Heuver Tyrewholesale in 2014 ‘growth’

Heuver Tyrewholesale has commented on its “above-average results for 2014”. The Hardenberg, Netherlands-based wholesaler said its investments in people and resources, while also focusing on procurement and delivery conditions, had helped it outstrip market conditions. “Customer contact was our primary focus in 2014”, says Bertus Heuver, director of Heuver Tyrewholesale. “You can only retain customers if you pay particular attention to them and meet their specific needs. And our country-based approach to the market played a very important role. This required us to invest in new and experienced people – 17 new colleagues in total – as well as new resources.

“Our procurement policy and stock management allowed us to retain our fixed customers and welcome many new ones. We want to be a major player on the international stage; and if that means we have to invest, we will not hesitate to do so. This approach is based on the core values of availability, competitive prices, maximum service and effective distribution, and has been justified by the results for 2014. Thanks to the new website and web-shop, as well as continuing focus on open customer contact and service, we have entered 2015 with a great deal of confidence.”

Heuver added that the company’s bolstered sales department and further optimisation of its e-commerce operations had achieved the desired effect, especially in the OTR segment: “Although many A-brands took a hit in the earth-moving market, we managed to achieve growth. This can primarily be attributed to our personal contact and our full-service strategy. We supply new tyres, used tyres and covered tyres, and also supply accompanying accessories like wheel rims, including assembly if necessary. We refer to this as our ‘around the tyre’ service. Our in-house EM import brands, like Aeolus, did very well so we will be adding a new EM tyre to this year’s range.”

Heuver adds that Alliance was a major player in the Benelux market for agricultural tyres, while Aeolus was successful in the replacement and OEM markets, exclusively sold by Heuver in various continental markets.

“Figures in the agricultural and EM markets are very promising. Our optimism was further enhanced last year by an even larger market share for Aeolus truck tyres. This market is now actively demanding Aeolus tyres because the brand has been able to prove its worth. We will be using the ‘Technology meets Performance’ slogan from now on. This has set a new standard and motivates us to become even better. Partly due to high quality and good availability, we were able to increase the volume for Aeolus tyres by 15 per cent. This growth percentage of 15 per cent also applied to our range of truck tyres, where we increased volume by almost 30 per cent for Athlete Wheels. And that is something we are proud of.”