Stone Tyres in St Helens has submitted plans to St Helens Council regarding the expansion of his growing tyre retail business. Despite the advertising of the last 12 months, Stone Tyres has continued to grow – especially the firm’s Gorilla Tyres mobile tyre fitting sister business. However, the latest expansion plans refer to bricks and mortar business and specifically to the construction of an MOT centre next to the Stone Tyres premises.
The Micheldever Group recorded its tenth TyreSafe Award in 2020, as Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS) and Protyre recorded their respective third and seventh consecutive victories in their categories. MTS won Wholesaler of the Year, while Protyre retained the Large Retailer of the Year accolade. Micheldever also paid tribute to MTS customer Stone Tyres, which swept the board at this year’s event with a hat-trick of awards.
TyreSafe usually presents its awards at a Gala ceremony, but the Coronavirus Crisis has made such an event unviable. TyreSafe has instead announced its award winners via social media and video presentation by its chair and chair of judges, Stuart Jackson. Tyrepress previously revealed the winners of the Tyre Manufacturer of the Year Award and the Innovation & Use of Technology Award, but the full list of the winners joining Hankook and Bridgestone is reproduced below. Additionally, you can view the judges’ review of submissions for several of the awards on Tyrepress below, or on TyreSafe’s YouTube channel.
We’ve all had to adapt during the corona-crisis and lockdown. For many tyre retailers it has meant agonising decisions relating to either staying opening or shutting down. But some have found a middle way – mobile tyre fitting.
During our recent “Kick-starting your tyre business” Tyrepress webinar, Craig Sprigmore, retail director of HiQ; Graham Mitchell, wholesale director of Micheldever Tyre Services; Noel Pope, managing director of Merityre; and John Stone, founder and managing director of Stone Tyres discussed the role of mobile fitting in helping tyre businesses adapt to the new normal.
Tyre distributors from across the country have come together to support the restarting of the tyre trade. Large and small retailers from St Helens to the South East worked together to produce the inaugural Tyrepress webinar entitled “Kick-starting your tyre business’.
The founder of the Independent Tyre Fitters Alliance has exposed four councils in the North West of England for issuing licenses for taxis fitted with illegal unmarked and unsafe part worn tyres. John Stone, owner of National Tyre Distributors Association member Stone Tyres showed how vehicles with aged part worn tyres could pass the taxi compliance and licensing procedure at each council, raising questions about passenger safety in the North West and UK.
For the last 11 years Tyres & Accessories’ annual UK retail ranking has consistently shown that the top 20 tyre retailers account for around 2000 branches between then. When you consider that there are something like 10,000 tyre points of sale in the UK, this means that these top firms occupy something like 20 per cent of the business between them. The remaining 80 per cent, however, is spread out amongst thousands of businesses with single-shop or small chain operations. It is not uncommon for individual smaller dealers from this overwhelming majority to feel underappreciated by their manufacturer and wholesaler suppliers who – they think – favour the larger chains. Tyres & Accessories recently met up with Stone Tyres founder John Stone and found out how he and around 100 other shops are working to redress the balance.
Google Maps; Bluesky, Infoterra Ltd & COWI A/S, Infoterra & Bluesky, Maxar Technologies, The GeoInformation Group
TyreSafe
John Stone; Stone Tyres; Gorilla tyres