Giti Tire has launched the GT Radial WinterPro2, available for the 2017 winter season in the UK from exclusive PCR distributor Micheldever Tyre Services. The manufacturer’s Giti brand commercial range has also received a winter boost with a leading UK coach hire company endorsing its first specific winter marked tyre.
Protyre, the retail division of Micheldever Tyre Services, has been named TyreSafe Retailer of the Year at the now-annual TyreSafe Awards – for the fourth consecutive time.
The company’s continued commitment to raising awareness of tyre safety and the dangers of poorly maintained or part worn tyres was again applauded by the judging panel. Protyre’s initiatives during last year’s Tyre Safety Month included free safety checks, customer email campaigns and a full day of live radio interviews.
TyreClick, the website developed by Micheldever Tyre Services to help its independent customers compete for internet driven business has reported a record 29 per cent surge in sales volumes during May, making May the best recorded since the Tyreclick portal was launched.
Giti Tire has launched the GT Radial WinterPro2, available for the 2017 winter season in the UK from exclusive PCR distributor Micheldever Tyre Services. The tyre showed wet performance gains while maintaining snow handling against its previous generation and four main competitors in independent tests by Dekra. Giti states that the tests, which were conducted early this year in Rovaniemi, Finland and Fontange, France, confirm the tyre was up to 10 per cent better in wet braking exercises and 2 per cent ahead in wet handling.
Giti Tire rides again with Fun Cup UK, having returned as official tyre partner for its second consecutive season. New for the 2017 season, the tyre manufacturer has taken its place on the grid too with a fully liveried GT Radial racing car. The company said the extension of its partnership with the series is part of its growing involvement in European motorsport. The car will be used to raise consumer awareness of the brand while supporting a number of marketing activities throughout the GT Radial Performance Centre (GTPC) network alongside exclusive UK distributor, Micheldever Tyre Services.
The 2017 edition of Tyres & Accessories’ annual retail report shows that the overall number of branches controlled by the top 20 retail chains continues to grow. However, that is just part of the story and the data shows that there have actually been significant movements in every tier of the top 20. Perhaps the clearest observation is that Micheldever’s Protyre retail chain is once again the fastest growing in the UK – a title it claims in 2017 for the second consecutive year. Meanwhile, Goodyear’s HiQ franchise network is the top 20’s fastest faller – something that suggests the first changes in the make-up of the top five since we started tracking the UK retail landscape could take place before the year is out.
Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS) has thrown its weight behind a cross-industry campaign to encourage a government rethink on proposed changes to current MOT legislation. It is also calling on all involved in the tyre industry to make their voices heard via an official petition.
MTS, the UK’s second largest distributor of tyres, is backing the ProMOTe campaign, which has been re-established in response to the government’s plan to extend the time allowed before the first MOT of a car or motorcycle’s life from three years to four.
Insa-Turbo has named Micheldever the sole distributor for the UK, building on the long-standing relationship between the two companies. Micheldever has distributed Insa-Turbo tyres – which are retreaded – for more than 10 years and in 2016 saw the brand grow by more than 15 per cent. Now the company is looking forward to future success with the Spanish off-road specialists.
Jane Bailey of Morecambe’s Westgate Tyres has been made the inaugural Foxy Lady Drivers Club Woman of the Year 2017. The Award acknowledges Bailey’s business story, describing her as “a rare and inspirational female role model within the tyre industry.”
The GT Radial SportActive became available around a year ago as a new flagship tyre for the brand, distributed in the UK by Micheldever. Towards the end of 2016, Giti Tire held an event for its wholesale partner and a large group of its most successful dealers in Vilamoura, Portugal, with track-based demonstrations of the tyre’s capabilities at Portimao’s Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. GT Radial has leveraged a racing partnership before to market the tyre in the UK; it partnered consumer high performance driving magazine Evo for its popular 2016 series of track day events at the Bedford Autodrome, making its tyres available for amateur racing enthusiasts to try out on vehicles such as the Audi S3, Golf GTI, BMW 340i and Toyota GT86.
Giti Tire and Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS) have signed a renewed three-year exclusive distribution agreement, extending the wholesaler’s UK supply rights for GT Radial and Runway in the passenger car, 4×4 and light truck tyre segments.
The relationship between the companies began in 2010, and under the terms of the deal MTS will continue to develop the GT Radial Performance Centres (GTPCs) whilst simultaneously promoting Runway across its larger independent network.
On 5 January, Micheldever announced that it was being purchased by Sumitomo Rubber Industries of Japan (the company behind Falken, one of Micheldever’s key exclusive brands). While it was no surprise that the business had been sold, the idea that Sumitomo would be the successful bidder was not widely foreseen. With Micheldever having grown into a leading position in the UK wholesale sector with a multi-brand, independent retailer-focused strategy, the acquisition raises many questions for the business’s staff, suppliers and customers. With this in mind, a week after Sumitomo’s purchase Tyres & Accessories met with Micheldever managing director, Duncan Wilkes; wholesale director, Alan Baldwin; and wholesale marketing manager Rory Carlin to find out more about the background to the deal.
Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS), the exclusive General Tire distributor for England, Scotland and Wales, and the largest General Tire dealer in Europe, has reported record sales of General Car, Van and 4×4 tyres in 2016.
Sales volumes for the General Tire brand in 2016, increased by more than 50 per cent for MTS and the company saw many of its individual General Tire dealers experience record sales of their own.
New year. New diary. New balance sheet. New company? In this respect, 2016 got off to a flying start. No sooner had the year begun than we received news of some high profile, three-digit-million pound mergers and acquisitions. The first and the largest was the acquisition of well-known garage data supplier Autodata (see page 32, Company New section for complete details). However, within 24 hours this was followed by the potentially UK tyre wholesale and retail-changing announcement that Sumitomo Rubber Industries had acquired Micheldever Tyre Services.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries’ (SRI) £215 million acquisition of the Micheldever Group from Graphite Capital, including Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS), the UK’s second largest distributor of tyres, “ensures continuity” of the management and multi-segment brand strategy, according to MTS chief executive Duncan Wilkes. The move also extends the trend of tyre manufacturers buying into – or indeed buying back into – retail through the acquisition of the UK’s largest chains. In April 2016, Tyres & Accessories pointed out that Micheldever’s Protyre chain was the largest growing in the annual survey of the market’s retail landscape – a factor that will have informed the purchase – and three of the top five (Michelin’s ATS Euromaster and Goodyear Dunlop’s HiQ franchise chain) are now manufacturer controlled.
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