Just a few days after bankruptcy proceedings were initiated by Reifen Krieg GmbH, several other companies under the umbrella of the German Fintyre Group are now bankrupt, including almost all of the companies relevant to the operating business.
Beleaguered wholesale and tyre services company Kings Road Tyres is now in administration, with KPMG appointed joint administrators. The administration comes at the end of nearly a decade of turbulence for the company, which is one of the UK’s oldest tyre wholesale operations, having been incorporated in 1959.
Carlisle-based tyre sales operation Technology Sinon UK Limited, the name of D Mack Global Limited since 19 December 2018, has entered administration with debts totalling more than £14 million pounds, according to its administrator Leonard Curtis. The company, which operated within the DMACK group of companies, was a supplier of tyres to the World Rally Championship from 2011, running its own team in the championship in association with M-Sport, until 2017. Shares in Technology Sinon UK are split between director Dick Cormack (70 per cent), a former Pirelli manager who set up the business in 2011, MEMW Management Limited (25 per cent), and Glenn Paterson (5 per cent), who has left the company after holding a variety of roles within the firm. The administrator reports that, as of 14 May, Technology Sinon UK owed just over £13 million to its list of creditors. Dmack brand rally tyres continue to be manufactured by DMack Srl, formed by Dick Cormack in 2018 when a deal was struck with Marangoni for operations to begin at the Italian tyre manufacturer’s plant in Rovereto.
October has been a tumultuous month for US tyre distribution. First ATD filed for Chapter 11 during the first week of the month. Then, less than two week’s later Sears, which includes Sears Autocentres (itself one just two major tyre installation partners for Amazon), also applied for bankruptcy protection. Now market analysts are asking if Amazon is planning to buy ATD.
On Monday 15 October 2018 Sears Holdings Corporation, the 132-year-old US retailer known for selling everything to everyone, filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Southern District of New York.
A month after its credit rating was downgraded, American Tire Distributors, Inc. (ATD), the largest tyre wholesaler not only in the USA, but in the entire NAFTA region, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the District of Delaware on 4 October. At the time, the company announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement with approximately 75 per cent of its bondholders on the terms of a recapitalization that would reduce the company’s debt by approximately $1.1 billion and increase its financial flexibility as it continues its ongoing transformation
The Chinese Yongtai Group, which once ranked as the 32nd largest tyre manufacturer in the world and which used to produce World Rally Championship tyres for DMack as well as the well-known Durun budget brand, is bankrupt. Shandong Yongtai Group Co., Ltd. officially entered administration on 16 July 2018. On 4 August 2018 Shandong Dongying Intermediate People’s Court published documents showing that Guangrao County-based Caijin Asset Management Co., Ltd.’s application for Yongtai to enter administration had been accepted. The Beijing-based Dacheng (Jinan) law firm was appointed as the administrator of Yongtai Group.
Bosal Automotive And Industrial Components Limited, which traded as BAIC Ltd, officially entered administration on 5 June 2018. The business which was registered as operating in “the wholesale trade of motor vehicle parts and accessories” is perhaps best known for its exhausts business, the UK branch of which is based in Preston, Lancashire. Details were published in the London Gazette on 11 June.
According to Companies House, specialist garage consumables supplier Tyre Bay Direct has appointed an administrator. The appointment was made on 25 September and further details of this will be made public via Companies House in the next five days. However, judging by a statement on the company’s website there is every intention to continue business as a going concern:
Martin T Coyne & Matt D Hardy of Birmingham based Poppleton & Appleby have been appointed as joint administrators of Tyretraders.com Ltd. Overhead expenses, rising costs, the fall in tyre prices and investment that apparently outpaced growth of the business are all said to have led to the company entering administration. Moving forward, the administrators aim to sell the business as a going concern.
On 30 of April, well known Car Supermarket Carcraft has called in the administrators. A sale process had been going on since February 2015, but no buyer could be found. Carcraft has therefore ceased trading and all 500 employees have been made redundant.
Headquartered in Rochdale, Carcraft is the UK’s seventh largest second hand dealership chain with an annual turnover of £120 million, 500+ employees across 10 sites nationwide. The group sells over 12,000 used vehicles per annum at an average price of £9,000 per vehicle.
Chinese tyre-maker Shandong Deruibao Tire Co., Ltd. has entered “restructuring” proceedings, according to Chinese news sources. China News reported that on 7 February Deruibao Tire applied to its local authority, the Guangrao Economic Development Zone Management Committee Council, asking for the government to restructure the business – making a sale of the tyre manufacturing operation a distinct possibility.
Euro Car Parts acquired 27 former Unipart Automotive branches yesterday (7 August). Following negotiations with Unipart Automotives’s administrators, Mark Orton, Will Wright and Jonny Marston from KPMG, Euro Car Parts has secures the sites across England, Scotland and Wales, taking the ECP network to 194 branches. At the same time Parts Alliance reported it had taken on over 500 ex-Unipart Automotive works.
Administrator KPMG will support 1,244 Unipart Automotive staff through the redundancy process. The firm said its team of employment specialists will also put staff in touch with job seeker services. Further information on Unipart Automotive for all interested parties will also be posted on KPMG’s Insolvency Portal.
After two weeks of intensive rescue talks, Unipart Automotive has failed to find a buyer and called in administrators KPMG. Immediately afterwards administrators sold part of the business in a joint deal to car parts/workshop equipment distributors Andrew Page and The Parts Alliance. The deal will see Andrew Page acquire 21 branches and The Parts Alliance a total of 12. A total of 361 staff employed across these sites have transferred to Andrew Page and The Parts Alliance with immediate effect. Andrew Page announced it had rejoined The Parts Alliance on 8 July, the same day the news broke that Unipart Automotive had put the administrators on alert and was seeking out a rescue plan.
