The latest developments in Halford’s complex car servicing history (see Halfords Buys Nationwide Autocentres for £73.2 million – 18/02/10), bring with them a distinct sense of déjà-vous and highlight the cyclic nature of ownership in this industry. From Halfords point of view the latest venture represents a new beginning for a business that is radically different to when it last tried car servicing.
Halfords Group has bought Nationwide Autocentres in a £73.2 million deal, which managers described as the next “logical step” in its expansion plans. Nationwide, which has been owned by private equity group Phoenix since 2006, employs 900 mechanics and serves roughly 500,000 customers a year. Nationwide offers customers and fleets MOTs, servicing and repairs, but also recently increased the emphasis on tyres at its 224 outlets.
Ian Fraser, CEO of tyre retail giant Kwik-Fit is preparing to sell its insurance wing for in excess of £200 million. According to a report published in the Sunday Times on 14 February, Kwik-Fit has hired bankers at Credit Suisse to carry out a review of Kwik-Fit Financial Services. The report points out that a sale of the operation would help Kwik-Fit cut its debts of around £822 million.
A consumer poll indicates that half of all UK drivers put skidding on wet roads as their worst nightmare – and a the huge increase in rainfall in the past few weeks across the country, they have grounds to be concerned. Almost 1,000 motorists took part in the poll CCB fast.MAP undertook in November for the mytyres.co.uk online tyre retail portal, and 55 per cent put skidding out of control as their worst nightmare. Breaking down on the road was the second highest fear and, interestingly, getting a puncture only concerned three per cent of motorists.
It’s official, Hawleys Tyres Ltd Company is the oldest independent tyre dealer in the UK. And in recognition of the company’s prestigious position as the nation’s longest established tyre dealership, Tyres & Accessories today awarded Martin Hawley and directors Tim and Simon Hawley with a certificate marking the achievement and a case of wine. The prize was presented by Pirelli Tyre UK managing director Dominic Sandivasci, who presented the 12 bottles of prestigious Pirelli P Zero red wine to the Hawleys.
In Australia, JAXQuickfit Tyres has opened a new store at Pymble, completing a triangle of premium tyre locations on Sydney's north shore. JAXQuickfit Pymble joins the stores at Artarmon and Thornleigh in offering customers an extensive range of tyres and wheels, together with steering, brake and suspension servicing. “In an extremely competitive market environment, JAXQuickfit has always had a very loyal and strong customer base on Sydney's north shore, so we're delighted to be able to offer them another convenient store location,” CEO Jeff Board said.
Bridgestone will help its partner, tyre retail group BA Bush & Son celebrate the opening of its latest depot with a weekend of events designed to entertain the whole family. BA Bush will be showcasing a replica Ferrari Formula One car – supplied by F1 tyre supplier, Bridgestone – this weekend (3 and 4 October) at Springfields Outlet Shopping & Festival Gardens in Spalding, Lincolnshire. Visitors will be able to have their picture taken next to the F1 car in exchange for a small donation to local charities.
A GfK Indonesia retail audit, covering the area of Jakarta and Surabaya, of passenger car tyres in July 2009 reported close to 110,000 units of car tyres traded in retail level, with sales worth more than $6.75 million. According to the retail census, there are currently a total of 435 shops retailing car tyres which consist of: 300 Car Tyre Specialists, 110 Car Garages and 25 Fast Fitters. Car Tyre Specialists made up the bulk of the passenger car tyre retail sales with 85 per cent of units sold through this core channel. These results clearly show consumers’ preference to “specialised” shops when replacing tyres.
B-Quik Co, Thailand’s leading operator of car service centres, has increased its revenue target this year to 2 billion baht (42.1 million euros) from 1.8 billion (37.9 million euros) as sluggish demand for new cars has been a windfall to the maintenance market. Eight to 10 B-Quik service centres will be added this year to the existing network of 56 sites nationwide, said chief executive Henk Kiks.
“The market has been surprisingly good for us with revenue surging over 30 per cent in the first half,” said Kiks. “We earlier projected sales of 1.8 billion baht, growth of 21 per cent from last year, but now we are aiming for over a 33 per cent rise to 2 billion by the end of the year.”
Sapphire Energy Recovery is securing a reliable source of end of life tyres through the acquisition of a regular supplier. The company intends to purchase Surrey based Willow tyres following the announcement that founder and current owner Ray Bates plans to retire later this year.
“Willow has been a long trusted and reliable supplier of around 1.4 million tyres a year to Sapphire, and it was important to us that we could maintain that security of supply despite Ray’s retirement,” explained Clive Roberts, who is supply chain manager for Sapphire Energy Recovery.
Leading tyre retail websites tyre-shopper.co.uk and kwik-fit.com have been rated as amongst the top 10 automotive shopping and classified websites in the UK. In the research kwik-fit.com came fifth, while tyre-shopper was ranked in ninth place. However it is also interesting to note that the success of first placed ebaymotors.co.uk and sixth-placed 247spares.co.uk, which both sell tyres, means 40 per cent of the UK’s leading websites in this category are also online tyre distribution channels.
The survey was carried out by Experian research company Hitwise, which monitored 8.43 million UK Internet users and how they interact with more than 1 million websites, across more than 165 different industries. The ranking didn’t include details of the relative performance of alternative leading tyre retail websites such as blackcircles.com, mytyres.co.uk or bestbuytyres.co.uk.
HiQ is aiming to raise £100,000 for Breast Cancer Care as part of a new partnership agreement between the tyre retail chain and the charity. HiQ made its ambitious pledge at the British Touring Car Championship media launch on 19 March, where the charity officially met franchisees and company bosses for the first time. Dozens of fundraising activities will be organised throughout the year to coincide with the BTCC calendar, and fast fitters across the HiQ network will be encouraged to take part in as many events as possible to swell the coffers at Breast Cancer Care. HiQ has set the £100,000 target, which will be achieved if every centre around the network can raise £500 during the course of the year.
Marketing manager Geraldine McGovern said the charity was the perfect fit for HiQ, as it reached out to a family audience: “We are all extremely excited with Project Pink and the opportunities that exist with Breast Cancer Care. We think the charity fits perfectly with what we are trying to achieve at HiQ. Not only is the charity close to all of our hearts, but no fast fit company reaches into the family market to help remove the intimidation associated with the fast fit sector.”
HiQ has announced plans to create up to 500 new jobs as part of its ambitious national franchise programme. The fast fit franchise chain, which currently has 137 HiQ centres across England and Wales, is creating the positions over the next three years as the number of outlets on UK high streets rises to a targetted 275 by 2012. The company has already accelerated the growth of the nationwide tyre and vehicle servicing network by signing long-term franchise agreements in 2008 when 106 Goodyear Dunlop owned HiQ centres were franchised. HiQ is now extending the model to many more towns and cities.
Currently 41 HiQ franchisees operate 137 HiQ centres, compared to just 15 franchisees operating 33 centres in 2007. New jobs are now being created weekly, with for example, 10 new positions announced for HiQ’s Kettering store this month. HiQ Retail Director Juergen Titz said: “The objective is to grow the business with new open points in towns and cities. The plan is to get 170 centres by the end of 2009 and 275 by 2012. The franchisee network is investing more than £2 million into improved customer environments in 2009, and this award winning franchise concept will increase transparency and certainty for our customers.”
North Eastern Tyre and Exhausts bought fifteen HiQ-branded retail outlets for £3 million, apparently using cash reserves and bank credit to finance the acquisition. This news comes as the company published annual results which saw turnover rise by 7.7 per cent to £43 million. While like-for-like turnover (sales that don’t take into account new openings) are only expected to rise slightly in the coming 12 months, the new branches are expected to help the company achieve annual sales of £50 million this year.
Australian tyre retailer JAXQuickfit Tyres is marks its 60th anniversary in 2009, and in this diamond jubilee year the company is also celebrating its third consecutive year of double-digit growth. From humble beginnings in 1949, Jax Tyre, as it was then known, has developed into AUD$100 million a year business with a network of 72 outlets throughout Australia. And having covered much of its home market, JAXQuickfit says it is now looking at expansion overseas.
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