Fowler Welch has extended its long-running tyre fitment and management contract with Continental Tyres subsidiary and retread specialist Bandvulc. Continental and Bandvulc tyres will be specified across the entire Fowler Welch fleet of 450 Euro 6 trucks and 750 temperature-controlled trailer units for a further three years, continuing the relationship between the companies, who have worked together since 2011.
Bandvulc, a Continental Tyres subsidiary is the preferred choice for leading contract hire and fleet management company, Specialist Fleet Services (SFS). Indeed, SFS, a leading contract hire and fleet management supplier to local authorities across the UK, is seeing its relationship with Teignbridge District Council move into an 18th year, something the companies credit in part to the tyre supply and management contract with Bandvulc.
Prior to Bandvulc’s contract with CSG, in autumn 2019, the fleet tyre and retread specialist entered its third contract term with distribution giant Bibby.
Waste management group, CSG, has committed to a further two years with Bandvulc, the retread subsidiary of Continental. The decision takes the tyre management contract between the two companies into its seventh year, at a time when fleet numbers across CSG and sister company J&G have risen to close to 150 vehicles.
Following the purchase of Bandvulc in the summer of 2016, then managing director David Smith was promoted into the wider international role of Head of Channel Management Distribution and Region, North Europe for Continental. His 2018 promotion followed a 12-year tenure as UK MD that saw turnover at the UK business more than double. The latest news is that he has returned to the UK, so with all this in mind, Tyres & Accessories recently caught up with David Smith in order to talk about his return as well as both Continental and Bandvulc in the UK.
After years of fitting Bandvulc and Continental tyres to its fleet, leading supply chain logistics provider, Fowler Welch, has now put the two manufacturers’ low rolling resistance (LRR) offerings to the test. In a joint-trial at Millbrook Proving Ground, Fowler Welch and Bandvulc arranged an evaluation of the performance and efficiency benefits of low rolling resistance tyres, with support from Continental and its ContiPressureCheck TPMS system.
Continental Tyre Group has acquired Scottish commercial fleet servicing company R&J Strang Tyre Services Ltd. The company stated that the latest acquisition represents a further step to strengthen its overall commercial fleet service offering across the UK and Ireland.
Conti360° Fleet Services has opened its newly rebranded suite of offices, at Bandvulc’s Lee Mill site, in Ivybridge. The extended office facilities have been launched after a two and-a-half year integration project following Continental’s acquisition of Bandvulc in 2016. The launch follows the merger of both company’s fleet support networks under the unified Conti360° Fleet Services banner in September 2018, and the relocation of all Conti360° Fleet Services support and 24-hour Breakdown Service teams to Ivybridge.
In the more than two years since Continental Tyre Group acquired Bandvulc, both the Conti360° Fleet Services network and the Bandvulc Plus+ fleet services continued to run in parallel, with customers receiving services from both brands. This will now change – Continental Tyre has announced the merger of Conti360° and Bandvulc Plus+. The two operations will unite as Conti360° Fleet Services, with Bandvulc’s key partners joining Continental’s current Conti360° Fleet Services.
Retreading has always been a key part of Continental’s truck offer to achieve what it refers to as Lowest Overall Driving Costs (LODC), but this was further enhanced when the company announced the purchase of Bandvulc, (located in Lee Mill, Ivybridge) in the UK in July 2016. Bandvulc had been producing Continental’s hot retread ContiRe for over 20 years to support fleet business in the UK, so it was a natural progression to bring Bandvulc into the Conti family – but how has the Devon-based retailer been integrated?
Tarmac’s Hillhead Quarry near Buxton in Derbyshire hosted unprecedented crowds for the 2018 edition of the show (26–28 June), with official figures showing a record-breaking 19,687 unique visitors in attendance, surpassing the show’s previous highest attendance record set in 2005. The show also included more exhibitors (527) than ever before, with the showground, pavilions and demonstration areas showcasing the latest plant and equipment for the quarrying, aggregates, concrete, asphalt, recycling and construction sectors, many of the products on show for the first time in the UK.
Almost two years has passed since Continental Tyres bought Britain’s largest independent retreader Bandvulc tyres. While the integration has gone smoothly by all accounts, the shape of the market has changed significantly. First, we have to acknowledge that the acquisition has put both Continental’s new and retreaded products in a much stronger position than before. For example, the decision to offer Uniroyal through Bandvulc gave the retreader’s strong fleet business better access to Continental group new products, while at the same time significantly increasing Conti’s domestic retreading capabilities.
Bandvulc has secured a three-year contract to provide fleet maintenance services to keep John Lewis Partnership vehicles on the road 24/7, 365 days a year. The fleet service provider states that its retention of the blue-chip contract until October 2020 came following a lengthy and complex tender process last year. Bandvulc will provide support for the John Lewis and Waitrose fleet from its call centre in Devon. Its BVPlus+ fleet management contracts service more than two-thirds of the UK’s supermarket activity.
Bandvulc has announced that Faccenda Foods Ltd have extended its contract with Bandvulc’s fleet management division, BVPlus+, to March 2019. The company first became a client in 2008 and the two firms report that they enjoy “a robust business relationship which has gone from strength to strength over that time”.
Continental
Bandvulc; Continental