News from the tyre wholesale sector
Tyre supplier and fleet service provider Quinton Tyres has consolidated its operations at three sites into a single location. The new 28,000 square foot site in Dukinfield was set up with a ₤1.35 million investment and will act as a base for Quinton’s entire operations, including mobile tyre fitting, sales, accounts, marketing and a new retail on-site fitting facility.
Recent restructuring at Heuver Tyrewholesale has given the company’s agricultural division a more prominent role, and Heuver reports its intention to strengthen agricultural tyre export activities, in particular the export of its brands to Germany, Belgium and France. The Dutch wholesaler says it “expects a great deal” from this.
Tyres & Accessories October magazine contains our annual e-Commerce feature, plus coverage of the latest developments in the tyre wholesale business and battery market. Subscribers can click more to view the whole edition through our virtual magazine system.
It has been a clear two months since my last rant about the state of the MOT test and with road safety minister Mike Penning having recently confirmed that a wholesale review of the test will be carried out, it is about time for an update. While almost everybody in the UK industry agrees that moving to two year testing intervals – whether it is in line with the rest of Europe or not – some would argue that a review of the system is overdue. In addition technological advances such as the mandatory fitment of tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS – scheduled for 2012) and the widespread use of ESP have moved quicker than legislation or testing rules that examine if these safety critical systems continue to work correctly throughout the life of a car.
Since its establishment in 1999, Treadsetters' turnover has grown from £6 million to over £27.5 million. Having successfully operated a wholesale model based largely on selling exclusive tyre brands for a decade, the company is now developing its own brand of tyres under the name Torque with a view to expanding this success into a truly international scale. Tyres & Accessories met with Treadsetters managing director Tim Davies in mid November at the company's new, larger warehousing site in Telford to find out more about the strategy that is behind both the company's recent HSBC business thinking award nomination and its recent growth.
To say that Treadsetter's recent growth has been strong is something of an understatement. If the company hits its 2010 targets – and so far there is every indication that it will – the business will have experienced 750 per cent turnover growth and 1000 per cent enhancement in our profitability in the last 5 years. Bearing in mind the wider market conditions of recent years and the fact that the company has not only maintained but increased profits amidst rapid growing sales total, this really is something of an achievement.
Between 27 and 27 November 2010, Interstate Tire & Rubber Co. hosted its augural Chinese Interstate distributor meeting at Nantong, China. Tyres & Accessories met up with vice president Theo de Vries and learnt that the company’s products, which are well-known in Europe, are gaining increased distribution in the Chinese domestic market.
Interstate’s first dealer meeting saw the company bring together more than 120 local Interstate distributors at the Grand International Hotel, Nantong. Distributors reportedly came from all over China and flew in from all several provinces across China -from the nearby Jiangsu to the remote Yunnan province. With Wholesale operations across all China and retail operations in the provinces of Jiangsu, Shanghai and Shandong, there is every indication that Interstate China is continuing to grow rapidly. For 2011 the company’s ambitious goal is to open 12 more retails outlets and increase sales by more than 40 per cent.
Micheldever’s Wholesale division has appointed Jason Burgess and Mike Hawes as general sales manager (North) and general sales manager (South) respectively in a new wholesale structure recently announced by MTS wholesale director Alan Baldwin. The new appointees will directly report to the wholesale director.
Alan Baldwin explained: “In order to further enhance our sales effectiveness and customer support levels across the UK, we have simplified reporting channels and responsibilities into two new geographical business units, with all Northern field sales teams and sales offices reporting to Jason Burgess, and the Southern operations to Mike Hawes.
During November one member of Grouptyre entered administration and four more formed a joint venture to maintain supply to national customers. Now that the joint venture is poised to make another acquisition, this time of WJ Wood & Sons, Tyres & Accessories exclusively interviewed Grouptyre managing director Karl Naylor in order find out more about the reasons behind the recent events. Needless to say a lot has been happening within Grouptyre over the last few weeks, with what Naylor diplomatically described as “unforeseen problems at one of its larger member companies…resulting in rapid changes having to be put in place to maintain its national coverage and service to customers.”
However, while the market officially got wind of the story in November, it appears Grouptyre’s members had been making every effort to secure Broadway’s future as far back as the summer. At this point plans were being discussed to address concerns that Broadway’s financial performance was weaker than Grouptyre was comfortable with.
Micheldever’s top Kumho dealers Forest of Dean tires and A&M tires Wigan joined Alan Baldwin, MTS wholesale director, Amelia Lion, Brand sales co-ordinator and Andy Spry, Protyre regional manager for the recent Manchester United home game at Old Trafford v Wolves, which United clinched with a last minute winning goal. All were entertained pre-match by Manchester United Legends Andrew Cole and Denis Irwin, both treble winners with United, and Andy Richie, the youngest ever hat trick scorer for Manchester United.
If you were playing a word association game with a tyre executive and said “emerging markets” the chances are they would say “China.” However, while China is top of the tree when it comes to tyre production in the so-called emerging markets – and indeed the world – the recent investments of global players (such as Bridgestone and Michelin) in India, coupled with the rapid growth of the market’s domestic producers should make you sit up and take notice of what is happening in the sub-continent.
While most of the world, perhaps excluding China, was languishing under the shadow of the recent recession, India’s economy is positively booming with gross domestic product (GDP) currently growing at between 8 and 9 per cent in a global economic scenario that sees some of the world’s so-called superpowers pleased to report growth of anything more than zero and avoid the dreaded double dip. What separates India from the only other economy in the world that operates on this scale (China), is the fact that it is simultaneously growing fast, home to roughly a billion people and is also as much consumer as much as an exporter. And what’s more the very words that Apollo Tyres chairman Onkar S Kanwar and vice-chairman Neeraj Kanwar both use to describe their own staff, can also be used to optimistically sum up the population – “young, dynamic and innovative.”
Tyres & Accessories recently travelled to India to learn more about arguably the most globalised – certainly the most Europeanised – Indian tyre manufacturer, Apollo Tyres. During our whistle-stop tour of the company’s executive, R&D and production operations across India, the company demonstrated that it is moving towards its goal of becoming a global player and entering the top 10 within the next five years at a rate of knots with the news that it has joined the list of globally approved suppliers to German car marque Volkswagen. Apollo also revealed how it recently launched giant OTR tyre production at its Limda factory, truck and car radial production at its modern Chennai Greenfield plant and gave details of the construction of a new R&T (research and technology) centre at the Chennai site.
Telford-based tyre wholesale operation Treadsetters has beaten over 1600 other business to the finals of HSBC’s business thinking awards. The company, which earlier saw off strong competition to win its regional heat is now in line to win up to £5 million in lending and a financial reward of up to £100,000. Now, Treadsetters and just 17 other companies are vying for the title of overall winner of Business Thinking 2010 at the prestigious “International Insights” event in Hong Kong, which managing director Tim Davies is attending on 5 December.
Less than two weeks after former Grouptyre member Broadway Tyres went into administration, new owner Traxx Tyres has announced its purchase of the company’s assets. Tyres & Accessories understands that Traxx Tyres, which is new to the UK market, is connected to successful tyre wholesaling in Australia. It is fair to say that Traxx has taken the British market by surprise with its first UK acquisition, reportedly outbidding competing offers for Broadway Tyres. Sources close to the negotiations told T&A that Broadway will not be a member of Grouptyre under its new ownership and that instead the national wholesale operation will be running its own logistics operation from High Wycombe in order to maintain continuity of supply to its customers and in competition with Traxx Tyres.
North Eastern Tyre and Exhausts has set aside £2 million for a two-year growth strategy centring on its wholesale division. As a first phase of this strategy the company has acquired a 69,000 square foot warehouse in Stockton for its NE Wholesale Operation. The storage site relies on 1400 stillages and three forklift trucks to manage its stock base of 100,000 of tyres, and next on the company’s agenda is to invest in state of the art automated technologies which will enable faster picking and stock optimisation.
Micheldever Tyre Services recently appointed Neil Schmid as its new Kumho brand manager. Having been with Micheldever for 15 years, Schmid has most recently worked as an area sales manager in the South West and will now take on the additional responsibility of marketing and developing the Kumho brand across the UK. According to the company, he has a wealth of experience in the tyre industry, having started work in his father’s garage at the age of 14. Neil Schmid has since worked in various different areas of the industry providing him with experience in fitting, fleet, retail and wholesale.
Yesterday saw the Tyre Wholesalers Group Annual Lunch held at the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull. At the event, TWG chair Ashley Croft reviewed the year in UK tyre wholesaling, saying that “TWG members are fortunate within the replacement side of our market to have enjoyed a year of consistent market size, although the busy first half of the year has been balanced by a quieter period following.” Croft also looked forward to 2011, in which he forecasted “a year of challenges” for TWG members, commented on the rising interest in winter – or cold weather – tyres in the UK and the long-term potential effects of a consistent, large seasonal market; the persistently low availability of product throughout the year; his concerns about tyre labelling; and the education of non-NTDA member retailers. Below, tyrepress.com presents the transcription of his speech.
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