The UK’s largest tyre retailer, Kwik Fit, is being prepared for a sale. The Japanese Itochu group, which owns the European Tyre Enterprises Ltd (ETEL) holding company that controls both Kwik Fit and its wholesale counterpart Stapleton’s Tyre Services, has appointed investment bankers Nomura to advise on strategic options for the company, according to Sky News, with insiders suggesting a sale is very likely.
Having received approval back in June, Qingdao Sentury Tire has successfully completed its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and is now listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (China) as of 11 September 2020. 11 per cent of the company’s shares were valued at 1.31 billion yuan (162 million euros; £149.859 million) by investors, resulting in a theoretical total valuation of 1.47 billion euros. The offered shares offered were oversubscribed 2887 times over. But what is the company planning to do with its newly-raised funds?
Together, the increased utilisation of independent contractors on the supply side and record online search figures on the demand side show that MOT testing is booming. Considering that MOTs were put on hold for roughly four-and-a-half months between March and August (let’s not even mention the Northern Ireland MOT crisis), this is good news. Word of a coming MOT spike will be warmly welcomed by the tyre and aftermarket associations that lobbied government for the end of the MOT extension on both road safety and economic grounds. But what exactly does the apparent boom look like? And why does it matter to the tyre trade?
As part of the Fleet feature within the June edition of Tyres & Accessories, we investigated the various tyre demands of leading Police fleets. Amongst other things, we found that Kent Police are the most tyre-hungry and that – despite being contracted to basically two manufacturers under the Crown Commercial Service agreement – such fleets are actually surprisingly open to competing tyre manufacturers. With this in mind, and continuing our series analysing Police fleet tyre preferences, this month we take a closer look at Metropolitan Police fleet tyre demand.
Continuing our series investigating UK Police fleet tyre demand, we looked a little closer at the differences between the various regional forces tyre preferences. Despite the fact that, as we have seen, tyre purchasing is based on a national framework agreement, there was a surprising amount of variety in both tyre policy and what actually happened when the rubber hit the road, so to speak.
It’s not just the car that’s grown. This August Mini officially began celebrating the iconic marque’s 60th anniversary. We at Tyres & Accessories wanted to join in with the celebrations by sharing a couple of interesting points about how the Mini’s tyres have evolved over the last 60 years.
The combination of increasing demand for MOTs and stricter test criteria look likely to create a boom in demand at garages and for tyres in particular.
After years of post-financial crisis scrappage schemes and investment, the UK car industry got used to boom times and consecutive year-on-year growth.
Bridgestone’s successful acquisition of TomTom Telematics follows earlier reports that both Michelin and Bridgestone were vying to buy the Telematics business unit from Netherlands-based company TomTom. In addition, according to Dutch financial daily Het Financieele Dagblad, Michelin was one of four in the running. For its part, Michelin was allegedly aiming to add the business into its Michelin Solutions portfolio. Clearly, in order to maintain its original plans and to compete with Bridgestone, Michelin will now have to find an alternative way of moving forward.
67 per cent of drivers don’t think winter tyres are worth the investment, according to an online poll conducted by Co-op Insurance on 25 January 2019. The Twitter-based poll received votes from 4,084 individuals and a stream of interesting comments on the subject followed.
Global motorsport tyre brand Dmack has announced that it will “open its own tyre manufacturing facility” in Italy, following a deal to use part of Marangoni’s Rovereto plant in northern Italy. The Carlisle-based brand said it would be “capable of producing up to 250,000 tyres per year” at Rovereto, with the “flexibility to tailor short production runs for very specific applications and to meet demands for control tyre championships.” The company adds that it wants to transfer its technical capability into racing by producing world-class products for the circuit racing and track markets. Most famous for supplying tyres to the FIA World Rally Championship since 2011, Dmack tyres were previously produced by Chinese manufacturer, Shandong Yongtai, which recently went into administration, before shifting to Cooper Tires’ UK factory in Melksham, which itself is set to reduce production by a half when it halts production of road-going light vehicle tyres next year.
The UK’s high performance tyre sector – in this case defined by tyre diameters of 17” and above – has continued its growth trend, but at a very much slower rate than in 2017.
Responding to the digital transformation in the Off-the-Road (OTR) vehicle and equipment industry, on 23 April Goodyear introduced two new digital innovations to help OTR fleets reduce their total cost of ownership at the Intermat show in Paris.
Pro-Align has launched the latest Hunter wheel alignment system, developed through widespread customer feedback to merge mid-level imaging with a fully upgradable package. The UK distributor told Tyres & Accessories that the new Hunter PA200 ACE has been developed for budget conscious workshops keen to enter the world of premium Hunter four wheel alignment servicing, receiving the best of the American brand’s alignment features in a mid-level system – a result of feedback from UK workshops.
15 months after bidding got underway, Qingdao-based Doublestar and its consortium of Chinese banks and investors bought 45 per cent of the South Korean tyremaker Kumho Tire over the Easter weekend. Whatever other clauses are written into the deal, following the release of shares issued for the purpose of the sale, Kumho Tire’s creditors will own a 23.1 per cent shareholding in the tyre maker, down from 42.01 per cent. This makes the Chinese tyre firm controlling shareholders in South Korea’s Kumho Tire.
Goodyear’s latest concept tyre, introduced at the 2018 Geneva International Motor Show in March, once again sees the company look forward in a bid to lead discussions relating to the future of mobility. However, this also has an inevitable impact on the future of the tyre industry – which is where Goodyear’s FACE (Fleet Autonomous Connected Electric) acronym comes in. More on that later. First, the headline grabbing products – the Oxygene and the EfficientGrip Performance with Electric Drive Technology.
Autotech
Photo: Dom J; Pexels
Statista; Tyre Industry Publications Ltd