
Online tyre retailer Delticom has entered a further national market with the launch of a B2C portal in Turkey. The new site follows the format the company has successfully adopted in existing markets and can be found at lastik-online.com.tr.
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