Tyres-N-Parts. This familiar-sounding name belongs to a new B2B digital sales platform aimed at car dealerships and workshops as well as tyre dealers. The Michelin-backed venture is initially launching in Germany and aims to act as an online one-stop-shop for tyres and automotive spare parts. Tyres-N-Parts believes it will become “a model that will define the future of tyre and parts retailing.”
The world of tyres and that of the silver screen seldom cross paths. They notably did so in 2010 when French director Quentin Dupieux brought us Rubber, the tale of an anthropomorphised but troubled tyre named Robert. They cross paths again in 2021, this time via a film jointly written and produced by a major name in the tyre wholesaling sector.
Hindsight is said to be 20/20, yet this isn’t a faculty that helped the tyre industry this year. Early optimism driven by vaccine rollouts quickly turned to despair as sideways-parked container ships, skyrocketing sea freight prices, rising material costs and supply shortages delivered blow after blow. As we enter the final quarter of the year we have a much clearer view of what’s going on, and what we see is that tyres will be pricier in the coming months – assuming we can get our hands on them.
During our recent visit to Magowan’s T&A met with founder Darryl Magowan Snr., Darryl Magowan Jnr, David Magowan and IT manager Ben Tinsley who gave us a guided tour around the bespoke newbuild warehouse and who also explained the thinking that has gone into the project.
Earlier this year a retired tyre industry veteran got in touch to ask if we wanted any of his old copies of Tyres & Accessories. While our archives stretch all the way back to our first edition in 1946, outside the British Library there were some gaps in the first couple of decades. So, we jumped at the chance. The offer of vintage editions from the swinging 60s also comes at a time when we are working hard on digitising our back catalogue. So far, the 132 copies going back to 2010 have been through the process and are now available online. And the first decade of the millennium (2000 to 2010) is also well underway. From here, the goal is to work back in time until we have a full complement. So, should you want to look into the history of your company or find out what happened in the tyre business on an important date such as an anniversary – our digital archive will be there to help you reminisce. And if there is a particular historic article you think we should digitise sooner rather than later, please get in touch via theeditor@tyrepress.com to let us know which edition we should transfer to the digital realm and why.
American Tire Distributors (ATD), the largest replacement tyre distributor in North America, has published its first Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) report. With its release, ATD commits to “identify opportunities and invest in solutions that are designed to improve its holistic community impact while delivering unmatched customer service to the entire replacement tyre ecosystem.”
Extraordinary market conditions in sea freight are now expected to persist well into 2022, according to analysts. Meanwhile, long-haul air freight belly capacity is only expected to gradually return between 2022 and 2024. Of course, freight forwarders/shipping firms are the biggest winners in this scenario, with the same analysis produced by Jefferies further raising pre-tax profit (EBIT) estimates by 18 per cent on average in the sector for the 2021 full year and by 14 per cent in 2022.
Peter Gibbons is stepping down as chief executive officer of TireHub, the US-based tyre distributor jointly founded by Bridgestone Americas and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Ted Becker, TireHub’s vice-president of sales and marketing, will become interim chief executive officer once Gibbons leaves the company in mid-November to pursue a new career opportunity.
In order to support its ambition of becoming a true Nordic tyre & wheel specialist, independent tyre distribution firm Vimexa has become a corresponding member of the STRO (Scandinavian Tire and Rim Organization) in Sweden. Announcing Vimexa’s STRO membership, managing director Rutger Veerman said “we have realised strong growth in the Nordic (and Baltic) region during the last five years, and with our hub in Helsinki the logistics is optimal.”
Wholesaler RH Claydon Ltd. began construction work on its new depot in Carlisle this week. The facility is located within the Kingmoor Park Enterprise Zone and includes a 30,000 square foot warehouse as well as purpose-built office space.
Peter van ‘t Hof, founder of Dutch tyre wholesaler Tyre Trading International (TTI), passed away on 6 August 2021, aged 72. Van ‘t Hof founded the Numansdorp-based wholesale business in 1988, continuing a family connection to the tyre and automotive sector that dates back to 1924. He handed over management of TTI to son Peter-Alexander in 2006.
National Tyre & Wheel Limited (NTAW), the largest independent tyre and wheel wholesaler in Australia and New Zealand, has made several changes to its leadership team. The company states that these and other appointments made over the past year will help it “set a new benchmark in customer experience” that will “underwrite further growth.”
TireHub, the USA-based national tyre distributor jointly by Bridgestone Americas and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, is now three years old. Reporting the company’s experiences over the past 12 months, chief executive officer Peter Gibbons says that even though TireHub began its third year in the middle of a global pandemic, it nevertheless ended 2020 with “significant gains” compared with the industry, which was down overall.
Kirkby Tyres has invested 3.5 million euros in moving to new, larger premises in Dublin, Republic of Ireland in a move that was completed on Wednesday 21 July 2021. According to the company, “Kirkby Tyres Ireland operations serves all geographical areas in Ireland” and made the investment due to “increased sales activities and opportunities”.
Following Halfords’ recent acquisitions of Universal Tyres and McConnechy’s before that, many have speculated regarding what the future holds for Lodge Tyres. Rumours aside, the short story is that Lodge Tyres had a good 2020 despite the obvious Covid-19-related adversity and is set for further growth in 2021. Tyres & Accessories met with Lodge Tyres managing director Andy Christmas and commercial director Martin O’Brien in order to get the latest details straight from Lodge Tyres’ management.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
Magowan Tyres
Mike; Pexels.
Pexels
Kirkby Tyres
Tyre Industry Publications Ltd