News from the tyre wholesale sector
18 top General Tire dealers from the UK recently visited the SEMA aftermarket show in Las Vegas as invited delegates of Micheldever Tyres, the UK distributor of General Tire.
The trip was hosted by Amelia Lion, MTS marketing manager house brands and Alan Baldwin, MTS wholesale director, who commented: “After distributing quite a few million 4×4 tyres in the UK market over the past years, visiting SEMA, the home of 4×4, was long overdue.”
"Motorway Service Areas owned or supplied by major oil companies continue to extort their customers by pricing fuel much higher than at their standard company-owned sites" said Brian Madderson, Petrol Retailers' Association (PRA) Chairman.
Recent data produced by Experian Catalist showed that Shell brand petrol purchased at a Motorway Service Area was 14 pence per litre (ppl) more expensive than Shell brand petrol purchased at one of their standard sites. Diesel was as much as 12ppl more. The gap between prices for Esso brand fuel was very similar.
Kings Road Tyres is 40 years old this year. While you could be forgiven for associating the more famous Kings Road in Chelsea with the Group’s name, it actually derives from the Richmond street of the same name, where what was Thames Haulage decided to get into the tyre business due to its large outlay on rubber for tipper trucks. Though it has evolved during the last 40 years from these beginnings to comprise divisions dealing with tyre wholesaling, tyre services and a retail outlet, the company places great emphasis on the continuity of its personnel. Indeed, KRT’s 40th anniversary as a company is also credit control manager, Barry Hill’s 40th year with the company, while the company’s owners – Commercial director Mark Cooper, Financial director Simon Lister and managing director Adrian Bader – have industry experience of over a century, much of which is with the KRT Group. The Group employs over 200 people, with a sales team of over 25 in Wholesale, over half of which has been with the company for 20 years. “KRT is where it is because of the continuity of people,” Bader says.
Micheldever Tyre Services reports that tyre industry records were being broken in September, but in the worst possible manner for the safety of the British motoring public. Instead of reporting that more and better quality tyres are being sold as you might expect, the tyre wholesaler reports that retail depots are changing tyres in a worse state than ever.
Long-time supporter of the Brityrex show, Kings Road Tyres had one of the exhibition’s more imposing stands, located next to the entrance, while associated brands, Uniroyal, for which it has the UK licence, Aeolus and Antyre – Chinese brands for which the wholesale part of KRT is the exclusive distributor in the UK – were present with stands of their own. Added to the “multi-brand presence” promised by Purchasing and Marketing manager, Tim Bader on the company’s own stand, featuring “the latest from Matador, Taurus, Cooper 4×4 and Aeolus Truck Tyres,” the company represented its truck, bus, agricultural, industrial and 4×4 ranges strongly.
You might have expected Kings Road Tyres’ 40th year to have been marked by transition following the Group’s management buyout by Adrian Bader (managing director), Mark Cooper (commercial director) and Simon Lister (financial director). However, with the directors’ vast experience within the company, and the strong emphasis within its wholesale businesses on long-standing partnerships with both tyre brand suppliers and customers, the company told Tyrepress.com that the achievement of the last 12 months has been that “to the outside world, the business hasn’t changed with the ownership”; though strategic and business developments have continued under the new ownership team, some of what has happened was detailed in pre-existing plans and the focus has been on “making it seamless”.
To ignore the old adage about books and covers, the latest manual to support the Micheldever Tyre Services exclusive brand, GT Radial says something about the support the brand is now receiving. When Tyrepress.com spoke with general manager at GiTi Tire UK, Brian McDermott and Marketing manager & European brand manager, Jenny Leeson about the new GT Radial Performance Centre initiative – supported by Micheldever – the first thing to be noted was the dynamic presentation materials, led by the latest version of the brand’s marketing manual. Where before, the relatively young brand was represented by a modest A5 booklet, the latest edition, ring-bound to allow for anticipated new products and announcements is “streamlined for personal selling”, says Leeson.
One of the most striking stands at Brityrex was the black and yellow of Shandong Wanda Boto Tyre Co., Ltd. Obviously this company does not hail from these shores, but walking onto the company’s show stand, Tyres & Accessories was greeted by a familiar southern accent. As it turns out, while the stand was clearly there to promote the Boto name, the decision to exhibit follows on from the Chinese manufacturer’s decision to partner with one of this country’s largest retreaders/fleet tyre suppliers. According to representatives of both companies Bandvulc will now wholesale Boto truck and bus radial tyres in the UK as well as selling the tyres direct to its fleet customers through its Bandvulc Tyre Contracts business.
Axle Group Holdings company, Viking Wholesale Tyres and Equipment operates from eight strategically located warehouses, serving customers across Britain. In addition to supplying a range of premium brands, Viking launched its exclusive distribution deal for Westlake PCR to light truck tyres earlier in 2012, with an internal event to highlight the patterns and sizes available in the UK and to emphasise the substantial investment made at Westlake manufacturer Hangzhou Zhongce.
Trading in over 30 countries around the world through a series of partnerships, Treadsetters has developed its international activities as part of the TIA Group of companies. Treadsetters believes that the ongoing growth within the global tyre market can be attributed to a combination of providing the company's international client base with ongoing extensive sourcing and marketing expertise, technical support and advice along with the responsive supply of tyres and wheels. The company has recently exhibited in South Africa, Tanzania and Panama as part of the company's ongoing dynamic sales and marketing campaign.
When Itochu completed its purchase of the UK’s largest tyre retail operation, Kwik Fit in June 2011, the corporation underlined the separation of the retailer and its wholesale operation, Stapleton’s. A year on, and the latter company has renewed its focus, in its words; the STS, Tyre Pros and Central branded shops are no longer within Stapleton’s remit, meaning that the UK’s largest tyre distributor now has a clear single focus on distribution. “By taking our own retail operations out of the Stapleton’s arena this year we’ve been able to concentrate all our investment, effort and expertise on delivering a doubly effective response to our retail customers’ requirements, building those needs into every strategic move we make to offer real, tangible benefits to our customers’ business,” says Stapleton’s managing director, Yutaka Kimbara.
CAM Systems previewed the first stages of its new Retail Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application to its retail customers at the recent Brityrex exhibition. According to the company, the new system granulises data providing them with options for more effective customer capture, contact and sales conversion for operations conducted at the counter, on the phone and over the web.
Delticom has reported revenues of 280.4 million euros in the first three quarters of 2012, down some 5.8 per cent compared with the previous year. The preliminary results show that pre-tax profits (EBIT) amounted to 17.5 million euros, which suggests this figure fell by around a third compared with last eyar. By comparison, in the first nine months of 2011 revenues increased by 15.8 per cent to 297.7 million euros and EBIT by 23.3 per cent to 28.2 million euros. As a result of the “challenging market environment” Delticom warned investors that it is scaling back its EBIT goal for the current financial year to 7 – 8 per cent.
Heuver Tyrewholesale has established itself as a major European player over the past 45 years, a position it says works to the benefit of customers and end users alike. The Netherlands-based company shared with Tyres & Accessories that the decision to specialise in the truck, earth-moving and agricultural markets has proved to be a strength for Heuver and offers many opportunities. The company deals in all well-known brands and possesses its own comprehensive range of imported brands.
Independent tyre wholesaler, RH Claydon may have built a name for itself as a distributor of larger agricultural and commercial vehicle tyres, with the longest authorised distributor deal for BKT in the UK, but the company also sees itself as a true “one-stop shop”, whether the customer needs consumer, off-highway or truck tyres. Business director, John Parker explains the company’s wide range of brands and fitments allows it to meet the requirements of the distributor/service provider and end user alike for the UK and Northern Ireland market place.
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