News from the tyre wholesale sector
This is always a hard-fought category and four of last year's nominees are in the running for the 2010 award. The question is whether the four will be shaken or stirred by new kid on the block (at least as far as the TAFF Awards are concerned) Bond International?
Stapleton’s Tyre Services has confirmed that it has agreed terms with Pirelli Tyre UK to purchase its CPK Auto Products Ltd business. Asked what the strategic intention behind the firm’s latest acquisition is, Stapleton’s representatives said “Pirelli’s CPK strengthens Stapleton’s position as the UK’s number one tyre distributor” and said the move sees the tyre distribution specialist “expand its trade distribution operation enabling a further improvement in efficiencies and customer service” in an official statement. No details of the terms of the sale have been released.
Commenting on the acquisition, Stapleton’s chief executive, Kenji Murai, said: “We are a growing business and this latest acquisition allows us to further improve our market position. Our aim is to provide excellent value for money alongside great customer service, across all our B2B sectors. This philosophy will be at the heart of everything we do.”
Stapleton’s Tyre Service has agreed terms to buy Pirelli’s CPK tyre wholesale business for an undisclosed sum. A TUPE consultation process commenced with elected representatives of CPK on Monday 26 July. The sale is said to fall within Pirelli UK's strategy to focus on its core business, which does not include tyre retail or wholesale operations.
Cefni Tyres of Llangefni, Gwynedd was named the winner of the first prize in the football themed national promotion organised by Grouptyre and Continental during the early stages of the World Cup last month. The retailer received a Sony 46” full HD LCD TV and home cinema system in the promotion, which ran throughout May, and was presented with the prize by its local Grouptyre member Oak Tyres.
The latest addition to the influential Point S European buying and marketing group – Point S (UK) – is set to embark on a recruitment drive at this October’s Brityrex International show in Manchester. Independent tyre retailers will be the focus of a membership drive by the alliance between the powerful French Point S group and UK Tyres, the network of 13 independent retailers which has signed up to become the British arm of Point S. Point S currently operates in 20 European countries and has more than 1,900 independently-owned tyre retail outlets in membership and sales of over 11 million tyres per year.
UK Tyres currently has 13 member companies with a combined total of 56 retail outlets but Sunderland is confident that figure will grow quickly towards the 100 member companies targeted over the next 12 months.
Just about a year after Daly Tyres opened a new wholesale distribution centre in Stoke-on-Trent, the Ireland-based firm is to use Brityrex 2010 as a platform to showcase the Kenda brand in the UK.
“Kenda is a very progressive company and we view them as a great partnership for our business. Brityrex will be the perfect platform to market Kenda and our other product ranges and will be the place for UK and Irish retailers to meet suppliers covering all aspects of the tyre business,” Eamon Daly said when confirming his company’s involvement in the show.
The National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) and its wholesale arm, the Tyre Wholesalers Group (TWG) have warned that "substantial" price rises are imminent. The core raw material price increase reasons for the shortage are nothing new, but the fact that a number of tyre manufacturers closed factories in recent years means there is now insufficient capacity to make up the shortfalls. In addition the fact that last winter was particularly severe across much of northern Europe led to unprecedented demand for winter tyres. With this year's winter selling season due to begin shortly, manufacturers are replenishing stocks of winter tyres in preparation.
UK wholesaler Kings Road Tyres told Tyres & Accessories its presence at Reifen was an opportunity “to sell the Kings Road Tyres brand” at its stand next to one of Hall 2’s entrances alongside other major European tyre distributors. Purchasing and marketing manager Tim Bader said the show offered a “great opportunity for promoting our private brand Kingstone into Europe”.
Fresh from exhibiting at the Hillhead show in Buxton in June, Gripen Wheels UK director Ray Coulson has reported that the company’s rapid growth is continuing in 2010 despite the fallout of the recent recessionary period. According to Coulson, sales for the first six months of 2010 grew fast enough to equal the full year sales total the firm accrued in 2009. While your first instinct might be to suggest that such growth must have come from a low base in preceding years, when you consider that the firm has been operating in the UK for less than three years and that the whole tyre business has faced significant challenges during this period, it would be churlish not to take notice of the rate of the company’s expansion.
Asked what’s behind the recent impressive growth at Gripen, Coulson explained in a recent interview with Tyres & Accessories that increased take up of new accounts and improved product mix were at the root of the strong sales performance. Prior to 2010, Gripen UK’s was largely reliant on sales of imported budget brands in relatively small (as far as OTR products go) sizes. This year has seen the company source and deliver a complete collection of premium brand products and adjust its offering to include the larger (and more valuable) sizes of OTR product in addition to the budget and smaller sized tyres it has always sold. Together these two factors mean that, before the seventh month of 2010 is concluded, sales are already ahead of the company’s full-year 2009 result.
After some 46 years in the industry, well known tyre industry veteran Dick Anderson retired from wholesaler RH Claydon on 30 June. Having started as a youngster in the industry with North British Tyre & Rubber (latter to become Uniroyal Tyres) in Edinburgh in 1964, Anderson says that he has enjoyed his time “in a fascinating and now complex industry” and seen the many changes over the years.
Having already taken delivery of 16 new trailers this year – 15 sliding bogie skelletals and one box van – trailer supplier Montracon reports that Micheldever Tyre Services has ordered a further 25 more stepframe curtainsiders. Prior to last year the firm only bought used trailers. According to Montracon, that policy changed a year ago and now the company uses a mix of replacements and additions. The curtainsiders are progressively going to work, distributing tyres to the firm’s 12 wholesale warehouses and 49 Protyre retail sites across the UK and will move over six million tyres a year.
In the US Alloy Wheel Repair Specialists, Inc. (AWRS), the world’s largest mobile wheel repair company, and Inovex Industries, Inc, the manufacturer of a high-speed tyre sealant, Ride-On Tire Protection System, have announced their strategic alliance giving AWRS the exclusive rights to introduce Ride-On into the automotive dealership market place. The company will also distribute to the retail tyre, quick lube, and mass merchandiser market segments.
“The automotive retail market place represents an enormous opportunity for sales growth,” says Mark Farkhan, CEO of Inovex, “and due to the vast nature of this marketplace and the resources required to penetrate it, we decided that it was in the best interest of our company to form a strategic alliance with another company that already has sales, marketing, and distribution channels established. We are extremely excited that we were able to form a partnership with a company as committed to providing quality service and cutting edge technology as AWRS to help expand Ride-On’s reach into this $2.4 billion dollar market segment.”
Apollo Tyres has officially launched its namesake brand in the European market, and announced plans to bring its Vredestein brand to its home country. The launch came just ahead of this week’s Reifen Essen, where Apollo is holding its first major display. Apollo said it plans to offers its flagship brand in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and the UK this year, and will open new European markets in coming years. "Our current range, catering to the small and mid-size segment, will meet the growing demand in Europe. We will be available only at established retailers. We will not walk the wholesale route," Apollo managing director Neeraj Kanwar said.
As tyrepress.com reported back in April, Grouptyre has been running a promotion alongside World Cup sponsor Continental; the wholesale group says that it has “seen a huge response” to the promotion, which boasts a first prize of a Sony 46” full HD LCD TV complete with Home Cinema system. Runners up will receive smaller Sony LCD TVs, or Continental World Cup goodie bags containing an Official World Cup replica match ball, a FIFA World Cup branded polo shirt and rucksack. Time is now tight for retailers to enter at the Grouptyre’s website, as the competition closes on 31 May.
Micheldever Tyres Services could be for sale for around £115 million, according to a report in Crain’s Manchester Business. This is nearly half the £200 million figure initially associated with the company when press reports about such a move surfaced in the national press in mid-April.
As of 31 December 2009 Micheldever owners Graphite Enterprise Trust (through investment managers Graphite Capital Management) held total assets of £344.6 million of which its investment portfolio accounted for 67.1 per cent (£231.2 million) and cash and near cash accounted for the balance of £113.4 million. According to company documents, Graphite Enterprise’s Micheldever investment is its number one holding, representing the largest single chunk of its investment portfolio in 2009 (5.3 per cent).
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