TyreRunner.com has appointed Gavin Marshall to its board of directors weeks after TyreRunner.com revealed plans to double headcount. Marshall was previously the CEO of Middlesbrough-based North Eastern Tyres & Exhausts (NETE) which he successfully sold to Stapleton’s tyres, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Itochu corporation of Japan, parent company to Kwik-fit.
Bridgestone’s First Stop retail network is offering Techman Pro as part of its franchise programme in the UK. According to Bridgestone, First Stop TechMan Pro creates “greater levels of professionalism across its forecourts thanks to real-time digital reporting – including personalised camera and video analysis – as well as data on workshop efficiencies, in a win-win for customers and dealers alike”. First Stop has hailed the technology as “a game-changing addition to its existing dealer package”, adding that it will play an integral role in helping the network grow to 220 centres by 2024.
Acknowledging that a place still exists for those adhering to the old school ways, tyre making and retreading tool specialist NeroForce GmBH has supplemented its www.neroforce.com online shop with a print catalogue.
Tyre maker Ceat Limited has raised its shareholding in Indian online tyre retailer Tyresnmore Online Private Limited to 44.17 per cent. Ceat paid Rs 24 million (£234,000) to acquire an additional 3.47 per cent in the company.
WhatTyre has published the nominations for its inaugural WhatTyre Tyre of the Year Awards with a series of articles promoting the nominations, shortlists and winners of the WhatTyre Awards. WhatTyre, a tyre news and comparison site that now attracts over 75,000 visits a month, says the goal of these consumer-facing awards aligns with the ethos of the whole WhatTyre.com concept – “to help consumers find the best tyres for them and to help raise the level of conversation about tyres”.
Triangle Tyre and RH Claydon are exhibiting at Hillhead Digital 2021, the UK largest quarrying and construction exhibition. Triangle is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of off the road (OTR) tyres. RH Claydon is its official distributor for this segment in the UK. RH Claydon and Triangle are jointly welcoming visitors to their virtual booth between 15 and 31 March 2021. The booth displays Triangle’s complete portfolio of OTR tyres through pictures, videos and product presentations, ready to be downloaded at any time from the portal. The staff of both companies will be present on 30 and 31 to participate in live chats with visitors who have booked a meeting through the agenda in the portal.
Phil May, owner of Strood based RM Tyres, passed the million-pound milestone at the end of February, the peak of 12 months during which his company has seen an unprecedented increase in online sales. For all of the tyre sales processed by RM Tyres through TyreClick, 28 per cent have come in the past 12 months, an indication of the surge in consumers opting to buy their tyres online.
Trelleborg Wheel Systems has opened a new showroom that won’t be troubled by lockdowns or other unexpected disruptions. The new Trelleborg virtual showroom enables visitors to “enter the world of Trelleborg tyres to explore its products and smart solutions up close, at any time and in any place.”
Online tyre retailers Tirebuyer and Tirescanner have merged to create a new Tirebuyer.com that will be led by president and CEO Michael Welch OBE, who formerly founded Blackcircles and then Tirescanner. ATD (American Tire Distributors), Tirebuyer’s parent company, is the largest tyre distributor in the world. The new Tirebuyer will operate over 11,000 installer partner locations across the USA. According to the company, Tirebuyer sales day one are in the high eight-figure range. “We expect to climb sales to multiple nine figures over the coming years”. There is even talk of hitting the billion-dollar turnover mark.
Motorcycle and specialist tyre distributor Bickers will launch a new Click & Collect website on 10 March. The company said it has developed the site to help its motorcycle tyre customers gain online sales. It will promote Click & Collect to consumers as a way to drive footfall to dealers’ shops. Bickers wants to develop its Click & Collect Partner network with the new site too. It says the new site will help participating partners to increase profits, promote growth opportunities, to network and upsell additional items. Backing its new site, Bickers adds that Office for National Statistics data shows retail online purchases have increased by 42 per cent in 2020 over 2019. This big jump is an effect of national and regional lockdowns to combat the pandemic, but also follows the long-term retail trend towards online purchases.
Autodata has launched a version of its e-commerce website in the Romanian language. Autodata is an e-commerce technical solution for body shops around the world. In addition to the platform, it is also available as an API, and provides comprehensive Original Equipment (OE) sourced technical information for the service, maintenance, diagnostics, and repair of 90 per cent of vehicles on the road in Romania.
One of the most pronounced effects of the pandemic on the tyre retail business has been the uptick in online and mobile tyre business. RubberHub, a Software-as-a-Solution (SaaS) project originating in Canada, launched its beta product in 2019 and went fully goes fully live this month (February 2020), with followers and test users already hailing from around Canada, the USA and the UK. Tyres & Accessories found out more from RubberHub Inc. president and founder, David Mulensteen.
Independent garages across the UK are valuing the benefits of a web-based Garage Management System more than ever before, say workshop management specialists TechMan. Remote access to business data from any device, has long been enjoyed by workshops using TechMan but never has productivity been more essential for busy garages than during the ongoing pandemic.
Continental has expanded ContiOnlineContact digital online dealer portal to include OTR and agricultural tyres. Continental reports that the portal now lists the entire Off-The-Road (OTR) and agricultural tyre portfolio.
TecAlliance has added Instant Data Processing (IDP) in order to update TecDoc data in real time. According to the company, this increases flexibility and shortens the time to market for data suppliers and receivers. TecAlliance says IDP will be available “early in 2021”.
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Tyre Runner
First Stop; TechMan
Triangle
RM Tyres, MTS
Tirebuyer
Autodata
RubberHub
TechMan
Continental
TecAlliance