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Car Boutique Relaunches Tyre and Wheel Website

In the US, Car Boutique inc. has relaunched its website. The relaunch brings vast improvements in both navigation and product offering, making it easier for performance car enthusiasts to find the right wheel and tyre package for their vehicle. Car Boutique has enjoyed 25 years in business under the same family ownership in South Florida serving both retail and wholesale customers across the US.

Car Boutique is a top-level distributor of many nationally recognized brands such as Axis, Cor, Drag, Dub, Enkei, Foose, Forgeline, Giovanna, HRE, KMC, Maya MHT, R1 Racing, Sevas, Tork, Volk and Vossen and many others. According to the company, Car Boutique carries all popular brands of tyres with different performance and pricing options including Falken, Nexen, Nitto, Pirelli and Toyo. The wheel and tire sections are updated weekly to ensure that we offer our customers the latest styles and best fitments for their vehicle.

12th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Apollo’s Domestic Retail Network Aims at Women

According to Apollo Tyres representatives, the recent opening of retail network partner National Tyres has effectively helped to position Apollo as a premium brand that “caters for brand and performance conscious passenger vehicle owners in the city of Patiala and the neighbouring markets.” Importantly, the ambience of the showroom also encourages a steady but growing number of women drivers to personally visit this store for a tyre change or recommendation.

According to the company, the initiative has been recognised in the form of a ‘gold award’ in the 2008 In-store Asia Visual Merchandising & Retail Signage Awards in the transportation category. The In-store Asia awards are the country’s most respected recognition in the booming Indian retailing and merchandising sectors. This is the first time that a tyre showroom has been given this coveted award.

11th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

The Nominations Are In…

Chris Anthony
Editor, Tyrepress.com/Tyres & Accessories

Tyre Industry Publications, Federation House, Station Road, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 2SA, United Kingdom
+44 (0)1782 969860

The content herein is expressly intended for the person(s) addressed, and for business purposes. Any other communication is the sole opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of Tyre Industry Publications Ltd.

8th February 2008/by Chris

Conti – Low Cost Cars & Emerging Markets a Strong Growth Area

Continental’s chief technical officer has expressed confidence that the strong global demand in the low cost car segment for vehicles such as Tata’s Nano will lead to an expansion of the company’s research and development capacities in emerging markets. Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann commented during an interview with dpa news agency that Conti will substantially expand its R&D capacities in Asia and South America to meet the growth of low-cost car segments in these regions. The segments will be profitable, he believes, in spite of the obvious pressure to minimise production costs.

Increasingly, it is low cost vehicles in the emerging markets such as India, China and Russia that drives growth in the global vehicle industry, and Continental predicts that by 2017 around 14 million cars with a retail price below 10,000 euros will be sold each year.

7th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti to Supply General Lines to Canadian Tire

Continental Tire North America announced a business relationship with mega-retailer Canadian Tire, which will take on two new General tyre lines later this year. The products will be unique to Canadian Tire, CTNA officials said, and will provide coverage for some 70 per cent of the prevailing passenger tyre market in Canada.

CTNA said the deal is “one of the largest agreements in the history of both corporations.” The deal covers some 464 Canadian Tire locations from coast to coast. “As the country’s leading automotive retailer, and given our status as Canada’s tyre experts, we are excited to add these innovative tyres from CTNA to our broad assortment of national brand tyres,” said Tony Kuczynski, vice president of Canadian Tire. “Continental has shown a true commitment to the General brand with the introduction of several new and exciting product lines, and we’re happy to bring two of these lines into our stores.”

5th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Acquires Asian Retail Outlets

Bridgestone’s retail network in Asia has been boosted through the acquisition of operations in Thailand and Malaysia. Bridgestone Holdings (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (BSHT), a joint capital investment between Thai Bridgestone and a local partner, acquired Shell Autoserv (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (SAT) from the Shell Group on February 4. SAT owns 64 “Shell Autoserv” stores in the capital city Bangkok and in other locations throughout the country, an independent network providing car maintenance service including tyre and lubricant sales. In addition to the Thai transaction, Bridgestone also announced an agreement between Bridgestone Tyre Sales (Malaysia) SDN.BHD. (BSTM) and Shell Group for the BTSM acquisition of eight “Shell Autoserv” car maintenance stores in Malaysia.

4th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Launches New Assurance Tyre

Goodyear Tire & Rubber is to add a third product offering to its Assurance line of tyres. The announcement was made during the Goodyear Dealer Conference, an annual gathering of the company’s North American retail network.

The new tyre, named Assurance, is a mid-tier product in Goodyear’s passenger tyre family, joining the brand’s two premium offerings in that segment: Assurance ComforTred and Assurance TripleTred. The new tyre will initially be offered in the US in 27 sizes at Goodyear retail outlets and independent tire dealerships by the end of March.

The Assurance is available in tyre sizes ranging from 15- to 17-inch rim diameters. The initial size offering covers 80 per cent of the targeted vehicle group, and includes popular vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Malibu, Ford Taurus, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and many more.

4th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Car Dealers and Fast Fits Charge 50% More than Independents

New research produced by Birmingham-based aftermarket research specialists, Encircle Marketing, shows that car dealerships are able to sell tyres at up to 50 per cent more than local retailers. According to the data, details of which are exclusively published in this month’s Tyres & Accessories, the “average” UK passenger car tyre costs £79.79, with only fast fits and car dealership exceeding this ceiling – charging averages of £89.72 and £94.21 respectively.

The report confirms the widely publicised belief that local dealerships sell tyres at the cheapest prices in the market (£62.62), 15 per cent lower than average. The data T&A has seen doesn’t draw any conclusions as to why garages and fast-fits are able to charge prices roughly 50 per cent higher than local independents.

4th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Australia Upgrades its Web Presence

To keep pace with ever changing Internet tastes and technology, Bridgestone Australia has developed an updated suite of websites it believes will greatly improve the user experience, both visually and ergonomically. Emphasis has been placed upon ease of use, and the menu system adopted by the new site allows for clearer and more concise navigation. Features such as contrast and font enlargement permit easier reading for the visually impaired.

Visitors arriving at the home page will be presented with the latest Bridgestone Australia offers and brand advertisements, with animated banners and images relating to the company’s retail promotions prominently displayed. Improvements to the site’s tyre selector feature are intended to simplify the process of finding the correct tyre size for a particular vehicle, and an added ‘driving style’ tool can help pinpoint the best tyre for any vehicle model. Upgraded graphics and descriptions of each tyre’s technology, together with comparison charts, make the job on online tyre selection substantially easier.

1st February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

New Regional Manager for NTA

National Tyres and Autocare has appointed Stewart Little as Regional Manager for Cheshire Region. Little has been with the company for 24 years and brings with him experience of a number of positions within the Axle Group including Commercial Sales Manager, Purchasing Manager and General Manager. Stewart Little assumed his new role at the start of the year and commented: “I look forward to working with the Retail Team to further improve our service to customers and build the business to be stronger and more successful than ever before.”

1st February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

CV Show and Workshop 2008 Aiming to Break All Records

128 first time exhibitors have already signed up for this year’s Commercial Vehicle Show and Workshop 2008 at the NEC with many regular exhibitors taking bigger stands. The show, which runs from 15 to 17 April at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, is now the biggest annual business-to-business transport and logistics show in Europe.

Last year’s show attracted over 600 exhibitors and 27,000 visitors. “This is due to the enormous range of products and services covered by van, truck, trailer and support service businesses,” said show chairman, David Sedgley. “For three days the NEC really does become the hub of the UK transport industry, with firms using the CV Show as the main platform to launch new products, while supporting sectors use the event as the basis of their marketing activities.

1st February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Acquires NZ’s Largest Independent Tyre Retailer

Bridgestone has boosted its retail presence in New Zealand through the acquisition of the 19 outlets operated by Tony’s Tyre Service, the country’s independent tyre retailer. The chain, founded in 1982 by businessman and former retreader Steve Lange, and its 150 plus employees, will come under the control of the tyre major on March 31.

“I think it’s the right time,” commented Lange to the Manawatu Standard. “The company’s achieved some pretty spectacular results and it’s got a fantastic reputation in the industry. We want to take that to the next level.” Mr Lange will continue in his role as chief executive and the retail outlets look likely to retain their distinctive brand identity. “Nothing changes,” he added. “We are still the operators and a totally independent entity. I’ve been pretty careful to ensure that my people would not be changed. The consumer will not notice any difference.” The financial details of the acquisition remain undisclosed due to a confidentiality agreement, however Mr. Lange indicated the offer was very attractive.

31st January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Retail Fly-Tipping Costs £2 million a Year

Under the banner of “Educating the consumer,” the second annual Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) annual forum, which took place at the end of January covered topics including “Balancing Capacity with Demand,” “Recycling Comes at a Cost,” and “The production and use of tyre derived materials,” but once again the most headline-grabbing news was on the subject of retail fly-tipping.

Large tyre retail operations are paying for the disposal of 10-15 per cent more tyres than they sell, according to the latest information. Group Tyre commercial operations director, Karl Naylor, detailed some of the findings of the Tyre Industry Federation (TIF) fly-tipping panel he has recently been working with. 12 months after Kwik-Fit spoke of how tyres dumped on its premises cost £250,000 it appears that the problems costs the wider retail industry approximately £2 million each year. And what's more, the problem appears to be a growing concern.

31st January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Amtel-Vredestein Sales Up but Debt Issues Remain

Figures released by Amtel-Vredestein for the first nine months of 2007 show increased net sales during the period, however a statement released by the company on January 29 also points to the possibility of supply disruptions resulting from difficulties in refinancing short-term debt.

For the nine months ending September 30, 2007 sales rose by 26 per cent to US$691 million, from $548 million for the same period in 2006. From this figure, sales for the company’s Russian operations (excluding the AV-TO unit) increased 18 per cent to $274.3 million, while European sales from Vredestein Banden B.V. grew 20.1 per cent to $275.4 million. Much of Amtel-Vredestein’s overall sales growth has taken place, the company reports, through increased sales at its AT-VO unit due to the acquisition of tyre and automotive parts wholesale businesses Pigma and Megashina, and the increased number of retail stores included in the consolidated results.

30th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Nigel Sowerby New Director Truck Tyres at Goodyear Dunlop UK

Goodyear Dunlop UK has appointed Nigel Sowerby as Director, Truck Tyres in their UK and Ireland business, effective 1 March 2008. Robin Sharpe, current Director, Truck Tyres will handover to Nigel Sowerby to ensure during February before Sharpe moves on to a new assignment to be announced next month. Sowerby joined Goodyear Dunlop in 2005 as Southern Area Manager for the company’s TruckForce commercial vehicle tyre servicing network, before being promoted to the position of Manager, TruckForce, UK, in 2006.

Commenting on the appointment, current Director Truck Tyres, Robin Sharpe, commented: “Nigel and his team have done an outstanding job in building the TruckForce service network as a ‘Best in Class’ provider to the road transport industry. The time is now right to consolidate the management team to deliver a truly focused tyre and service offering, and I look forward to my next challenging role within Goodyear Dunlop.”

30th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors