The tyre business along with the rest of the automotive industry was hit hard by the effects of coronavirus. This tag brings you the latest news as it happens.
UKi Media & Events, the organiser of Tire Technology Expo has postponed this year’s show in Hannover “due to the current rapid escalation of the Omicron variant of Covi-19 throughout Europe.” The 2022 edition will now take place 18-20 May at the Deutsche Messe, Hannover, Germany.
According to US government-funded news service Radio Free Asia (RFA), North Korea is facing a shortage of tyres that is forcing many vehicles off the road. RFA explains that the tyre shortage results from the two-year-long border closure and trade ban with China imposed to stop the spread of COVID-19. It adds comments from sources who say domestic tyre production is “negligible” and importing these products has been “almost impossible.”
Itochu’s European Tyre Enterprises Ltd (ETEL) business, which owns Kwik-Fit, Stapleton’s and now Murfitts Industries, posted a loss of 3.6 billion yen (£22.97 million; 27.54 million euros; US$31.55 million) for the financial year ended 31 March 2021. According to Itochu’s annual report, which was published on 17 December 2021, ETEL will return to break-even in full-year 2022 results.
COVID-19 is limbering up to cast its shadow over us for a third year, and exhibition organisers are cancelling or postponing shows scheduled for the early months of 2022. Agricultural sector fair the LAMMA Show is the latest to announce that it won’t take place on the previously announced dates.
New research by Volkswagen Financial Services UK (VWFS) has found that only one in ten families have given up their second car since March 2020, despite additional finance pressures during lockdown and a sharp decline in miles travelled. The study from Volkswagen Financial Services UK shows that Brits are too attached to part with their extra cars, despite a huge reduction in commute pressures and daily miles travelled across the UK. Data shows that despite many families no longer requiring an additional vehicle, only 9 per cent of people gave up their second car.
So far, the majority of our ongoing Torque from the Top series of interviews with leading players in the UK tyre business have been with executives hailing from the manufacturing side of things. This month we redress the balance by engaging with Andy Fern who is the managing director of one of the UK’s largest tyre wholesale businesses, Stapleton’s. Here he talks us through the resilience of staff and customers during the turbulent couple of years we have all experience and details the “seismic shift in the market” that has come with increase online demand from consumers.
Year-on-year comparisons of financial performance tell us arguably more about global events than an individual company’s economic trajectory at the moment. Thus, it came as no surprise a few months back when Michelin reported much healthier first-half results compared with pandemic-riddled 2020. Similarly, eyebrows aren’t raised now when the company notes the impact of rising materials, shipping and energy costs as well as a shortage of semiconductors and labour shortages upon its performance in Q3 2021.
The complexity of the UK tyre wholesale sector has certainly ramped up considerably thanks to what may be termed an almost perfect storm of external factors relating both to the Covid pandemic and Brexit. With retail margins on consumer tyres already very fine, the wholesale sector has been key in keeping price increases under control, especially considering the spiralling cost of shipping. But as those in the sector know, the value wholesalers add within the distribution chain is a considerably wider subject than purely price. Arguably, the service dimension has never been more important than in the last 18 months, as retail businesses adapted to a market transformed by externalities. Tyres & Accessories asked Graham Mitchell, Micheldever Tyre Services wholesale director, about how the business is faring in 2021, starting with its performance this year.
The latest in our ‘Torque from the Top’ series of interviews with leading tyre industry executives features David Seward, MD of Yokohama’s UK distributor, Yokohama HPT. As you will read later, the company was established in 1988 and Seward has been with the company from the beginning, which must make him one of (if not the) longest-serving MD of any UK-based international tyre company. But first, a brief look at the history of the parent company.
ATS Euromaster is warning that vehicle and supply shortages plus a surge in demand for MOTs and servicing could force vehicles off the road if motorists and fleets do not plan their vehicle maintenance.
As with the other sources, 2020 data collected by ATS Euromaster shows a significant rise in MOT activity from May onwards but peaking in mid-September through to mid-November as drivers rushed to get MOTs completed following the covid MOT extension.
Continental Tyres is predicting “huge rises” in demand for MOTs this autumn, as more than five million additional tests are due for annual renewal in the second half of 2021. This huge increase in demand comes as millions of tests postponed in 2020, due to Covid-19, come up for renewal from September 2021 onwards, putting pressure on workshops to meet this additional demand. As well as the short-term strain on the UK aftermarket, the creation of a new ‘MOT season’ from September to December is likely to have a more profound long-term impact on the market.
The latest MOT test data released by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) shows that test volumes recovered strongly between April and June of this year, in stark contrast with the disruption caused by last year’s MOT extension. The DVSA data, obtained by BookMyGarage.com through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, shows 45 per cent more MOTs took place in the second quarter of 2021 than in the second quarter 2020. However, test numbers were still down 32 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.
“If the [pandemic] situation continues to improve”, Tyrexpo Asia 2021 will proceed as planned albeit with some digital modifications, the Singapore tyre trade exhibition’s organiser Tarsus Group have reported. Specifically, Tarsus Group reports that it is implementing digital elements “alongside the live event” scheduled to be held 17-19 November 2021.
The organizing committee of Citexpo have announced that the next edition of the Chinese tyre trade show will run from 12-14 December 2022 at the Shanghai World Expo exhibition centre. The last Citexpo (the 17th edition) was held in the summer of 2019 before the global Covid-19 pandemic caused havoc with largescale in-person events.
Itochu
WAI
Stapleton’s
Daimler
Benjamin Brunner
FOI
Tarsus Group