HiQ fast reports that Stockport entrepreneur Leslie Brady has become the latest franchisee to join its fast fit network. Brady has opened a HiQ forecourt venture, known as Fleet Care Maintenance, in the Conway Centre. The newly re-branded site offers MOT and servicing and in addition to selling and fitting tyres, the centre boasts new wheel diagnostic technology that HiQ says will help vehicles last the harsh and often expensive winter months.
Having friends in high places can sometimes prove a definite advantage, as Kumho Tyres recently noted when organising a ‘Dream Day’ for children and their parents/carers. The 40 children, selected in competitions or from Manchester’s Francis House Children’s Hospice, recently spent the day honing their skills with a bunch of football players – but not just any players, mind you. Making full use of the benefits from its official sponsorship of Manchester United Football Club, Kumho Tyres arranged for the lucky 40 to spend the day at Old Trafford and Manchester United’s Carrington training ground with no less than five of the club’s first team players.
US Myers Tire Supply is offering a new Tire Inflation Maintenance (TIM) customer retention programme designed for tyre dealers and their customers, reports Tire Review. TIM is a US initiative “dedicated to improving safety and the environment through the promotion of regular tire inflation maintenance,” the company said.
This weekend a pink tyre will be rolled across the Black Country, part of the way by grown men wearing hot pink polo shirts. And while such a sight may be a rarity in the West Midlands, sound reasons lurk behind the pinkness and the tyre rolling. On October 16, the country’s largest HiQ franchisee is initiating a 15 mile tyre roll to raise money for Breast Cancer Care.
Amongst Michelin’s plans in Asia is a doubling of market share in Malaysia. Yves Pouliquen, managing director of Michelin Malaysia Sdn Bhd, reports the more than 1,000 outlets selling Michelin tyres throughout the country hold a ten per cent share of the market, and the tyre maker’s goal is to “grow that to 20 per cent.” One means the company has of increasing its presence in Malaysia is via the expansion of its Tyreplus network of independent tyre retailers. A year after its initial Malaysian market debut, the national Tyreplus network contains eight outlets, and Michelin plans to increase this to 50 centres by 2013 through a project Pouliquen says will cost some RM10 million (£2 million).
In November, ATS Euromaster’s head of Business Development, Kevin Steward, will direct his efforts towards development of another kind when he sets off on a 420 kilometre ride through Tanzania as a participant in the transport charity Transaid’s ‘Cycle Tanzania’ fundraising initiative. Money raised through Steward’s efforts will help the independent charity’s work in Africa and the developing world.
Kwik-Fit has promised to direct an additional million pounds into staff training and double its mystery shopper programme after the BBC One show ‘Watchdog’ aired both its own experience with the fast fit chain and those of several unsatisfied customers. The September 16 edition of Watchdog outlined cases in which Kwik-Fit quoted for repair work that wasn’t required and performed vehicle inspections that didn’t deliver all that was promised.
Top management of Canadian Tire is not at all happy, so its president and CEO has turned the company on its ear and has warned employees to shape up, says Tire Review. Stephen Wetmore, head of the massive retailer for less than 24 months, has reshuffled the top exec deck and realigned the company’s divisions under one umbrella in a move to improve the bottom line, enhance customer service and cut duplication and costs.
OTR Tyres Ltd is to exhibit at the Recycling and Waste Management Exhibition (RWM) again this year OTR to promote the benefits of OTR Tyre Hire, a service exclusively designed for the waste management industry in addition to the company’s range of new and retreaded solid, cushion and pneumatic tyres.
Last month NR Evans put the first of three engineers through Bridgestone’s Roadside Technicians course. Martin Jones (based at NR Evans’ Aldridge site) became the 410th technician to complete the Bridgestone course and gain the National Roadside Scheme ID Card administered by the IVR UK Ltd (Institute of Vehicle Recovery).
Northallerton based coach operator Procters Coaches has put the first three of its vehicle technicians through Bridgestone’s popular and successful Roadside Technician course. In addition to gaining the Roadside Technician ID card, Keith Thompson also gained 14 hours towards his driver CPC training as the course is accredited through the Institute of Vehicle Recovery.
The HiQ fast fit network reports more than 500 bespoke training courses at its HiQ Training Academy were booked in the first half of the year, a volume it believes bucks an industry trend that shows training to have decreased 12 per cent over the past two years. The training offered supports HiQ's partnership-led franchise model and also operates independently as a separate NVQ training programme for tyre technicians.
A Bandvulc employee has gained the highest “City & Guilds Part 1 Retread Process Workshop Practice” mark in UK, the second year in a row that a Bandvulc entrant has laid claim to this award. Every year a number of the company’s employees embark on the City & Guilds course where they have a 12 section syllabus to complete via in-house tuition and no small measure of homework. The course runs from September to April each year and covers all aspects of tyre retreading.
Years of work in the field of tyre recovery and in the tyre industry as a whole has earned Michelin Tyre PLC managing director Jim Rickard a lifetime achievement award from the Tyre Recovery Association (TRA). Rickard is the first ever recipient of this award from the association, which he received at the recent TRA annual dinner in front of more than 100 distinguished guests from the tyre recovery industry.
As a regular exhibitor at the Brityrex Show, Southampton based Supertracker will once again be present in Manchester in October, this time introducing a recently launched Steering Angle Reset Tool which was released in May. Sharing details of its Brityrex exhibition stand, the firm said this tool has been developed in direct response to the industry's increasing popularity for steering angle sensors on modern vehicles. This latest Supertracker product allows the user to reset the sensor to the correct wheel alignment settings and ensures that any stability control electronics to operate correctly.
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