Tag: chains
Servicesure Autocentres appoints first national sales manager, anticipating growth
Servicesure Autocentres has appointed its first national sales manager, Jason McCreanney. Servicesure is a national garage programme developed by The Parts Alliance; the parts distributor said the appointment marked the start of “rapid growth” for the scheme. McCreanney currently works as a business project manager for Car Parts & Accessories (CPA), the Sussex headquartered motor factor acquired by The Parts Alliance in September last year. He officially takes up his new role on Wednesday, 1 April.
HiQ appoints property agent to aid ‘ambitious’ network growth plans
HiQ has hired property agent CPBigwood to identify new sites as it seeks to increase its number of branches. HiQ retail director Farrell Dolan told Tyrepress: “Our growth plans for our network are ambitious, but we are in the process of developing a new retail model that will make it easier for prospective franchisees to join the HiQ network.”
UK tyre retail: following pack growing fastest
Continuing our coverage of developments in the UK tyre retail sector, Tyres & Accessories reports on the following 15 companies in its 2014 top 20 leading UK tyre retailers report. After the market leading five, the next five companies in the top 20 are the fastest growing in our ranking, and probably in the market as a whole. Like Micheldever/Protyre, McConechy’s Tyre Service has grown significantly since our last survey, adding seven branches to its number and pushing its total up to 52. This brings the company’s total back to pre-recessionary levels and could be read as another indication of improving conditions in the market.
UK tyre retailers continue right-sizing
Continued branch attrition at some of Britain’s largest tyre retail chains means the line between the top five and the rest of the top 10 has continued to blur. Furthermore, we now have three 50+ branch retail chains outside the top four (which are all 100+) for the first time since Tyres & Accessories started tracking this data five years ago.
Russia/CIS, taxes weigh upon Nokian Tyres in Q4 2013
Recent tax reassessments have given the Nokian Tyres Group a negative bottom line in the fourth quarter of 2013. The Finnish tyre maker’s pre-tax profit of €57.7 million (already down 44.6 per cent year-on-year) was dragged down to €-36.4 million by the additional €100.3 million in taxes and interest that Finland’s Tax Administration requires Nokian to pay for the 2007 to 2010 financial years.
Conti unveils performance winter tyres in Arvidsjaur
Carving out winter tyre developments Continental launched its latest winter tyres in December at an event held at the winter proving ground at Arvidsjaur, Sweden. The manufacturer’s new WinterContact TS 850 P will come to the performance car and SUV market in the autumn of 2014, delivering improvements over its TS 830 P predecessor in […]
Bartec’s six steps to TPMS success
With TPMS due to be included on every new European vehicle later this year, well-known TPMS tool manufacturer Bartec offers six steps it says will support TPMS success. Indeed, the company says that order to offer a professional TPMS service to your customers, you need the following:
Training and confidence key to TPMS success
Autogem is offering a TPMS training courses in order to help specialist get the most out of their equipment investments. With garage supplier Autogem reporting the widespread take up of its i-sensor solution (launched almost one year ago), there are now said to be hundreds of TPMS installations across the country. According to the company, i-sensors are being fitted at single owner operator sites, regional multi sites and also at some of the national chains. Some sites are said to be having “tremendous success” in selling i-sensors with a couple of sites crossing the 25 replacement sensors a month mark.
PRA calls for OFT fuel investigation to re-open
“As Australia’s largest supermarkets cease making fuel offers after a watchdog deems that offering customers discounted petrol is a threat to competition, it is imperative that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) re-open their investigation into the UK fuel market” said Brian Madderson, Petrol Retailers’ Association Chairman.
Winter tyre sales enjoying strong growth – ATS Euromaster
Since the beginning of November ATS Euromaster has seen sales of winter tyres increase seven-fold, and the company expresses confidence that the number of cold weather fitments will continue rising now the winter has properly begun. It expects total cold weather tyre sales to exceed £10 million in 2013.
Germany’s Top Service Team to lose 100+ outlets
German retail cooperative Top Service Team is set to lose around a third of its outlets at the end of this year. An industry contact shared with our sister publication Neue Reifenzeitung that two of Top Service Team’s current 17 members, tyre retail and service chains RTC Reifen und Auto-Service and Reifen Helm, are leaving due to reasons linked to “conflicting strategic orientation” and “cost-benefit ratio”.
More than half of consumers aware of tyre labelling
A year on from the introduction of European tyre labelling legislation, the longest term data available assessing its impact suggests it is increasingly influence consumer purchasing choices. According to research carried out by Ipsos MarketQuest across six European markets on behalf of Goodyear Dunlop, 54 per cent of consumers are aware of tyre labelling. However, what is perhaps more significant is that about three quarters (71 per cent) say that it has influenced their purchasing decision saying they “utilised its gradings on three performance criteria before making their purchase”. The research was conducted by MarketQuest in June and July 2013 among 4,200 consumers from UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland, who had bought tyres over the past six months.
Garage owner puts independents’ case to PM
The e-bulletin of the Independent Automotive Aftermarket Federation quotes a story in the Oxford Mail, where Prime Minister and Witney MP David Cameron has been told of the need for regulation in the independent motoring trade by a businessman from his constituency.
Michelin adds winter tyre to scooter portfolio
This winter, Michelin’s first European market winter tyre for scooters will hit the roads. The new range has been named City Grip Winter and is specifically designed for safe riding on wet and snow-covered road surfaces. Michelin says the M+S labeled City Grip Winter aims to offer optimum grip on surfaces while giving a comfortable ride and high total mileage; in order to develop a tyre that delivers performance in these three areas, Michelin reports pulling several technical innovations from its bag of tricks.
Cooper’s new flagship outperforms predecessor ‘in every area’
The United Kingdom is Cooper Tire’s strongest European market. The company holds a 7 to 7.5 per cent of the consumer market here, thanks largely to healthy 4x4 tyre sales. Market share on the other side of the English Channel and in the PCR segment is more modest, however, and Jeff Schumacher would like to see this change. Schumacher, who took on the role of Cooper Tire Europe’s managing director and vice-president at the start of this year, aims to increase combined market share for all Cooper brands to five per cent across Europe. To achieve this, the company has opened a new branch office in Russia, is increasing market penetration in France and Germany and signing on new brand ambassadors. Furthermore, in September Cooper unveiled a new range-topping passenger car tyre, the Zeon CS Sport.