Well-known online tyre retail business Blackcircles has launched a website in Thailand. The business, which entrepreneur Mike Welch OBE founded at the turn of the millennium and sold to Michelin for £50 million in 2015, can be found at blackcircles.co.th.
Full Circle Partners, the investment advisory firm co-founded by Blackcircles.com founder Mike Welch has launched a new property fund. FCP Property Development Fund will provide loans ranging from £250,000 to £2.5 million. It has reportedly already invested approximately £6 million and could raise that to £20 million in the next year or so.
As reported at the start of the month, an eBay tyre fitting service is now available in the UK in partnership with Blackcircles.com. The service was launched at the time of the year when the days grow shorter and motorists should prepare their vehicles, particularly their tyres, for winter roads. Kevin Steward, head of sales, Vehicle Parts & Accessories, UK Trading at eBay, has written the following tips for tyre sellers hoping to capitalise on this season’s winter tyre market.
The tyre fitting partnership between eBay and Blackcircles.com trialled in 2016 is back. Promoted as a “fitting option for seamless tyre buying experience,” the new arrangement allows for the fitment of more than 10,000 unique tyre products purchased via the ebay.co.uk site at one of more than Blackcircles 1,200 partner locations throughout the country.
Mike Welch, the founder of UK online tyre retail website Blackcircles.com, has been appointed to the board of US online tyre retailer SimpleTire. Welch has taken up the position of strategic advisor for the company, which sources inventory from independent suppliers and ships to the customer’s chosen location.
Michelin has launched Click2Sell – a website solution the company refers to as “a flexible ‘website in a box’ that helps dealers build their online presence and attract new customers with ease”.
While wholesalers have done similar things, Click2Sell is believed to be the only tyre manufacturer-backed website-building package to allow dealerships in the UK and Ireland the freedom to promote their chosen tyre range online. And, what’s more, the range can be either primarily Michelin tyres or a premium competitor. Click2Sell is open to any dealership.
Mike Welch’s global aspirations for Blackcircles.com pre-date the Scottish company’s acquisition by Michelin, however the tyre maker has provided a platform for expansion, and over the coming year Blackcircles will work towards establishing a presence on the other side of the world. Speaking with The Scotsman, the founder and chief executive officer shared that consumers in Asia Pacific will soon get to know the Blackcircles way of buying tyres.
ATS Euromaster, in partnership with Blackcircles, has opened its second quick tyre change facility at the Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex, following the success of the first Pit Stop location in Cambridge.
Edinburgh Napier University has made Blackcircles founder Mike Welch an honorary doctor of enterprise at a ceremony held in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on 7 July.
Blackcircles.com, the UK’s leading online tyre retailer, reported a steep increase in sales from new customers during June. According to the company, this includes 80 per cent who have never previously bought tyres online. The metrics indicate that tyre retailing, which has traditionally lagged online adoption in other sectors like banking and travel, is going through something of a transformation.
With Michelin buying a stake in Allopneus as well as the complete Blackcircles business in the Spring; and with Apollo purchasing Reifen.com in November, it is fair to say we witnessed a trend towards manufacturer investment in online tyre businesses this year. Dig a little deeper and we are beginning to learn more about how tyre manufacturers are approaching this unavoidably important strategic area. With 2015 being something of a landmark year in this respect, Tyres & Accessories met with Blackcircles founder and managing director Mike Welch in Edinburgh to find out more.
In October 2014’s Wholesale feature, Tyres & Accessories asked whether Europe’s independent tyre wholesalers still have a future in the context of the German company Ihle Baden Baden’s failure and subsequent sale to Michelin. Pointing to the lightening of the business due to such factors as the price transparency offered by e-commerce (and online marketing) we wondered whether the value of the relationship between customers and their suppliers had become more tenuous, relying only on price and reliability of deliveries. Should these two considerations become the only weapons in a wholesaler’s arsenal, T&A suggested that their role becomes more akin to a specialised freight forwarder.
First Stop has acquired the services of a new retail business consultant from the fast fit industry. A former retail business manager, and Blackcircles.com area network manager, Dave Hull will play a key role in the company’s attempts to expand, while also stimulating sales from existing First Stop partners, the network stated.
In the context of large chains and online specialists growing in influence, Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS), Britain’s largest independent wholesaler, distributor and retailer of tyres, states that its proprietary TyreClick solution could provide an answer for independent garage businesses. The increasing popularity of online tyre sales in European markets, recently noted by Michelin after purchasing Blackcircles.com, is resulting in increased competition for online sales from national chains and specialist internet traders. Recent movement in the online landscape has ignited the debate among independents about how they can compete, and Micheldever says it is stepping into the breach with TyreClick.
Michelin chief operating officer, Florent Menegaux told Tyres & Accessories that the manufacturer would promote synergies with ATS Euromaster following its acquisition of Blackcircles.com. Speaking to Tyrepress following the announcement of its £50 million purchase, Michelin’s chief operating officer said that the UK’s biggest online tyre retail operation would gain “access to ATS Euromaster branches in the UK”, which numbered 343 in the recent T&A survey of the retail landscape.
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