News articles on the tyre retail business
In his last speech as chair of the NTDA Tyre Wholesalers Group (TWG), Ashley Croft addressed the proverbial elephant in the room by asking what constitutes a premium brand. The outgoing also used the platform provided by the group’s annual luncheon to questions of labelling, legislation, enforcement and to introduce RH Claydon’s John Parker as the new TWG chairman.
Micheldever Tyre Services, along with its retail operation Protyre, has won the inaugural TyreSafe Tyre Retailer Award award for its “consistent, innovative and dedicated work in raising the awareness of the importance of tyre safety”.
TyreSafe is the UK’s leading tyre safety organisation and its newly introduced awards scheme was instigated to recognise and reward achievements and excellence within the tyre industry.
The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) has recently outlined initiatives to the Minister for Energy & Business, Michael Fallon, that will improve fuel supply resilience and encourage investment in petrol forecourts at zero cost to the Treasury. More than 5000 sites (62 per cent of UK total) are still owned by independent businesses but numbers have been declining for many years.
In a filing submitted with a US court, Bridgestone Americas has described the implementation of a new companywide computer system as bringing chaos to the tyre maker. It is now seeking US$600 million in actual and punitive damages from the computer system’s supplier, IBM.
It may look like a Morgan three-wheeler from the future, but the Elio is one American company’s vision of fuel-efficient, safe motoring. The American-made car (or, as defined by US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, motorcycle) is expected to be market ready late next year and deliver 84 mpg on the highway and 49 mpg in the city (2.8 litres per 100km and 4.8 litres per 100km), plus an anticipated 5-star safety rating. Original equipment tyres will be supplied by Cooper Tire & Rubber, a relationship that has just been sealed by the signing of a letter of intent between the tyre maker and Elio Motors.
Micheldever Tyre Services has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Training Journal Award scheme – the industry’s leading training awards programme. Protyre, the retail arm of Micheldever Tyre Services, has been shortlisted in two of the categories, the Best Customer Service Programme and the Best Coaching Programme.
Stapleton’s has commenced its series of re-fits in line with its Matador Key Dealer Programme. Wootton Tyres, an independent tyre retailer on the Isle of Wight, became the first depot to be re-branded to reflect its participation in the programme, and Stapleton’s says many more are to follow.
Nick Harley, previously sales director at BP Castrol Lubricants, has joined Goodyear Dunlop UK & Ireland as director, Consumer Tyres. Harley, who was responsible for UK, Ireland, France and BeneLux markets at BP Castrol Lubricants, as well as Key International Accounts in Europe and Africa, will lead Goodyear Dunlop’s consumer business across all brands, reporting into UK and Ireland managing director, Erich Fric
As we have seen, this year the TAFF awards provided a number of new winners. And the annual speech revealed some interesting details of what is on the horizon for the NTDA in particular and the tyre industry in general. With both points in mind, Tyres & Accessories has produced this comprehensive review of both the award winners and forthcoming NTDA news.
During the first nine months of 2013, Finnish tyre maker Nokian Tyres added 124 outlets to its Vianor dealer network. As of 30 September 2013 the Vianor network operates 1,161 centres in 26 countries. Vianor outlets in Finnland, Sweden, Norway, the US, Switzerland and Russia belong to the company while the remaining 978 are bound to Vianor/Nokian through franchise agreements.
Compliance to tyre labelling legislation is lower one year on from its introduction than it was in the opening months of the rules. According to research conducted by market analysts at Encircle Market, the amount of labelling talk has actually decreased since tyre labelling was introduced in November 2012. The research also reveals a number of other details demonstrating relative some degree of inertia when it comes to the subject of tyre labelling.
Following on from the headline news that Lanxess/NTDA published at report detailing a UK retail perspective on 16 October, Tyres & Accessories is now publishing further details and discussion of the complete report . The initial findings were that the tyre labelling has so far been something of a “missed opportunity” for the tyre business […]
Motor Trader magazine, which focuses on dealer activities, has reported that last minute self-registration activity distorted the record breaking September plate change, with over a quarter of the month’s volumes being registered on the closing day of the month. But could the heady days of growing registration figures be over? Some analysts believe strengthening markets elsewhere could knock the UK market back.
Duncan Wilkes has been appointed chief executive of Micheldever Group, taking up the position in the New Year. First announced last February as part of the Micheldever Board‘s senior management succession plan, current Micheldever chief executive officer Paul Fox’s retirement has been confirmed for 31 December 2013. Fox will remain both as a shareholder and a non-executive director on the Micheldever Board.
German retail cooperative Top Service Team is set to lose around a third of its outlets at the end of this year. An industry contact shared with our sister publication Neue Reifenzeitung that two of Top Service Team’s current 17 members, tyre retail and service chains RTC Reifen und Auto-Service and Reifen Helm, are leaving due to reasons linked to “conflicting strategic orientation” and “cost-benefit ratio”.
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