European Tyre Enterprise Limited (ETEL) has appointed Andy Fern as managing director of its Stapleton’s Tyre Services tyre wholesale business.
Fern, who is currently group fleet sales director, replaces Wataru Goroku (‘Go’), who is taking on a new role with ETEL’s parent company Itochu. Go will provide continuity by taking the role of chairman of Stapleton’s during a transition period to ensure a smooth handover.
Nexen has held its second Nexen Point Driving Experience in association with UK distributor Stapleton’s at Palmersport Autodrome in Bedfordshire, UK. The key draw at the 5 September 2019 event, which was attended by around 70 tyre dealers, was the presence of the new N’blue 4Season.
Stapleton’s has worked with Nottingham-based digital marketing agency, Adtrak, to “improve the brand’s digital presence, create a more efficient tyre booking system, and expand its audience reach.” Specifically this means Adtrak has developed a new corporate site, refreshed branding and brand guidelines, new stationery and promotional folders as well as making a new social media presence and strategy.
Stapleton’s (Tyre Services) Ltd has joined the International Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (ITMA). According to the association, Stapleton’s joins ITMA “following the recent addition of an Asian tyre brand to its portfolio”. ITMA now has 23 members, nine of which appear in Tyres & Accessories’ top 20 leading tyre manufacturers ranking.
Mopar, Fiat Chrysler Automotive (FCA)’s spares, parts and service operation, has announced that it will be selling its products online on Amazon Marketplace. Mopar will be the first Automaker in Italy to sell its products through this platform. According to the company, it is a new way to respond to the needs of increasingly more technological and digitised customers.
What brand of tyres does a tyre distributor use on its own fleet? In the case of Stapleton’s Tyre Services, the answer is Michelin. The company began trialling Michelin Agilis CrossClimate tyres across 25 Renault Master vans in March, and determined it could be clocking up an extra 20,000 miles per set compared to its existing policy.
Roy Croft, who was managing director of Stapleton’s for most of the second half of the twentieth century, died with family at his side at the age of 89 on Sunday 7 October following a short battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Jean.
The largest UK tyre wholesaler, Stapleton’s has long acknowledged the SUV/4×4 sector’s ability to transcend other segments with steady upward performance against a particularly volatile background. While a global rise in raw materials prices and post-referendum inflation are taking a toll on the UK, Stapleton’s notes the internationalism of the industry means the impact will be considerable, because where the car industry goes the tyre industry must inevitably follow.
The winners of the 2018 “Tyre Industry Oscars” have been announced at the 89th National Tyre Distributors Association annual dinner, with a Bridgestone double in the tyre manufacturer and staff training and development categories headlining the event. More awards were added this year for excellence in tyre retail, with small, medium, and large business categories, as well as an overall winner. Presenting was television personality Mark Durden-Smith, who injected welcome energy and humour into procedings. Tyrepress also announced the results live via its Twitter feed.
Nearly 20 years after Stapleton’s introduced the ProfitLink ecommerce system, the company is rolling out an upgraded version along with the latest edition of TyreSurf. The news follows an earlier ProfitLink overhaul just a few years ago, with the introduction of the retail mark ups system. In addition, Stapleton’s made an announcement in May this year, when Stapleton’s Wholesale director Nigel O’Hara revealed that the market could expect a new edition of ProfitLink.
Over the last year or so it has been broadly noted that the SUV/4×4 sector of the tyre market has been impressively resilient. Not just from the relatively local impact of the UK’s Brexit vote and resulting inflation and slump in certain motor vehicle sectors (in the UK at least). The tyre industry’s also been faced with escalating raw materials costs at a global level.
As our September 2017 article “Strong growth continues in 4×4/SUV tyre market”, sales of new SUVs exceeded 6 million units in 2017, up from fewer than 4 million five years before, with further growth projected to produce regional sales at 8 million new SUVs in 2022. The reason? “The SUV/4×4 tyre market is, of course, following suit: in Europe (including Turkey), ETRMA Europool data projects sales of 18 million in 2017.”
