e-commerce and online tyre business news
Australia’s Mobile Tyre Shop is set on national expansion following investment from Sailun International Holding (Singapore) PTE Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shanghai-listed Sailun Group Co., Ltd. Sailun has invested AUS$5 million (approximately £2.300 million; 2.788 million euros; US$3.269 million; 23.285 million yuan) into roughly 6.21 million units of the Mobile Tyre Shop Unit Trust, which gives it an 11.09 per cent stake in the trust.
TyreOps has launched a new B2B Sales Marketplace. According to the company, this feature “significantly increases the speed at which tyre businesses can compare and purchase tyres directly from suppliers, making procurement simpler and more efficient than ever before”.
Things are afoot for e-jobsheet, on behalf of its more than 2,060 technicians across 100 dealers in the UK. Firstly, the company has been working away in the background on a re-write of the app in native Android (given the entire base is running on Android). According to the company, this takes advantage of the latest technology and design thinking to improve performance and useability.
Bond International has completed the acquisition of Tyresoft Ltd. The news follows the acquisition of Tyrescope earlier this month and a number of strategic wholesale moves announced last year. Together, the acquisitions demonstrate that the company’s growth strategy is still ongoing. Tyresoft Ltd has become well-known as a “one stop complete management system for the tyre and automotive industry”, according to Bond International. Established in 2011 by Marcus Hathaway, the business has grown a strong customer base with Bond representatives describing it as “a market leader in the tyre industry software market”.
Bond International has completed the acquisition of 75 per cent of Tyrescope Ltd’s shares. This follows a brace of whole and distribution acquisitions announced last year, which suggests the company remains in the midst of its growth strategy. Tyrescope was set up and developed by Tony Mann, who remains a 25 per cent shareholder and managing director of the business.
Jet Wheel Tyre reports more than 100 new business leads per month after working Auto3iii’s electronic vehicle health check technology. In other words, Essex-based Jet Wheel Tyre says it has transformed its operations since adopting Auto3iii’s unique eVHC solution, which they have adopted for their Benfleet workshop for tyres, brakes, and TPMS sensor health checks. Since implementing the system in November 2024, the workshop has generated around 300 new leads, with over 100 secured in January alone.
Garages have reported that reviews shown on Google business profiles have been going unexpectedly missing. However, Garage Services Online (GSO), an online lead generating service for garages, reports the reviews are now beginning to reappear and suggests the issue was likely caused by two separate problems at Google. “Thousands” of garages are said to have been affected.
Kerridge Commercial Systems (KCS) has acquired Silkmoth in as part of the company’s continuing efforts to enhance KCS’s automotive software offerings and e-commerce solutions for the UK and European tyre industry.
Tyre Assist has signed up to TiDaeX to leverage its access to e-jobsheet tablet technology and push jobs direct to dealer suppliers.
Workauto is a new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform designed to optimise workflows for automotive businesses. Built in collaboration with UK-based automotive company Torque GT, it is designed to streamline operations, increase efficiency, and enhance customer experience.
Last year we debuted our online tyre website research. It started because we wanted to find the UK’s leading tyre business by website traffic and rank them in three sectors: Retailers, companies that are known for their bricks-and-mortar tyre retail and have branched into online tyre retailing over the years; eTailers, companies are based online and may not even have accompanying bricks and mortar or may operate a partner network for fitting; and tyre comparison, an online tyre business sub-sector that plays a key role in the crucial pre-sale research phase of the online tyre business.
Following similar research last year, in July 2024, we took a closer look at tyre etail again. Building on the foundation of last year’s research premiere, this year we once again triangulated our analysis across three poles: third-party data, industry expertise and our own research. The difference is that this year we have improved our methodology by broadening out the number of data sources we included in out third-party stage. Indeed, this time round we tripled the number of data sources used for the third-party phase of our analysis. Since eTailers don’t publish their monthly traffic data, this is the best way to get a robust calculation of where these companies are up to. The short story is that we have a new winner this year and new entrants to boot.
Our third and final category takes a close look at tyre comparison websites because all the data suggests that pre-sale research is growing in influence as a strategic part of the increasingly important online tyre business. Our methodology is basically the same as our initial tyre retail category inasmuch as we began with two third-party online traffic data sources, verified this via discussion with an industry expert and then contextualise our findings here in this article.
Online used car retailer Cazoo entered administration in May 2024 after cutting hundreds of jobs as part of a largescale restructuring programme. The site enabled motorists to buy, part-exchange and finance vehicles entirely online, with delivery 72 hours and a seven-day returns policy.
Kerridge Commercial Systems (KCS), which bought Compilator about a year ago, which itself bought Team Systems back in 2016, has completed the acquisition of Rain Data. According to the company, the acquisition marks a significant step forward in KCS’s commitment to delivering enhanced product information and data solutions.
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