Winter is almost upon us and – presumably to the unending relief of Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson – the majority of the nation’s caravans are off the road and ‘hibernating’ for the winter. Yet, as Protyre points out, care should be taken when laying-up a caravan for the winter months. To minimise the risk of problems when heading back on the road when the weather warms, the independent tyre dealer network offers the following advice.
For several years Dunlop Zimbabwe has operated a toll manufacturing agreement – an arrangement under which foreign firms provide raw material finances so that Zimbabwean companies can manufacture products for them – with the Apollo Tyres subsidiary in South Africa. At the time of the scheme’s launch in 2006 the toll agreement was necessary for the company’s survival, yet since then Dunlop Zimbabwe’s fortunes have improved. Now the company has announced it has sufficient funds to import raw materials on its own and sustain its operations, and thus it has ended its South African toll manufacturing agreement.
With 130 mobile units for cars and vans on the road, 200 car/van/truck dual-purpose units and 550 truck service vehicles in use throughout the UK, ATS Euromaster can lay claim to operating the nation’s largest mobile servicing programme for car, van and truck fleets. This places the company in a good position to observe happenings within industry in 2009. Indeed, ATS Euromaster has seen fleet operators react to the economic slowdown in a number of ways.
You’d have to look under a fairly isolated rock to find someone unaware of the beating the transport industry has taken in 2009, but fewer people are aware that dwindling fleet vehicle purchases have also brought some benefits. Kwik-Fit Fleet is one firm to have gained from this effect of the recession Head of Kwik-Fit Fleet Mike Wise, when talking with Tyres & Accessories, reflects that the fleet industry has been for the last 15 or 16 months totally dominated by recession affected businesses looking to cut costs, and this has proven a boon to the fast fit services provider: “Since the recession struck in 2008, an increasing number of businesses have extended their fleet replacement cycles,” he explains. “Recession-induced lengthening fleet replacement cycles have provided a major business opportunity for Kwik-Fit Fleet as tyre consumption rises and an increasing volume of MOTs and service and repair work is required as vehicles move into their fourth year of operation and even longer.”
Tyre supply to the FIA Formula One World Championship series is up for grabs as of 2011 following Bridgestone’s decision not to enter into a new supply contract when the current arrangement expires next year. Bridgestone Motorsport director Hiroshi Yasukawa expressed “deep regret” upon announcing the decision reached by the tyre major’s Board of Directors, a decision he notes was only reached after “considerable and lengthy evaluations.”
North American retreader Snider Tire joined the Michelin Retreading Technologies (MRT) network of servicing dealers earlier this year. The company has now furthered its involvement with Michelin with the opening of an MRT truck tyre retreading facility in the town of Bluffton, Indiana. The new plant, which brings the total number of MRT facilities in the US to 81, will service two of Snider Tire’s ‘Tire and Retread Asset Control System’ (TRACS) locations: Bytheville, Arkansas, and Cambridge, Ohio. TRACS refers to Snider Tire’s cradle-to-grave tyre and retread solution for trucking fleet customers.
The ninth International Tyre Industry Expo in South America, PneuShow is set to take place in São Paulo, Brazil between 13 and 16 April, 2010 at the Expo Center Norte. The event will also include its second international tyre industry convention. Calling itself “the most important show for the tyre industry in South America”, PneuShow Recaufair’s exhibitors will include representatives from the tyre and wheel trades, including special application and industrial products; repair and retreading materials, machinery and moulds; and servicing and recycling equipment and tools. In 2008, the event had 100 exhibitors in a space of 4,500 sqm, with 10,800 visitors.
Nearly 60 per cent of motorists would now consider buying part-worn or retread tyres for their cars, compared to just 35 per cent three years ago. That’s the conclusion of a study conducted by online tyre retailer Blackcircles.com, published to coincide with Tyre Safety Month. Publicising the conclusions of the data in an official statement, Blackcircles MD Mike Welch made the expected warnings about part worn quality, but made a surprising comparison with what he called “sub standard” retreads.
“Buying part worn tyres and retreads might seem like a thrifty alternative to new tyres but it’s vital that motorists also understand the risks. Part-worns and retreads are effectively second hand – they have already been used for an unspecified number of miles with a different vehicle and so are inherently sub-standard compared to brand new models,” Welch commented, adding:
Encircle Marketing recently added automotive aftermarket servicing & MOT data to its pool of research. According to company representatives, the company now offers: robust and actionable analysis by each of the key vehicle classification segments (A-E + MPV/ SUV); head to head level analysis of relative cost elements attached to servicing/MOT; and an examination of regional variations. The project will issue monthly data from January 2010, when the company will start conducting a monthly monitor across all key channels in the market. Headline figures are to include individual quotes for a first major service (three year old vehicle), price for an MOT, various service elements provided as part of a service (free courtesy car/valet service) and promotional offers.
Blackcircles.com has gone the route of bricks and mortar retailers before it, by adding car servicing options to its online tyre portfolio. The move, made in conjunction with Unipart will allow motorists to book and pay for car servicing online to be carried out at its network of 1,200 independent garages. According to Blackcircles.com the service will be up to 60 per cent cheaper than franchised dealerships.
Mike Welch, founder and managing director of Blackcircles.com, said: “We are moving into the vehicle servicing sector with the same innovative business model that has allowed Blackcircles.com to capture around £13 million of the UK tyre market.”
A & A Tyres in Cardiff, part of First Stop network of tyre dealerships, has come to the rescue of a local school who was at risk of losing one of its life lines, a mini-bus due to the increasing cost of running the vehicle. As well as replacing all the tyres on the mini-bus A & A Tyres is funding all of its maintenance which includes servicing, general maintenance and safety checks every eight weeks. The company has also offered to look after the rest of the school’s fleet of vehicles for a significantly reduced rate. This has enabled the school to keep the vehicle and ensure they are all safe-guarded for the future.
Bandvulc Group, the Devon-based retreading and fleet servicing operation, is aiming to significantly increase Fulda brand truck tyre sales in the UK. Speaking at the company’s Fulda-brand launch event at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground yesterday (17 September), Bandvulc managing director Patrick O’Connell explained that the company has already equalled the Goodyear Dunlop group brand’s 2008 UK sales volume. Starting as they mean to go on, the company reported that it has already transferred the Tesco fleet's doubledeck OE onto Fulda new tyres.
The UK battery market is seeing branded products in growth at the expense of private labels, though the latter still hold over two-thirds of the total market, according to Paul Matarewicz, the managing director of Johnson Controls Batteries and VARTA. Meanwhile, Manbat’s MD, Steve Sheppard believes that the rising brand awareness in the UK is a result of the general economic slump, to which consumers are responding with a desire for greater reliability and longer lifespan.
The latest SMMT figures reveal there was 6 per cent rise in new car registrations in August 2009, with the monthly total growing to 67,006 units. The second successive month of growth in new car registrations is widely attributed to the success of the government’s scrappage initiative, with August’s figures building on on a 2.4 per cent gain in July. As you might expect in light of the scrappage scheme, private purchases of small cars grew particularly strongly with this type of sale accounting for 35,694 (53.3 per cent) of August’s sales, compared to 23,717 (37.5 per cent). However, the recent growth disguises the fact that sales are still 15 per cent off the 78,800 total monthly market average between 1999 and 2008.
Ford and Vauxhall continued to dominate sales in August, however it is the surprise success of the Korean car manufacturers that has the potential to re-shape the UK car parc. And as these car manufacturers are almost exclusively supplied by Korean tyre makers, there is also likely to be a positive effect on Korean tyre sales in the UK.
Operating hours are on the up and tyre related breakdowns are becoming scarcer at Hills Quarry Products, and Michelin says its premium XHA and XADN tyres are the culprits behind this positive turn of events. The Hills Group division switched to Michelin products following a trial period and now uses the two types of tyre on the Volvo A25D dump trucks and Volvo L120E and L150F loading shovels in nine-strong quarry fleet.
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